17301: White Man Of The Year 2025.

Instead of the regular “Year In Review” post, MultiCultClassics introduces White Man Of The Year 2025.

 

The new honor spotlights the White Man who made the greatest negative impact on Adland in the last 12 months—as well as contributed to DEIBA+ devolution.

 

The inaugural award goes to two White men whose actions have dramatically affected the global industry, albeit in extraordinarily different ways.

 

Omnicom Chairman, CEO, and Pioneer of Diversity John Wren

 

Wren orchestrated the Omnicom acquisition of IPG, which technically began and was announced in 2024 (maybe earlier).

 

The scheme ignited global pruning, radical RIFs, and iconic nameplate erasures. And the corporate demolition/deconstruction/desecration is expected to extend into 2026 and beyond.

 

Blending an organization led by the Pioneer of Diversity with a gobbledygook-vomiting enterprise recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion marked the pinnacle of performative PR. Then again, the lack of transparency involving anti-DEIBA+ maneuvers prohibited assessing how much collateral damage of color occurred. It’s a safe bet, however, that the acquisition accelerated the employment challenges faced by US Black women.

 

In short, thousands of livelihoods—along with countless uncounted Dawn Chambers—were eliminated.

 

President Donald J. Trump

 

Tylenol, Tariffs, Bashing Big Pharma, and Anti-Woke + Anti-DEIBA+ are just the tip of the Trump iceberg that might sink Adland. ‘Nuff said.

17271: On Omnicom Number Games.

 

Leaders at the new Omnicom presented a variety of spin to address the 4,000 jobs—and presumably, 4,000 humans—being ejected from the ginormous White holding company.

 

Omnicom Media CEO Florian Adamski refused to let layoffs define the story of the corporate acquisition scheme. “This is not about eradicating jobs,” Adamski insisted. “This is about building a company for the future.” Right. Except 4,000 people are now learning they won’t be part of the future—and may soon face difficult times ahead.

 

Omnicom Chairman, CEO, and Pioneer of Diversity John Wren said, “[Globally eliminating 4,000 positions is] going to allow us to meet and exceed the synergies that we promised the marketplace last December.”

 

That’s political rhetoric meaning, “I must deliver the cost reductions I promised to shareholders and investors.” In short, Wren will keep his job by cutting 4,000 drones’ jobs.

  

Wren also claimed impacted workers will be notified ASAP in December so as “not to leave people in a state of doubt.” Um, people at Omnicom and IPG have been left in varying states of doubt, confusion, and anxiety since December 2024 when the deal was announced.

 

Finally, Wren positioned the overall firing figure as “a very low single-digit type of efficiency.”

 

Advertising practitioners love to shift perspectives to distort perceptions. So, let’s play the game.

 

Sure, 4,000 bodies might not appear to be a big deal when viewed against the Omnicom and IPG combined total headcount. Hell, the two White holding companies already dumped roughly 6,200 drones ahead of the acquisition.

 

Yet has any multicrumbtual advertising agency ever had 4,000 employees? Combining the total rosters of every Black advertising agency—past and present—would likely fall far short of 4,000.

 

Has the US advertising industry ever employed 4,000 Dawn Chambers? Based on 2017 data from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there are probably much fewer than 400 Black women executives in Adland USA.

 

Sorry, but “a very low single-digit type of efficiency” equates to a very high triple-digit type of indifference.

17269: New Omnicom Leads The Status Quo.

Adweek, Advertising Age, and other trade publications reported on reshuffled leadership at the new Omnicom after its acquisition of IPG, featuring executives selected from both present and pruned White holding companies.

 

The headshots (depicted above) display moderate DEIBA+ and divertsity.

 

Not surprisingly, the performative PR has no inclusion of a leading Chief Diversity Officer or Human Heat Shield—although the updated Omnicom website features a Global Chief Inclusion and Impact Officer who has been with the White holding company for roughly five years.

 

So, it looks like DEIBA+ decisions were quietly executed.

 

Did redundancy rejiggering reduce non-White representation overall, as well as diminish the number of Dawn Chambers within Omnicom, accelerating the unemployment challenges impacting US Black women?

 

This would constitute a DEIBA+ fail, no?

 

Welcome to Omnicom: The world’s leading marketing and sales company. Which looks like all White holding companies comprised of White advertising agencies.

