Building a strong reputation with all publics prior to a crisis can be paramount to saving an organization in the midst of a crisis. One way to do this is through corporate advocacy, a proactive form of crisis communication where an organization voices its opinion on a divisive issue. However, the lack of diversity-focused research in the field of public relations complicates the creation of an effective corporate advocacy statement. Many of these divisive issues focus on advocating for a traditionally marginalized identity, so public relations practitioners are at a loss when turning to literature to aid in their corporate advocacy statement creation. Employing situational crisis communication theory, this study seeks to understand the impact that belonging to a traditionally marginalized identity has on corporate advocacy reception, specifically with the identity categories of race, sexuality, and gender identity. This will give public relations practitioners a deeper understanding of how communication and identity interact with each other and allows the ability to better tailor corporate advocacy efforts to their intended audience.
