6030: Nissan Multicultural Review Ignites Fuse.

The ever-provocative Cliff Franklin of FUSE Advertising posted a comment for Rochelle Newman-Carrasco’s perspective on the Nissan Multicultural Review. Here it is:

Great post. I can speak directly to how the agencies feel being bamboozled into a fight that was fixed. My agency was the remaining finalist against True back in 2002. There is no question that we “won” the business based on credentials and creative idea per the executives at that time at Nissan. But the decision was made based on previous relationships and “seamless” integration with TBWA.

It was a gut punch to the agency, but also a reality check that politics plays as much of a role in these agency reviews as anything else. It was the ultimate insult to lose to an agency that was a startup and had no client base (although the executives were very talented individuals and I mean no disrespect to them). And never forget that the so-called general market agency always is looming in the background with influence.

From that point on, we have declined most of the agency reviews that we have been invited to participate in. I refuse to put my staff through months of grueling strategy work for a potential client, spending thousands of dollars on research and creative, only to be played like a sucker.

I laughed when I received the questionnaire from the Chevy review and Nationwide review. We no longer give away ideas for free. When I received word of this latest Nissan review, my reaction was “trick me once, shame on you…trick me twice, shame on me.”

African American agencies still have not figured out that we had better have a collective voice in this industry or we will continued to get played like $2 whores. And it is amazing that most do not want to unify until they get slapped upside the head. We couldn’t even unify on a press release that was developed to challenge the moves by General Motors months ago. It was shameful.

In the words of Malcolm, the chickens have come home to roost. And they will continue to come home and roost until we have some backbone and standup as a unified force.

Clifford Franklin | St. Louis, MO