9402: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 15.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this semi-regular blog series.)

Don’t mean to dampen the cheery mood generated by the “Where Are All The Black People?” event, but Goodby Silverstein & Partners co-founder Jeff Goodby still has a long way to go—to use a popular phrase uttered in most Madison Avenue diversity discussions. The recent Adweek interview tells the tale.

Goodby opened by stating, “It’s a total enigma that Black people have not been represented in advertising, especially since African Americans are so influential culturally, especially in popular culture.” Is it really a total enigma for the adman? Plus, his popular culture reference seemed rather enigmatic, especially considering his hiring of a Curator of Popular Culture for GS&P was essentially an act of cronyism—and he wound up giving the job to an old White woman. Then again, maybe Barbara Lippert clued him in on Black influence of pop culture.

Glad to hear Goodby found the first multicultural gathering organized by The One Club to be “a really heartwarming experience.” His warm-and-fuzzy reaction sharply contrasts the experiences of too many Blacks whose encounters with Madison Avenue led to hearts breaking and blood boiling.

Goodby’s gender-related comments were interesting too, particularly his admission that women are “numerous in media and account services and are hardly there in creative.” Yeah, a few chicks would have come in handy when his agency hatched the disastrous “Got PMS?” milk campaign.

To be clear, MultiCultClassics recognizes Goodby is making progress, and that’s always a good thing worthy of praise. Hell, the man will likely join Dan Wieden in nabbing an ADCOLOR® Award—long before any of the Black adpeople who made actual contributions to industry diversity are honored. But this blog’s standards for cultural competence rival Goodby’s standards for advertising excellence. So for now, he’s just earned his fourth appearance in this special series.

C’MON WHITE MAN!

9379: Kirshenbaum And Wolff Yawner.

Wow. This interview could have been titled, “Two disinterested guys being uninteresting.”

9377: Advertising Weak 2011.

Funny how Advertising Week inspires some of the worst advertising ever.







And TBWA had the audacity to rerun its ADCOLOR® Ad.

9373: Questioning Where Are All The Black People?

Watching videos of the “Where Are All The Black People?” event—where candidates were given three minutes to sell themselves—makes one wonder about a number of things.

First, how many Whites currently employed on Madison Avenue would be able to pass a similar test?

Second, were actual jobs available? It would be nice in the future if there were specific roles that candidates could prepare and pitch themselves for. Like it or not, employers today are seeking to fill defined positions. Few agencies have “blue-sky” openings.

Third, what would have happened if senior-level candidates had shown up en masse? Finding juniors to audition is easy, especially when considering the unemployment rate for Black teens is as high as 41 percent. Flash mob tactics could have been used to get young jobseekers to show up. The dearth of diversity in our industry is most prevalent in the mid- to senior-level ranks.

Fourth, can the next “Where Are All The Black People?” extravaganza turn the tables? Hand a mic to the White executives and instruct them to spend three minutes sharing their perspectives on diversity. Tell the audience what they have done to foster inclusion, and how they have personally fought to end exclusivity. It would likely be a major challenge for any of them to even manage to fill three seconds.

Congratulations and kudos to all the courageous candidates.

9371: Minorities’ Worst Day In Advertising.

Given the diversity and Kumbaya spirit present at Advertising Week 2011, the event advertised above should have been an all-minority affair. Imagine the stories that would enchant the audience.

9370: Ad For Advertising Week 2011…?

Hey, this Brazilian ad for Alpino Tourism and Travel could’ve been used for Advertising Week 2011. The left side depicts an audience at a typical Advertising Week event. On the right, Jeff Goodby at “Where Are All The Black People?”

From Ads of the World.

9369: Newscaster Michael Wolff Reports.

At Advertising Week 2011, Adweek Editorial Director Michael Wolff participated in a panel of Old White Guys blathering about the state of affairs in the news business. Based on the image above, it must have been a riveting event. The ever-cheery Wolff declared times are terrible, as advertisers have abandoned the news. Hey, under Wolff’s watch, advertisers have abandoned Adweek too. Regardless, the man believes it’s the perfect moment for students to pursue careers in the field and proclaimed, “If you have a heart, an imagination and an entrepreneurial spirit… all you need is a good idea.” The jury is still out on whether or not Wolff possesses any of the items on that list.

9367: Goodby On Diversity.

From Adweek…

Fast Chat: Jeff Goodby The industry legend discusses the importance of diversity in the advertising world
 


By Jotham Sederstrom

So, Jeff, where are all the black people?
 




[Laughs] Well, that’s what we’re trying to solve. It’s a total enigma that black people have not been represented in advertising, especially since African Americans are so influential culturally, especially in popular culture. And we kind of wanted to create an avenue that would allow people to come forward and say, “I’m here,” and kind of have a forum where people who might want to meet those people could be present, like people from HR and the people from creative departments who, just as a matter of course, would send somebody to this thing. So it’s a little bit of a job fair in a way.
 


