Shoshy Ciment/Business Insider
The biggest independent media agency in the US was hit with a discrimination lawsuit on Thursday.
Horizon Media‘s former chief marketing and equity officer and a current communications lead at the agency sued the company, alleging it fostered an environment of systemic race- and gender-based discrimination.
Latraviette Smith-Wilson and Charisma Deberry, who are both Black, allege in the suit that Horizon’s public statements about being a “people-first” organization and an “agency of belonging” where “DEI is in our DNA” were contradicted by their experiences. Smith-Wilson was fired from Horizon earlier this year, while Deberry is a current employee.
The lawsuit names top Horizon executives — including its CEO, president, and HR chief — alleging they subjected both plaintiffs to a hostile work environment “marked by race and gender bias, racially coded critique, performative support, and disparate treatment.”
A spokesperson for Horizon Media said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation but that it categorically rejected the allegations in the suit and is prepared to vigorously defend itself against them.
“We maintain the highest standards and stand firmly in our values and our people. We are focused on serving our clients and continuing to be one of the best places to work in the industry,” the statement said.
The lawsuit comes amid shifting tides for DEI in corporate America. Companies like Meta, Walmart, and Starbucks made bold pledges to make their workplaces more equitable in the wake of George Floyd‘s murder and the racial reckoning that followed. In the years since, many of those initiatives have been rolled back or withdrawn amid political and activist pressure. Earlier this year, the ad giant WPP cut all references to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” from its annual report.
Horizon is one of the largest media agencies in the US, managing more than $8.5 billion in media spend, according to data from the research firm COMVergence. It works with clients like Capital One, Revlon, and Honda to plan and buy their advertising campaigns.
Smith-Wilson and Deberry’s claims
Smith-Wilson was hired by Horizon Media in 2022 and was the only Black member of the agency’s C-suite and executive board, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit alleges that some of her achievements were undermined by leadership, that she was denied the level of resources afforded to her white peers at the agency, and that she was excluded from key decisions pertaining to her role. At times, she was branded “defensive” or “incompetent,” the lawsuit says. The complaint does not include additional documents to corroborate its claims.
In one example, the suit says Smith-Wilson was excluded from discussions about an August 2022 anonymous letter titled “The Cancer Within Horizon,” which alleged mistreatment of people of color at the agency. The suit says the letter was sent to members of the leadership team and shared with the legal and IT departments, but not with Smith-Wilson, despite her role overseeing equity.
The lawsuit says Smith-Wilson was looped in when the letter was published publicly on LinkedIn around a month later. At Smith-Wilson’s urging, the company appointed an outside law firm to investigate the matter, but the lawsuit says Horizon executives questioned her judgment “without basis and minimized her authority” as the investigation progressed.
The company fired Smith-Wilson in April 2025 and said it was due to a restructuring, the lawsuit says. Less than a month later, the company hired a new chief marketing officer and told a trade publication it planned to backfill the chief equity officer role.
“Far from a genuine restructuring, it was a pretext manufactured to conceal discriminatory and retaliatory motives,” the lawsuit says.
Deberry, who previously reported to Smith-Wilson, currently leads Horizon’s strategic communications. The suit alleges she was also subject to discriminatory treatment by the agency, including undue criticism about her work and the diminishment of her role — a level of scrutiny that the suit says wasn’t applied to her white counterparts.
The suit says Deberry spent months preparing Horizon’s plans for the Possible marketing conference in Miami, and that the agency unexpectedly canceled her trip. All the employees who planned for Horizon’s participation at the event were women, and only white men were sent to attend, the suit says.
“While she remains employed by Horizon, she faces ongoing bias and retaliation via exclusion, marginalization, and public diminishment at every turn,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and damages.
Read the full suit below:
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