Droga5 presented its latest patronizing pap for Honey Maid Graham Crackers, this time featuring a Latino family of immigrants to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. The painfully long video closes by stating, “1 in 5 Americans is part of an immigrant family.” Um, Native Americans aside (as well as Blacks brought here via the slave trade), aren’t all Americans essentially tied to immigrants? Most outrageous is the fact that nearly 5 in 5 Droga5 employees are White—and the company’s racial/ethnic diversity is probably less than 1 in 5. Hell, Droga5 is closer to Donald Trump when it comes to immigration. Plus, allowing a White advertising agency to handle a project starring Latino characters means the Latino advertising agencies will receive even fewer Honey Maid crumbs. In short, there’s absolutely nothing wholesome in this scenario.
4 comments:
Not really hypocrisy. I Just peeped the DROGA5 creative roster broken down by department. They just don't want people of color in their creative departments. Surprisingly they are located in NYC, the melting pot of culture. Thats their preference, to them its just the way business is done. Most agencies wont show their agency roster, just because it paints a bad picture of who they prefer to hire. They might "believe" in diversity but they dont want diversity in their hallways. The only solution to fixing this problem is to go after their clients and petition them to pull their business from agencies like droga5 that don't have diversity in their ranks. Some of the biggest racists are not in the south, they are right on madison ave.
Honey Maid is displaying hypocrisy by positioning itself as a brand that celebrates diversity, yet conspires with a White advertising agency where diversity remains a dream deferred, delegated and denied.
Agencies like Droga5 got it made. They figured out they can do the bare minimum inside their agency, but cast some black people, or Latins, or Asians on the outside in photos and videos and roll around in their multiple Adcolor awards for diversity. Why would they ever change?
To fix diversity in advertising would be opening a big rotten can of worms. Discriminatory hiring practices are pretty much the norm in advertising. To fix diversity would mean exposing a whole lot of dirt and dirty laundry thats been going on for decades, I dont believe the industry is ready for a ethic creative revolution. The most notable white guy to speak up is Dan Wieden. Even his agency is far from a cultural utopia, and he won an adcolor award, lol. Clients have been force fed white male homogeny forever. If paying off a bunch of black diversity officers to keep their mouth shut and can keep things under wraps, your sure as hell they will continue to do it for this and future decades to come, clients dont care so why should they. They can live with the big elephant in the room, as long as the public does not see the actual hiring numbers they will be fine. The tide is turning for white females because they have the support of a ton of white males with power in the industry, who in turn are hiring them even if their qualifications are not up to par. Every time a white female CD is hired its followed up with a quote from a high ranking white male praising them. I highly doubt you will see white males going to bat for black creatives. --
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