Name: Labor Departments Americans First campaign sparks backlash
Uploaded: 2025-11-12T02:22:55.118Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: A new U.S. Department of Labor social media campaign is under fire for echoing post-war propaganda and portraying a limited view of American workers. Critics say it fails to reflect the diversity of today’s workforce.

A new U.S. Department of Labor social media campaign is under fire for echoing post-war propaganda and portraying a limited view of American workers. Critics say it fails to reflect the diversity of today’s workforce.

Washington County

The U.S. Department of Labor's recent 'Americans First' social media campaign has drawn criticism for its portrayal of American workers. The campaign, launched to highlight efforts against H-1B visa program abuse, features images that predominantly depict white males and use nostalgic themes reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's art.

Experts and critics argue that the campaign fails to reflect the true diversity of the American workforce, which federal data shows is nearly half female and includes significant Hispanic, Black, and Asian representation. The Department of Labor has defended the campaign, stating that it is meant to celebrate American workers and not to make a statement about race.

Labor Department's 'Americans First' campaign sparks backlash

New at 6, a recent social media campaign by the Department of Labor is garnering a lot of attention, not only as propaganda, but for its unrealistic depiction of the typical American worker. Launched in August to promote a crackdown on abuse of the H-1B visa program, the Department of Labor has posted a series of these Norman Rockwell-like images. But you won't find Rosie the Riveter there. Instead, it's almost exclusively white males with headlines like Build Your Homeland's Future and Americans First. I spoke to University of Denver marketing professor Anna Bobich-Rosario about their strategy. Why is nostalgia marketing like this effective? It's been used for a very long time to shape cultural narratives and it is particularly effective when there are times of uncertainty like the ones that we're living through right now. People are looking for those emotional cues to times that might have been better objectively or just in a perceived way because that provides comfort in the present moment. Now to be fair, I did find this one post showing a woman and a person of color. But overall, the agency has chosen a pretty narrow view of the American workforce that doesn't depict the true demographics back then and certainly not now. According to 2024 federal labor data, 47% of workers in America are women, 20% are Hispanic or Latino, while 13% are black and 7% are Asian. The Department of Labor told the Washington Post, twisting social media posts celebrating American workers and the American dream into a race story is absurd.

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