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A Chat With: The Perception's Brian Anderson On How Advertisers Are Dealing With Black Lives Matter Movement

PHILADEPHIA (CBS) -- Brian Anderson is the principal and creative director of The Perception, an ad agency in Philadelphia. We are in a time of major change with the pandemic, social unrest and an upcoming election. As a business owner, Anderson is asking a lot of questions himself, including how advertisers need to change their tone during the current climate.

Q: As a business owner how challenging has this time been for you?

"With dealing with a lot going on in the world, dealing with a pandemic, dealing with social justice issues, police brutality, it's been a lot to deal with. You're trying to struggle and figure out what the right things to do are, how do you react? How do you keep your personal emotions in check and try to respond in a positive way? The team we have, we've had conversations multiple times around what we can do to help businesses going through this."

Q: Advertisers are being very careful not to use Black Lives Matter in their ads. Why is this?

"A lot of people aren't sure where the movement is going to go, so no one wants to be tied to anything. I think it would be brave for advertisers and brands to understand that this is probably the closest we are going to get to a civil rights movement again and to come down on the right side of history on this. It's sad to say, but it's a good time for those people to come together, and I think a lot of people are trying to do that. It really comes down to the idea of what you're going to stand for in the world, internally and externally."

Watch the video to hear more from Brian Anderson.

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