Essay 1096

Responses to the AdAge editorial presented in Essay 1094…

> Yes. Open up. Do something about it. Seek more comprehensive solutions. Keep up the threats. Diversity is good business. Sadly, it feels like agency thinking patterns require extraordinary pressures for any response — like compensation, holistic/multi-media thinking, staffing, training… Why does the agency business need threats and kicks in the ___ to do something about critical problems? Two major thoughts on this particular critical problem: 1. Winners. Whoever gets it right will win big time in all respects — strategy, creativity, solutions, service, initiatives… — especially in profitability! 2. Clients. Why are clients such chickenshit on this? It’s your business. You are way ahead of agencies in realizing the business benefits. Your lack of direction, conviction, and action in demanding attention to this matter is just plain stupid, bad business. “This (inaction)” is a long-term trend in creative service businesses that get big and “complicated.” We can call it “agency myopia” or “extreme marketing fear.” We’ve been living through decades of myopia and fear. Thank you, AdAge, for raising the curtain, rubbing sticks, and giving more effort to help in this area. (P.S. What’s your own staffing record like?) — NEW YORK, NY

> “Lower our standards”?? This mindset is so tired, so outdated. It’s as if we regressed 40 to 50 years. As a black woman, I heard this when I was applying for positions years ago. And I brought solid skills and a good education to the table. That didn’t stop the interviewers from being rude and condescending. I made the decision to work in radio and TV instead, a decision I don’t regret. Hopefully, one day the ad industry will realize that it will not RAISE its standards until the playing field is level. — St. Louis — Saint Louis, MO

> Well said!! No surprise that the words from a 1978 Human Rights Agency document is basically the same document that would be applied today in 2006. And personally I feel that it will be applicable 30 years from now--which is very sad! As a Jamaican Black Advertising/Marketing professional that’s been in the biz for the past 8 years in Account Management, I can certainly attest to my own personal trials as well as those of my colleagues who are Black, Hispanic & Asian. I tried to get into the ad biz in 1993 after graduation with a Marketing degree from Temple University. But I was only offered Admin Assistant positions rather than being considered for the Account Management training programs that were prevalent back then. I have worked General Market agencies (small & medium) and am now at a well-known Multicultural Agency. I have brand strategy/media planning & buying/account planning/etc. with integrated marketing programs (traditional & non-traditional media) and have worked on brands such as Informix Software, NAUTICA, Durex Condoms, McDonald’s, State Farm, GSK, Coca-Cola, etc. And I was a partner for 6 yrs in an event planning/marketing entrepreneurial venture. However, I’m still slightly considered for Account Management opps when it comes to the bigger well-known General Market agencies (that’s when I’ve managed to get an interview). I’ve asked & was basically told by recruiters that if I was White with my background, there would be more offers. The opportunities I got and worked in General Market were because those individuals saw that I brought quite a bit of skill, talent, willingness to learn and desire to work with clients in advancing their business objectives. The ad industry really needs to wake up! There’s plenty of talent out there (besides poaching from Multicultural Agencies). Students would consider this career path if it were made more inviting & inclusive. A homogenous environment does not make for creative content that addresses the marketplace, particularly when the makeup is changing faces & color. — JAMAICA ESTATES, NY

> Darn good thing the entertainment biz doesn’t need to come up with such self flagellation. Can anyone imagine not experiencing Pryor, Murphy, Foxx, Washington? John McCullough, white guy — Easton, PA

> The discussion about diversity in the ad industry seems as if it were being conducted in an alternate reality. I say that because the excuses/rationalizations being given by many of the major ad agencies are detached from this reality. To posit the notion that there are not enough minorities coming out of the top advertising or design programs misses the point. Individuals who think this should first ask themselves how many individuals from their agency came from the “top” advertising and design programs. The minority talent is there. They are coming out of a wide variety of colleges and universities with degrees in marketing and other areas. Just like the majority of individuals in advertising. There are not a lot of minorities in advertising, if you only look at the big “general market” agencies. The picture you see is quite different when you also look at the growing number of multicultural agencies. A number of minorities at those multicultural agencies got their start in advertising at the bigger “general market” agencies. Because of the stifling nature of those agencies, these individuals had to find other places where individuality and diversity are encouraged. The pressure multicultural agencies are applying to the bigger “general market” agencies with Clients for budget and fees, is a testament to the talent that is out there. Further, the idea that a lowering of standards would be required to recruit the necessary number of minorities is laughable. If standards were so high, would so much of the final creative product look and feel so pedestrian? Would we all feel so conflicted at the sight of a truly great idea because great ideas should be more commonplace? Would account management training take place at McDonald’s drive through window (order-takers)? These “high standards” that must be met by every minority candidate do not seem all that high. The post-rationalization being done by the ad industry for the current sad state of affairs have nothing to do with reality. It has more to do with a biased, conformist mentality within the ad industry. A mentality so pervasive that it filters all the way to the mailroom. Until that mentality is ripped apart, no amount of discussion will be productive. — Southfield, MI

> WELL-SAID. Your stance is brave and realistic. There are many problems with hiring and staffing in advertising -- probably in all industries, though I’m most familiar with this one. For policymakers and whistleblowers to point fingers at the industry, and the industry to beg off on supply-and-demand economics is a circle that goes nowhere. Looking at things more linearly, there IS a middle ground. Thanks for sparking these thoughts. — Howell, NJ

> As an African American who also happens to be a 30-year vet of the industry, I was always struck with how hypocritical things always were. The industry would gleefully coop everything of African American origin for creative fodder-trends, styles, language, music, personalities, attitudes — but African Americans as a group could never deemed to quite “fit in” to mainstream Agency culture. Except there’s always been the occasional African American “lab rat,” kept around the creative dept. to seem hip, glean from, and ask, “Hey, man. Is this ‘down’ enough?...” — Chicago, IL

> After nearly 15 years as an in-demand senior level creative at both GM and ethnic shops, I’ve virtually seen it all and done it all. However, the most insulting part of this editorial is the notion that the only way to get additional minorities into the industry is to “lower our standards.” Furthermore, that’s the primary problem as it relates to race in this industry. We have hiring issues, retainment issues, AOR issues (i.e., Why can’t Black/Hispanic/Asian agencies ever compete for AOR contracts?). Why are only White agencies allowed to be AORs, hence, have high growth opps? No. This is about looking in the mirror and ending the pervasive white liberal condescending attitudes that are rife in the industry. Attitudes that have been too often supported by clients who are so concerned with quarterly projections that they lose sight on the bigger picture; a picture that we as supposed brand stewards are too myopic and too biased to see. Sooner or later, this will all come back and hurt the industry one way or the other. Eventually the work will get so whitebread, so off-target, so homogenized that GM shops will have no choice but to change. — Chicago, IL

> Hi, I think the cure to the diversity problem is for those who are in the industry who are white having more friends who are black. This way, if there’s a job opening and the person’s looking for someone who’s African American, they can tell them and perhaps that person knows someone. The other solution is mentoring and outreach. Also, as I think about it, and given the emergence of digital media, why can’t ad agencies form better minority staff sizes via recruiting songwriters and musicians. It’s not a hard problem to solve. You just have to flip that change switch, and do it. Thanks. — Oakland, CA