On paper, Putney is a Production Agency. At heart, we are a response to frustration. A collective power of marketing experience and voices to change minds and move people to action. 

The country was in a bitter divide. We had all just witnessed the murder of yet another Black man at the hands of yet another white cop. We knew we had to do something. 

We noticed that Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, disproportionately excluded Black-owned businesses. So, we harnessed our collective marketing power to lift up Chicago based black-owned businesses and launched Black Shop Friday; an initiative that made it easy to make sure at least one product or service from one of these businesses is in your cart. 

The response was immediate. The City of Chicago got involved, and within two weeks we had over 300 businesses on board. 

We were on fire and wanted to do more.

That’s when Putney was born.