Bill Clinton kicked off Univision’s Upfront Tuesday, telling advertisers companies and economies that practice inclusiveness are the ones that will succeed.
“The only thing that makes sense is to have a policy of radical inclusion,” Clinton told Fusion’s Alicia Melendez, adding that those who practice inclusion succeed while those who practice divisive politics might win elections but won’t make progress.
“Everywhere where people are practicing divisive politics, unequal economic opportunities, and unequal, exclusive governance arrangements, good things are not happening — this is not rocket science.”
Clinton said he could go through company after company, that when they give their companies a fair share of the productivity profits, they do well.
“They don’t want to run their companies for quarterly gains, they want to run their companies for big gains over any two to five year period, and they realize they need productive workers who are loyal, who are creative, who contribute.”
After endorsing immigration reform–no surprises there–the former president advised advertisers to “study the changing demographic very carefully and how it’s changed purchasing patterns…I think there’s data available, and boy I’d get it and study it if I were advertisers,” he said to the crowd’s laughter.
“Be upbeat and relentlessly forward-looking,” Clinton said. “You have to live in the future.”