Portrait of Nicole Solis Sisson.
Alex Stone
How to tell stories with brands and creators ethically?
Nicole Solis Sisson is a multiracial social practice artist, creative director, producer and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Solis-Sison’s work focuses on cultural justice, diversity, and sustainability in digital discourse across the art, media, and film industries. Her focus in digital content strategy has paved the way for brands and talent agencies to streamline their content in emerging markets where she serves as an educator in the General Assembly and creative director of Matter Media Group. Currently, she is a co-producer of a documentary called Undocumented Justice, about DACA’s first attorney, Luis Curtis Romero, to plead a case before the nation’s Supreme Court while serving as a founding member of the Undocumented Filmmakers Caucus.
Solis-Sison collaboratively developed the first augmented reality dressing room app for Gap in partnership with Google during her tenure at Avametric. The work of Solís Sisson has been exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California; Fourteenth Factory, Los Angeles, California; MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC. She has participated in public speaking events such as Los Angeles Social Media Week, Sundance Film Festival 2020, and Black Star Film Festival 2020. Solis Sisson earned her BFA at the University of California, Berkeley. She received the 2016 Eisner Prize for Highest Achievement in the Arts.
chan: How do you define a moral narrative?
Nicole Solis Sisson: Ethical storytelling has components of focus and impact. Storytelling has the power to influence and inspire. An ethical storyteller’s responsibility is to communicate his focus on mission and vision while being accountable to the community or audience he influences. With ethical storytelling, there has to be consistency between what we say and what we do. The lens with which we share these stories is through humanity-based approaches to ethics in which we must ask ourselves who benefits from this story and who might harm it.
chan: What is your own journey to finding ethical storytelling?
Solis Sisson: Growing up as an immigrant, I often felt as if there were narratives directed at immigrants that were not in a positive light or were exploitative on the fact that we as immigrants build our daily habits on survival. This migration experience enhanced my critical thinking toolkit to ask deeper questions about who tells the story, intent, purpose, morals, and impact. On a daily basis, we consume fragmented stories across all of our media platforms with tactics not limited to environmental washing, misinformation, fact-twisting, false endorsements, discrimination and the list goes on and on. As I progress in my career, I am able to bring to light this crucial lens of stories I work for brands, organizations, and influencers to ensure that we create stories that positively impact people.
chan: Are there any storytelling guidelines or “rules” that you would like to live by?
Solis Sisson:
- Ask yourself, are you the best person to tell this story? Don’t tell other people’s stories as your own.
- Speak of the truth. Be honest with your facts.
- Share stories that can be corroborated with facts or figures related to your mission. Do not use data or facts to segment or exaggerate your actual placement by impact.
- Don’t put people in situations where they are forced to tell a story they wouldn’t be comfortable sharing. Do not engage in extractive storytelling practices.
- Protecting identities when telling a story.
- Be true to your intent and goal.
- Be transparent. Share what is possible and what is not.
chan: What brands or individuals are doing this the right way?
Solis Sisson: Ethical storytelling can be used in various sectors. Here is a list of the brands, people, and organizations that I believe are ethical storytelling:
Lush Cosmetics is a cosmetics brand dedicated to creating ethically sourced, low-waste, cruelty-free products and whose brand voice is dedicated to creating a safe environment for its audience that is consistent with its products. Their “Social Departure” campaign launched on November 26, 2021 states, “Bye bye to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok so that these platforms can provide a safer environment for their users. These platforms ignore the dangerous effects of social media on mental health.” CEO and Co-founder Marc Kontintin intersects their vision with the statement on their website “I’ve spent my whole life avoiding putting harmful ingredients in my products. There is now compelling evidence that we are at risk when using social media. I am not willing to expose my customers to that harm. So it’s time to get her out of this mix.”
ReWeave LA is a sustainable luxury brand by interior designers Debbie Ouyang and Julie Benniardi that is transparent in its mission and impact. “We make a one-of-a-kind piece from fabric samples taken from leading interior design galleries. We don’t throw away any contributions. While some pieces may not find a new home immediately, we are committed to placing each swatch within our patchwork designs.”
Asia Jackson draws from her personal experience of being a Black Asian to raise awareness of how Black Asians are often erased from the conversation of Asian representation by acquiring articles and statements that support their exclusion. Jackson sources the data and links it back to her personal experience, “In 2018, Teen Vogue published an article titled “29 Asian Actors You May Not Know But Should” Of those 29 actors mixed with white and 0 mixed with black.
Aja Dang started sharing her $200,000 debt journey on her YouTube channel and has since become incredibly transparent about her experience getting rid of her debt. She is the first to share what is possible and not possible when conquering debt. Everyone’s debts look different. In a recent YouTube short, they shared how to create a custom budget plan for each paycheck with the tip “Set 30% in Taxes to Save Yourself Stress During Tax Period.”
Define American is a media and cultural organization focused on raising the bar for immigrant narratives. They are drawn from the stories of the larger community that bring people together to ask “How do you define an American?” Their tactics enable others to share their stories and acquire their stories as they offer different perspectives outside the conversations that occur in today’s mainstream media.
chan: What interesting cultural trends for 2022 have you been watching?
Solis Sisson: As a Creative Director for Creators, I can’t help but keep an eye on the creators’ economy that continues to grow. Largely due to the growth of platforms like Instagram and YouTube paired with emerging platforms like TikTok and Discord, there is a mass emergence of new content creators who are now grappling with their own ways of owning their story and the ethics of having such a large platform influence. Another cultural trend is brand goal and activism is gaining importance. In a 2018 Nielson survey, 81% of consumers feel companies should take action to improve the environment. Now, with such a need to satisfy consumer appetites, it is no wonder that brands are taking short cuts by adopting green washing tactics rather than optimizing their business structure.
chan: What is the last tip?
Solis Sisson: Ethical storytelling is hard work. It is meant to be. Once you invest in this practice, you will come out the other side proud of what you stand for and the impact you have on people’s lives.