14122: Aged Whine.

Veteran adman Bob Hoffman has joined the divertsity assembly against ageism in advertising with a recent blog post at The Ad Contrarian titled, “The Age Of Creativity.”

Hoffman makes an argument for creativity coming from people over 50 by highlighting how elder members of society “dominate in Nobels, Pulitzers, Oscars, and Emmys.” The recognition leads Hoffman to wonder, “Is there another industry on earth that is as steeped in intolerance and as thoroughly isolated from reality as the ad industry?”

Before answering that question, it might be helpful to consider a few points.

First, Hoffman’s argument is not original, as evidenced by AgencySpy spotlighting a 51-year-old creative director who hatched a campaign celebrating senior successes to protest ageism in advertising. Not surprisingly, the campaign generated the same types of pep-rally comments that Hoffman received from his post.

Second, Hoffman seems oblivious to the diversity of the ultra-award-winning creators he saluted. Such racial and ethnic variety is not reflective of the U.S. advertising industry (or the U.K. advertising industry). The 51-year-old creative director, on the other hand, chose to feature a predominately White group of creators, whose works are not as highly regarded as the breakthroughs from Hoffman’s honorees.

Third, Hoffman and the 51-year-old creative director are using a platform typically employed by advocates for racial and ethnic diversity. For example, it’s often noted how cutting-edge concepts in music, fashion, art and language originate from Black culture. FYI, this platform has not succeeded in improving Black representation on Madison Avenue—or even increasing the crumbs tossed to Black advertising agencies. Nonetheless, embracing the “old-people-are-innovators” angle could be considered a form of cultural appropriation.

Answering Hoffman’s question—“Is there another industry on earth that is as steeped in intolerance and as thoroughly isolated from reality as the ad industry?”—might not play well with Hoffman and the 51-year-old creative director, but it demands being addressed anyway.

The intolerance and aversion to reality so prevalent in the ad industry are products successfully perfected, promoted and perpetuated by guys like Hoffman and the 51-year-old creative director—i.e., Old White Guys. The denial of this fact could be a sign of early dementia, but probably (and hopefully) not. It must be painful to suddenly find oneself on the opposite side of the equation. Yet will the uncomfortable experience inspire the primary perpetrators to become fully inclusive change agents? Now that would be a revolutionary achievement for the ages.

12647: UK Adland Homophobic?

Campaign asked, “Is the UK’s ad industry homophobic?” Gee, does the exclusivity escalate to sexclusivity?

Is the UK’s ad industry homophobic?

Adland gets regular flak for lacking sufficient ethnic diversity in its workforce and giving women a raw deal. But Dave Buonaguidi’s claim that it is also institutionally homophobic is new to the charge sheet. It is, after all, 17 years since Ogilvy & Mather and Unilever debuted a commercial for Impulse body spray that was the first to feature an overtly gay couple.

Today, major brands including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola direct campaigns towards the 3.7 million gay people in Britain who are worth between £70 billion and £80 billion to the economy. Moreover, the sight of Sal Romano, the closet gay art director in Mad Men, getting caught in a compromising situation with a bellboy doesn’t shock anybody as it would have done in the 60s.

But, according to Buonaguidi, Karmarama’s former creative chief, homophobia lives on in a lot of agencies where attitudes have not changed since the days of Mad Men. Is he right? Or has the industry lost what Scott Knox, the gay Marketing Agencies Association managing director, remembers as the “boys’ club mentality” that led to him being made to feel inferior during his agency days?

Agency chief

Damon Collins, founder, Joint

“The aggressively macho behaviour within our industry in the Thatcherite 80s dissipated at the dawn of the 90s with the arrival of the ‘new man’. That trend has continued and adland has turned into a much more tolerant place in recent years. Maybe Buonaguidi was setting out to be deliberately provocative. In my entire career, I’ve never worked in a place where gay people have had the piss taken out of them. Agencies want to hire the most talented staff irrespective of their sexual orientation. And the more diversity we have in agencies, the better we will be at engaging with a very broad range of people.”

Trade body

Karen Fraser, strategy director, Advertising Association

“I don’t know why Buonaguidi would make such a claim. It certainly doesn’t seem as though homophobia is an issue within the industry. The problem is that we don’t have the data. And that data would be hard to get. In Advertising Association surveys that have asked the public about representation in ads, we’ve found that LGBT issues are the most difficult for people to talk about. We as an industry find it difficult too. What’s more, the IPA census questionnaire doesn’t ask about sexual orientation. Nevertheless, it would be useful to know how reflective agencies are of the population as a whole.”

