Essay 1034

The latest issue of Adweek features an essay by Marian Salzman, executive vice president and director of strategic content at JWT in New York (pictured above). Salzman fancies herself a futurist who’s plugged into cutting-edge culture, and her Website claims she “identified such trends as wiggers.”

The piece is titled, “Spilt Champagne: Is bling history or are urban culture leaders still tastemakers?” Unfortunately, viewing the story online requires a subscription, but don’t fret if you can’t access it. You’re not missing much.

It’s always interesting when Madison Avenue lifers boast having street cred.

Salzman opens by announcing, “The playas in the club are no longer raising glasses of Cristal, at least not the playas at Jay-Z’s upscale 40/40.” She then proceeds to detail the recent conflict between the hip-hop mogul and Cristal. Salzman writes, “If it’s not exactly the East Coast-West Coast rap music beef that spilled blood years ago, Jay-Z’s falling out with Cristal shows how far urban culture has come from its inception as the angry protest of ghetto youth.” Guess rap and hip-hop are now completely synonymous with “urban culture.”

Salzman continues to school Adweek readers. “Now, the highest strata of urban culture is occupied by multi-millionaire music producers and recording artists whose conspicuous consumption have written brands like Bentley, Burberry and Courvoisier into the pop culture lexicon. Cross that community, Jay-Z seems to be saying, and you can just as easily be rubbed out.” Don’t recall Jay-Z ever threatening to rub out anyone.

Then Salzman reveals, “A major survey by JWT confirms what I’ve been saying for 15 years: CMOs who want a handle on young consumers from all walks of life must understand what’s taking hold dozens of stories below their penthouse offices, on the streets of the cities where they lunch.” Well, it’s safe to guess few CMOs do lunch in the ‘hood. But it’s encouraging to note Salzman has spent the last 15 years trying to sell notions that most Black advertising agencies have hyped for over 30 years.

Thank goodness Salzman’s here to drop gems like, “Young urban style is clearly a mainstay for a solid minority, but more significantly, it is a major influence for a big majority of young people.” Quick, somebody tell Diddy!

Salzman (w)raps it up by predicting, “Booty shaking and bling may always be in style, but we think hip-hop’s future is in the music with a message: the young Parisian Arabs who have something to say about racism, the Mexican youth who rap about poverty, the Middle Eastern teens who seek to protest war. We think artists who turn away from mass-marketed music will begin using their skills to raise consciousness and make a difference. They may yet make Grandmaster Flash proud.” You go, girl.



Special Bonus! Not sure about the reproduction quality, but here’s a copy of the complete Adweek essay.