17265: Black Women Friday.

 

The Associated Press reported on the disproportionate unemployment challenges experienced by US Black women.

 

Can’t help but wonder how worse things are for all the Dawn Chambers in Adland, who have historically been underutilized, underpaid, and underrepresented—a situation compounded by the anti-DEIBA+ vibe impacting the industry and society at large.

 

 

As Black women face unemployment challenges, a roundtable of policymakers searches for solutions

 

By Matt Brown

 

In a packed room at library in a downtown Boston, Rep. Ayanna Pressley posed a blunt question: Why are Black women, who have some of the highest labor force participation rates in the country, now seeing their unemployment rise faster than most other groups?

The replies Monday from policymakers, academics, business owners and community organizers laid out how economic headwinds facing Black women may indicate a troubling shift for the economy at large.

 

The unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5% between August and September this year, the most recent month for available data because of the federal government shutdown.

 

That compares with a 3.2% to 3.4% increase for white women over the same period. And it extended a year-long trend of the Black women’s unemployment rate increasing at a time of broad economic uncertainty.

 

Many roundtable attendees view those numbers as both an affront and a warning about the uneven pressures on Black women.

 

“Everyone is missing out when we’re pushed out of the workforce,” said Pressley, a progressive Democrat. “That is something that I worry about now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being deprived of.”

 

And when Black women do have work, she said they tend to be “woefully underemployed.”

 

Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female demographic in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet their unemployment rate remains higher than other demographics of women.

 

Historically, their unemployment rate has trended slightly above the national average, widening during periods of slowed economic growth or recession. Black Americans are overrepresented in industries like retail, health and social services, and government administration, according to a 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey.

 

“Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that is our society,” said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a PhD candidate in public policy and economics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

She pointed to April as the month when Black women’s unemployment began to diverge more sharply from other groups. A policy agenda that ignores the causes, she said, could harm the broader economy.

 

Roundtable participants cited many long-standing structural inequities but attributed most of the latest divergence to recent federal actions. They blamed the Trump administration’s downsizing of the Minority Business Development Agency and the cancellation of some federal contracts with non-profits and small businesses, saying those actions disproportionately impacted Black women. Others said tariff policies and mass federal layoffs also contributed to the strain.

 

The administration’s opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives was repeatedly mentioned by participants as a cause for a more hostile environment for Black women to find employment, customers or government contracting.

 

There is no concrete data on how many Black federal workers were laid off, fired or otherwise dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts through the federal government.

 

The attendees discussed a wide range of potential solutions to the unemployment rate for Black women, including using state budgets to bolster business development for Black women, expanding microloans to different communities, increasing government resources for contracting, requiring greater transparency on corporate hiring practices and encouraging state and federal officials to enforce anti-discrimination policies.

 

“I feel like I was just at church,” said Ruthzee Louijeune, the Boston City Council president, as the meeting wrapped up. She encouraged attendees to keep up their efforts, and she defended DEI policies as essential to a healthy workforce and political system. Without broad-based efforts, the Democrat said, the country’s business and political leadership would be “abnormal” and weakened.

 

“Any space that does not look like our country and like our cities is not normal,” she said, “and not the city or country we are trying to build.”

17073: Dawn Chambers Data Dump Displays Disturbing Job Dumps.

 

The Washington Informer reported data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Black women experienced the worst job loss of any demographic group last month.

 

An economist stated, “The unusual nature of this increase in Black women’s unemployment is a testament to and a direct result of the anti-DEI and anti-Black focus of the new administration’s policies. This is demonstrably damaging to the Black community, something we have not seen before.”

 

This is bad news for every Dawn Chambers in Adland, as they’re already disproportionately underrepresented.

 

More Than 106,000 Black Women Lost Jobs Last Month

 

By Stacy M. Brown

 

Black women experienced the steepest job loss of any demographic group in April, shedding 106,000 jobs, according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

 

The April report shows a significant setback for Black women in the labor market, even as the U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs and the national unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%.

 

The number of employed Black women dropped from 10.325 million in March to 10.219 million in April. Their unemployment rate jumped from 5.1% to 6.1%, the largest month-to-month increase among all racial and gender groups.