This event is a continuation of another one that you moderated during Creative Week earlier this year. What was the response of that discussion, and describe the audience.
 

 


It was a really heartwarming experience, I have to tell you. It was really, really, really wonderful, and there were a lot of people there who were very frustrated with their experience looking for a job. I think that it defused some of that frustration and allowed them to actually talk to some of the people who might or might not have been answering the phone calls and might or might not have been looking at their portfolios, and see them eye to eye—which was really nice. The audience was a full spectrum of people—people who had never worked in the business, people who were breaking in or trying to change jobs and get better positions, and people who were working in very small agencies that they didn’t think were worthy of their talents.
 


Certainly there are black men and women in the advertising industry. Where are they working, and are there success stories?

 



Well, one of them is going to be on the panel: Jimmy Smith [group creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day]. But, yeah, I think one of the things incumbent on us is to create more of these stories. There are obviously a lot of people who are succeeding, but the number of them who are top of mind is not as great as it should be. That, I think, is what needs to really change in this business.
 


What are the solutions being batted around? How does the ad industry diversify?

 
 


Well, the real solution is to just actually face up to the problem—or the opportunity, depending on how you want to phrase it—and do something about it. And just be cognizant of it. Because I think that a lot of agencies just aren’t. With a lot of people, their answer is “I just don’t get presented with good candidates,” or “I have no way of meeting them.” Some people even say, “It’s racist to seek out black candidates.”
 


What’s the benefit of diversifying?

 


Obviously, one of the things we do is advertise to a wide range of people, and our clients want us to do that. And the only way to really do that is to actually have those people present and have them contribute to the solution of advertising problems.
 


What about other groups, whether it be women or Hispanics or gay men and women?

 
 


One of the things about women in advertising is that they’re numerous in certain departments and nonexistent in others, which is a different kind of problem. They’re numerous in media and account services and are hardly there in creative. With Hispanics, we have a really large supply of them in California, and so we have quite a few of them. But I think it’s probably a much bigger problem in other cities.
 


And what about the young white men? Where are they?
 


I’m afraid you know the answer. They’re easy to bump into and, you know, they’re not all talented. Believe me, talent is not necessarily the purview of just one color.

9366: Advertising Week Covers Cultures.

At Advertising Week 2011, Tuesday will see “Where Are All The Black People?” from 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., “Where’s The LGBT?” from 9:30 – 10:15 a.m., and another installment of “The Transformed General Market” from The Vidal Partnership. Which ultimately begs the question, “Where Are All The Asian Americans?”

9363: Cracking On Bad Headlines.

Not too sure about this Univision ad running in the event guide for Advertising Week 2011. Seems like the headline promotes targeting Latinos while potentially alienating Blacks.

9362: Advertising Week Kidding On Diversity.

Based on the program excerpt above, Advertising Week 2011 will perpetuate the stereotypical misperception that our industry’s diversity problems are rooted in a lack of qualified adult candidates—and the only solution is to scour the inner cities for future crops of capable colored people.

Sure, these outreach efforts are noble and arguably necessary. Yet such initiatives fail to address the current imperative to hire mid- and senior-level players.

The truth is, educating minority kids must be supplemented with educating White adults. Specifically, Madison Avenue executives need serious schooling to enhance their cultural competence. Forget molding underprivileged youngsters into marketing mavens. It’s time to tutor White-privileged oldsters on the fine art of inclusion. Mandatory diversity training is just the beginning. Let’s bus Mad Men and Mad Women to minority advertising agencies for intensive internships. Create special aptitude tests to identify the culturally clueless and ship them off to urban communities for reprogramming. Connect Caucasian mentees with multicultural mentors. Promote White people who promote colored people—and fire those who refuse to participate in progress. Replace clichéd comments like, “We’ve got a long way to go,” with declarations like, “We’ve got a long list of achievements.”

The real issue is not a dearth of diversity at the bottom. It’s an abundance of ignorance at the top.

9359: Directors Of Diversity…?

The image above clearly shows how the leaders behind Advertising Week 2011 reflect the diversity on Madison Avenue.

9357: Michael Wolff’s Last Advertising Week…?

Advertising Week 2011 has scheduled “A Conversation with Michael Wolff” for October 6 from 9:00-9:45 a.m. That should be uncomfortable. Maybe it will be the Adweek Editorial Director’s exit interview.

9356: Advertising Week Logo Is Mindless…?

Not sure what the Advertising Week 2011 logo is intended to communicate. It looks like the PBS logo. Did Rich Silverstein have anything to do with its creation? Plus, the head appears to be empty and brainless. A Freudian design slip perhaps?