CO-FOUNDER OF PHENOMENAL PRODUCTIONS; SOCIAL IMPACT CREATIVE & POLITICAL STRATEGIST; SENIOR ADVISOR OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION
As a social impact expert and political strategist, Brad Jenkins is involved in creating awareness campaigns surrounding important socio-political issues facing underrepresented communities. Along with Phenomenal CEO Meena Harris, Brad launched Phenomenal Productions, a full-service creative production house that produces videos, social content, design, and creative products for nonprofits, foundations, causes, and companies. Phenomenal Productions looks to stand at the intersection of culture and politics with a specific emphasis on communities of color and underrepresented voting blocs.
Brad is also the CEO of Enfranchisement Productions, a DC-based creative and consulting agency, to work with electoral campaigns, non-profits, start-ups, and brands, and work in creative and political strategy: breakthrough messaging, videos, live events, and long-form storytelling.
Brad spent four years serving as President Obama’s Associate Director in The White House Office of Public Engagement. From The White House, he brought together creative executives, thought leaders, and some of the world’s biggest stars to advance the President’s agenda—culminating in the Emmy-award winning “Between Two Ferns” interview on the Affordable Care Act. Brad then joined Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die as Managing Director and Executive Producer running their branded social impact content business known as Funny Or Die D.C.
Since then, he has produced over 70 social impact campaigns, documentaries, specials, and events with organizations, companies, PACs, IEs, and foundations with a particular focus on the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Jenkins’s company, Enfranchisement, has helped lead campaigns for AAPI organizations such as The Asian American Foundation, RUN AAPI, Indian American IMPACT Fund, See Us Unite, We Are Sikhs, Rise, Period, Phenomenal, the 2021 AAPI Inaugural Ball, New American Leaders, Asian American Advocacy Fund, and more. Other campaigns have included Common’s Imagine Justice, Barack Obama and Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Family Equality Council, Born Perfect, and more.
For his production work, Brad was featured on CNN’s “History of Comedy,” MSNBC’s “Story Of Cool” and he has won numerous awards including a Grand Clio, Shorty Award For Diversity, Streamy Award for Social Impact, Webby Award for Diversity/Inclusion, Halo Award for CSR, the Humanitarian of The Year from the Venice Family Clinic, and the Spirit of Innovation Award from the Asian American Victory Fund. He is Co-Founder and Board Member of RUN AAPI, Board Member of The Second City with Stephen Colbert, Business Forward, and Voters Of Tomorrow.
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Teaming up with like-minded peers from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community to officially launch RUN AAPI (aka Represent Us Now) in 2017 as a way to help boost civic engagement, Brad Jenkins shares how efforts were amped up in 2020 to spotlight the diversity of the culture, personalities and force of the AAPI community in government elections. With negative sentiments towards the AAPI community since the pandemic, Brad helps audiences understand how his community is showcasing their voting power AND their humanity in this most recent election, in social causes, and beyond.
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As Associate Director for the Obama White House, Brad's job was to reach as many Americans across the aisle by breaking through misinformation and partisanship. Unfortunately, there was nothing more divisive than Obamacare. And, when healthcare.gov opened to millions of Americans there was a slight problem: it didn't work! In this talk, Brad recounts his background in the power of "laughing at yourself" growing up as a Half-Black / Half-Korean outsider in Trenton, New Jersey. That formative experience helped him produce an award-winning comedy campaign with Zach Galifianakis and President Obama that reached millions of Americans and inspired them to get healthcare for their families. At a time when people's trust in institutions are at an all-time low, comedy has become the last refuge for speaking truth to power. Learn how you can use the power of comedy for your company, organization, or mission.
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Millennials are the largest eligible voting bloc in America. Yet, year after year, millennials vote the least—only 12% of Young Americans voted in the 2014 midterms. Instead of dissecting campaigns' failed strategies to reach young Americans, critics and pundits routinely blamed millennials for "not caring," being "self-absorbed," and "disconnected." So, consultants continued to double-down on older voters - wasting billions of dollars on television ads. That all changed in 2018 and 2020. Youth vote totals broke records. What happened? This talk focuses on how young people and disruptive campaigns realized the power of positive and entertaining storytelling. In this talk, Brad recounts how Obama used digital culture to uplift communities and how new candidates and organizations followed suit. They met young people where they are—on social media and in-person—instead of through attack ads on television. Hometown heroes from Parkland to Flint to Brad's own White House intern (Amanda Nguyen) who is now a Nobel Peace Prize nominee—brought unprecedented urgency and inspiration to democracy. Learn how you can use the power of digital storytelling for your work.
Twitter: @BradJJenkins
Instagram: @bradjenkins | @phenomenal