Netflix was not content waiting for Hollywood to create the content that Black audiences crave. A Great Day in Hollywood recreates the iconic 1958 Kane photo, A Great Day in Harlem and showcases Black luminaries and up and coming Black talent and Black creators from exclusive content created and curated for the streaming service. The spot aired during the 2018 BET Awards with powerful results.

Netflix created “A Great Day in Hollywood”, featuring 47 top Black talents and creators, from series and films available on their streaming platform–inspired by the desire to contemporize the iconic "A Great Day in Harlem" photo, Art Kane’s classic 1958 portrait. The Netflix Strong Black Lead team brought together luminaries of Black culture like Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Lena Waithe and Justin Simien, on the Universal Studios backlot – this time to recreate their own "A Great Day in Hollywood" homage, an overview of their dedication to diversity.

Renown photographer Kwaku Alston was brought in to recreate the iconic photo featuring the cast of 47 actors, directors, and showrunners from 20-plus Netflix Original shows, films and documentaries.

"A Great Day in Hollywood" was a promise and proof of these ongoing efforts to black audiences–that Netflix is leading the shift in Hollywood–to elevate Black talent, Black creators, and Black stories.

Black want audiences more nuanced representation in the stories that depict them. Netflix has been building credibility and brand love among black audiences for over a year, beginning with a 2017 BET (Black Entertainment) Awards spot, “First Time I Saw Me” campaign. Through a focused content and communications strategy, Netflix enhanced their relationship with black audiences by curating and creating original content, and needed to get the word out. This “coming out” spot needed to be big, triumphant, beautiful, edgy and black AF.The strategy also considered how vocal and fast "Black Twitter" reacts to content in real life, on TV and online, and quickly pivoted the spot to social media, creating an organic space for fans to rally around the meaning behind the film, and interact with the brand, authentically– showing how they shift media representation of black talent in Hollywood from supporting roles, to the center stage.

The project idea was initially inspired by the 1958 Art Kane photo, “A Great Day in Harlem”. We felt this was the perfect way to bridge the progress of Black creators throughout time in American cultural history, from the Jazz age until today. The new modern equivalent of the revolutionary effect of Jazz on culture is the new Black talent movement that SBL aims to highlight and celebrate.. During a compressed timeline of a little over 2 months we were able to bring together 47 of the best of legacy black talent and emerging black talent for this iconic shoot. It was premiered at the BET awards and was widely promoted on Black social media channels. The scale was always meant to live beyond social media and to build upon the reach to highly targeted broadcast–connecting with Black audiences in their most loyal channels.

The original full video was cut for impact and ran during the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards. An extended version is available on the Netflix Youtube channel. The targeted accompanying social media garnered strong interest as well. The Strong Black Lead Twitter account has 54k followers (with 46k retweets and 110k likes), SBL Instagram has 119k followers, and SBL Facebook has 92K followers (with 81k likes for the video).