 

Among other findings, the labor force participation rate for Black women edged to 61.2%, indicating a loss in employment and a possible decline in overall workforce engagement. The unemployment rate for white women remained unchanged at 3.3%. Hispanic women’s unemployment also held at 4.6%. Women in other groups generally do not face the dual barriers of racial and gender discrimination that Black women contend with, a factor in the jobless rate gap.

 

The overall Black unemployment rate rose to 6.3% in April, up from 6.2% in March, marking the third straight monthly increase and the highest rate since January. In contrast, Black men saw a gain in employment, dropping their jobless rate from 6.1% to 5.6%. 

 

Asian Americans had the lowest unemployment rate in April at 3.0%, while the rate for Hispanic Americans was 5.2% and 3.8% for white Americans.

 

HBCU Money reported that the number of Black women employed is now at a five-month low, while the number of unemployed Black women is at a five-month high.

 

Economist William Michael Cunningham, owner of Creative Investment Research, told Black Enterprise that the number of unemployed Black Americans increased by 29,000 in April, reaching nearly 1.4 million. At the same time, the total Black labor force declined by 7,000.

 

“The unusual nature of this increase in Black women’s unemployment is a testament to and a direct result of the anti-DEI and anti-Black focus of the new administration’s policies,” Cunningham said. “This is demonstrably damaging to the Black community, something we have not seen before.”

 

Cunningham noted that many Black women are searching for jobs but not finding them. He said eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion roles and cuts in federal government jobs are key contributors. The BLS reported that federal government employment dropped by 9,000 in April and is down 26,000 since January.

 

“For Black women, the numbers show that those seeking work are not finding jobs,” Cunningham said. “The jobs that have traditionally been a path to stability are disappearing.”

 

Nationwide, job growth continued in health care, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and social assistance. Average hourly earnings increased by six cents to $36.06.

 

The Employment Situation for May is scheduled for release on Friday, June 6.

16829: Just Another Mad Men Monday 7.

 

Peggy Olson and Joan Harris rose from secretaries to Copy Chief and Director of Office Operations–Partner, respectively. Dawn Chambers rose from Don Draper’s secretary to Personnel Manager in a performative DEI move.

16804: Just Another Mad Men Monday 4.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce announced Dawn Chambers and Shirley formed the White advertising agency’s first Black ERG. The duo’s delegated duties include drafting commemorative memos during Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Kwanzaa.

 

Hollis the elevator attendant was prohibited from joining, as he serves the building and is not an SCDP employee.

 

16788: Just Another Mad Men Monday 2.

16758: Happy Labor Day.

 

On Labor Day, Adland honors and recognizes the workers.

16740: Cast & Castoffs.

For AMC series Mad Men, Wikipedia lists the “Cast and characters”—even including figures who made minor appearances in the TV program—yet there’s no mention of Dawn Chambers or Hollis the elevator attendant.

 

15795: We Love You To Health. To Hiring, Not So Much.

 

Campaign republished an MM+M report spotlighting a campaign from Wunderman Thompson Health intended to promote equitable maternal care for Black women. The White advertising agency learned that Black women face greater inequities than White women from healthcare establishments and professionals, experience stereotypes of being labeled “the strong Black woman,” and benefit from community care—i.e., Wunderman Thompson recognized “the idea that ‘it takes a village,’ because it takes a village to have a baby.” Gee, what did it take to arrive at such common knowledge?

 

The campaign theme line is, “We Love You to Health.” Okay, but Wunderman Thompson doesn’t love you to hiring. To be clear, the WPP shop doesn’t love Black women enough to hire them—or their offspring—with fairness and equity.

 

‘We Love You to Health’ pushes for equitable maternal care for Black women

 

By Lecia Bushak

 

Continuing with its Health4Equity push, Wunderman Thompson Health has launched “We Love You to Health,” a campaign that aims to drive down high mortality rates among Black mothers.

 

The effort was devised with the backing of a WPP Racial Equity Program grant. Other initiatives carried out during Health4Equity’s first year addressed COVID-related health disparities, vaccination rates in the BIPOC community and early prostate cancer screening for Black men.

 

For “We Love You to Health,” the Wunderman team focused exclusively on diagnosing maternal health inequities, according to chief medical officer Dania Alarcon. It interviewed a range of Black mothers and mothers-to-be as well as doulas, nurses and midwives.

