Anthony Anderson Reveals Why He’s Getting Business-ish

“The brands that I partner with allow me the latitude and freedom to be partners in creating our ads and our digital footprint,” explained Anderson. “We know who the audience is and what they respond to.”

Balancing act

Anderson’s new foray into the world of advertising builds on the relationships and success he has created for himself as one of Hollywood’s most prominent black actors, with a list of credits that spans , from the Barbershop film franchise to Buy It Now. Amazon’s recent dive into the competitive reality waters of Shark Tank.

Likewise, ADvolution seeks to build a multicultural client list that reflects modern American society—an initiative that comes at a time when companies like Meta and Walmart they have controversially cut back on their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“Our company was inspired by our years of experience in multicultural marketing and the desire to make advertising technology more accessible to diverse talent,” Chatfield said, pointing out that much of the content on the Internet is “largely created by a different audience.”

Resolving the imbalance between those creators and larger media companies is something the creators of ADvolution hope to be a part of. Chatfield indicated that a portion of the profits generated from its DEI products are directed toward non-profits that address these challenges.

At the same time, Chatfield emphasized that the company ultimately wants to make its tools available to a broad base of celebrities.

“DEI is just one example that might be interesting to people who have been trying to solve this problem for a while,” he said.

For Anderson, the ADvolution business is also personal, as he seeks to raise the digital profile of his Hollywood peers. “It’s about community,” he told the CES crowd. “Click on the wood – if I had any here – that continues to grow in the way that we see it growing.”