B Unified, B Supportive and B Great

Balcom Agency isn't that old as a company. We were founded in 1993 and have grown from a couple of guys and one card table to nearly 50 talented people who found their way to Fort Worth and agree with our mission to B Great. We believe they are some of the best professionals in advertising, and we care deeply about each other.

Collectively, and together, we care about the world, our nation and our city. At this moment in time during our nation's history, our B Team has been thinking about our company values (B Nice and B Brave among them) and humanity at large. All Americans are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as outlined in the Bill of Rights, and our company denounces racism against black Americans and injustice in all forms.

To demonstrate our commitment to the liberties of all our B's, we took action in early June:

• We donated both locally and nationally on behalf of our employees: giving to Fort Worth's Multicultural Alliance, which provides training and programming to support diversity and conversations, as well as The Innocence Project, a nationwide movement to exonerate the innocent through DNA testing and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
• We made the decision to join both the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to better engage with our neighbors and are completing applications this month.
• And we are looking to support additional organizations and initiatives working for moments where citizens, law enforcement and communities come together – from the Fort Worth Police Officers Association to the Fort Worth Police and Firefighters Memorial (a past client).

On June 8, we also announced something proposed to us by a fellow employee: Balcom is closed on Friday, June 19, to recognize and honor Juneteenth. While Juneteenth is not yet a state or federal holiday, this was the date in 1865 that enslaved African-Americans in Texas learned that they were free following President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation more than 2.5 years earlier.

As an award-winning agency, we also recognize that advertisers, marketers and public relations professionals have the ability to reflect culture as well as inspire and unite. It rests on people like us to speak up and demonstrate representation in the campaigns that we create and in the words that we draft. We're committed to being a voice at the table of discussion because we want to B supportive and B unified as much as we want to B great.