 

Some surprising findings emerged. “We found that doulas seem to be the ones that are focused on serving the needs of the mother and most in tune with the mother,” Alarcon said. Such learnings prompted the campaign team to center “We Love You to Health” around amplifying the voices, stories and experiences of Black mothers, and then attempting to connect them with doulas.

 

Black women are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth compared to white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That significant disparity is what drove the team to expand the campaign beyond a mere awareness effort, said Wunderman Thompson Health chief creative officer Tuesday Poliak.

 

“We weren’t just going to do awareness,” she stressed. “We wanted to make sure we were coming up with a solution. We wanted to really help.”

 

The campaign also seeks to deconstruct what Poliak characterized as “the superwoman phenomenon” among Black women and the notion that they are often stereotyped as “the strong Black woman.”

 

“They are depicted as strong, self-sacrificing and free of emotion, and that they have this high tolerance to pain,” Poliak explained. “And this isn’t just a societal perception; even healthcare workers believe it. We want to rewrite that superwoman story so that Black women can finally get the respectful maternal care they deserve.”

 

“We Love You to Health” also includes a community care component.

 

“We wanted to make sure Black mothers can start to accept their care and almost return to the old way of community care — the idea that ‘it takes a village,’ because it takes a village to have a baby,” Poliak said.

 

Wunderman will judge the success of “We Love You to Health” against a range of metrics, including the number of individuals who click through to the doula site.

 

“This is phase one and our goals have always been very ambitious,” Alarcon said. “I’m so proud of our campaign and we can’t wait to see what it grows up to be.”

 

This story first appeared on MM+M.

15373: Black Girls Rules.

 

Advertising Age reported on a new guide—created by SeeHer and OWN—designed to school creative teams on how to depict Black women in advertising and avoid cultural cluelessness. Guess this means the average White advertising agency’s resident minorities—including janitorial maintenance and mailroom attendants—won’t be tapped to review multicultural work. The guide should be titled: Delegating Diversity Diva Digest. Or The Dawn Chambers Field Guide. Its publication also begs the question, “What the hell took so long?” After all, SeeHer has been around and for about five years. Perhaps SeeHer sees White women first…? Somebody better send a copy to Stan Richards pronto.

 

How Brands Should Think About Representation Of Black Women In Creative

 

OWN and SeeHer debut new guide to help frame authentic images and storylines

 

By Jeanine Poggi

 

Does your creative include a Black woman in a meaningful role? Are you depicting an intersectional view of Black female characters? Does the story engender a versatile view of beauty for Black women? These are the questions brands should be asking themselves as they develop campaigns to ensure accurate portrayals of Black women in their messaging, according to a new guide developed by SeeHer and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

 

“Brands spend billions of dollars to influence thought and behavior, and imagine the power of those brands dedicating a portion of their spend to reflect Black stories and people,” says Sheereen Russell, group VP, ad sales, client partnerships and inclusive engagement, OWN. “It’s more than selling a product or service, it’s about creating a meaningful connection and imprint to shift the cultural narrative.”

 

As the ad world works to fix years of systemic racism, brands are looking to be more diverse in who they feature in their marketing campaigns and be more inclusive in their storytelling. As they do this, there are certainly questions and blind spots surfacing about the depiction of Black people in ads.

 

The guide is designed to provide creative teams questions and insights to help empower the creative community (advertisers and those in entertainment) to become more aware of potential blind spots and unconscious biases.

 

Other such questions include: Do the Black female characters have any positive and healthy relationships with key people in their lives? Does the story include at least two named Black female characters who have a conversation about something other than their race? Is there a range in body types, skin tones, hair textures and natural hairstyles among the Black female characters?

 

It also highlights questions to help avoid potential pitfalls: Is the primary Black female character a sidekick or best friend to a white protagonist, and accordingly lacks a storyline of her own? Does the incorporation of a social justice theme make Black female audience members feel burdened more than seen? Does the story overtly or subtly perpetuate colorism—prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone?

 

“Gone are the days of one size fits all,” says Esi Eggleston Bracey, exec VP and chief operating officer, North American beauty and personal care, Unilever. “What everyone wants in the world is to feel seen, they want products and brands to serve their needs, and choose brands and products with transparency, without being held to a narrow standard of ‘normal.’ Too much of us haven’t been seen.”