Essay 4788

Sanford Moore submitted the comment below in response to a recent Tiffany R. Warren post at AdAge.com’s The Big Tent. If you need a Sanford Moore refresher, click on the essay title above…

The NYC Human Rights Commission investigation documented the rampant “Jim Crow” legacy and reality alive on Madison Avenue. Like the late, great Nat King Cole said some 50 years ago, “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.” Well, 15 agencies submitted employment, retention and promotion goals they would meet with the Human Rights Commission. The reports documenting the results achieved since the legal agreements were signed a year ago September are now due. Unless these agencies deliberately sought to commit fraud in setting goals to the Commission, they had better have hired, promoted and retained some Blacks in executive management, creative and media positions. Or did they merely sign these agreements to avoid doing the “perp walk” before the Commission during AD WEEK? Discrimination is one thing…fraud is another! How many clients will want to be associated with criminal activity by their agencies on Madison Avenue, “the Great White Way?”

—Sanford Moore, “the man who launched the Human Rights Commission investigation.” NYC, NY