Agency chief

Sarah Todd, chief executive, Geometry Global UK

“As an industry, we’re not perfect in terms of diversity, but I was very surprised to hear us described as ‘institutionally’ homophobic. The fact is that we want the best talent to reach all the markets we need to talk to. And while we can’t ask people to disclose private information about their sexual orientation, we do need more role models to make sure people feel safe and secure. Changing the way we recruit could help. The system should be less interview-based and with more emphasis on psychometric testing and getting the right cultural fit. That we’re still talking about this issue means there’s still work to do.”

Agency activist

Andrew Barratt, founder, Ogilvy Pride UK; account executive, Ogilvy Public Relations

“Diversity has always been part of Ogilvy’s DNA. ‘In recruitment and promotion, we are fanatical in our hatred for all forms of prejudice,’ David Ogilvy said in 1968. Last year, we set up Ogilvy Pride, our LGBT and straight ally network. The introduction of the Glass Lion this year at Cannes, which recognises communications that address issues of inequality and prejudice, is further evidence of adland making progress in this area. That said, there is still work to be done. We need more senior role models to come out and for agencies to foster environments where people can be their authentic selves.”

10984: No Gay Pride For Vietnamese.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Exclusion of LGBT groups from Tet parade a sign of cultural divide

The standoff highlights a struggle over gay rights in Orange County’s Vietnamese community. Some cultural experts point to a set of customs on morality.

By Anh Do, Los Angeles Times

The growing friction between Vietnamese LGBT groups hoping to march in Sunday’s Tet parade and resistant organizers of the Lunar New Year event has exposed a deeper cultural struggle over gay rights in Orange County’s sprawling immigrant community.

For three years, LGBT activists have participated in the colorful gathering in Little Saigon, but this year — with the event shifting from city sponsorship to private hands — they have been rebuffed and quietly told to make a “sacrifice” and stay away, members said.

The standoff has had a rippling effect in the nation’s largest Vietnamese community. Some nonprofits are threatening to pull out of the parade if the gay entries are excluded; a local school district that has provided buses for transportation is refusing to participate; and politicians are weighing the consequences of joining an event that some might suddenly see as intolerant.

At the core, some cultural experts say, is a set of customs drawn from Confucianism, a system of norms and propriety that determines how a person should act in society. Under the belief, one should sacrifice one’s life, if necessary, for the sake of upholding morality.

“It sounds so basic, but it’s that idea of how families are created, a continuation of culture. Even as people step out and go to college or immerse in the world, adopting a more liberal view of politics, or in this case, sexuality, and they want to show their identity — what they forget is there are still segments of the older generation who grew up with these ideals,” said Caroline Kieu Linh Valverde, assistant professor of Asian American studies at UC Davis.

“They cannot let them go,” she said.

While much of America has softened its position on gay rights, news about changing attitudes goes largely unmentioned in the Vietnamese media. There are at least a dozen Vietnamese newspapers and magazines, and more than 10 Vietnamese radio and television stations in Little Saigon alone, and many residents still turn to them to catch up on current events.

“The situation is now at a crossroads. All along, people may have had double lives, staying underground. But now, we see LGBT Vietnamese folks wanting to get married, wanting to be public at a parade, and it becomes a battle,” Valverde said.

Valverde said there appears to be a trend in the Vietnamese community to turn to the courts to protect themselves and their rights. “They don’t need their elders’ approval,” she said.

On Thursday, the LGBT groups did just that, though they failed to persuade Orange County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Glass to order organizers to let them march. Still, gay rights advocates said they may have won a larger fight in the effort.

“This battle is far from over. We will march with other groups who do not believe in discrimination in this day and age,” said Luan Tran, an attorney representing the Partnership for Viet Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organizations.

“In an ironic way, although they try to marginalize us, they are the ones being marginalized in the court of public opinion,” he said.

Some LGBT members are invited to join other entries already approved to march in the parade, including the Union of Vietnamese Student Assns. of Southern California and the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. Others intend to line Bolsa Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Little Saigon and the designated parade route, and make their presence known with signs thanking supporters.

Dina Nguyen, a lawyer representing the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California, the parade’s organizer, picked her words carefully after the court hearing.

“We respect everyone’s 1st Amendment rights,” she said, adding that “tough decisions” must “be decided by the court.”

Tuan Trong Le, co-founder of the Gay Vietnamese Alliance, said: “We will be at the parade to celebrate with our entire Vietnamese family.”

Natalie Newton, leader of O-Moi, a member of the Partnership of Viet LGBT Organizations, is among those invited to march with other entries.

“My love for my community is deep. But so is my love for humanity and I want to express who I am,” Newton said. “We maintain our commitment to cultural values. We’re also loyal to who we are.”

10533: And He’s Out!

Tu Ere Moron.

8288: Sometimes Intolerance Fuels Inclusion.

From The Chicago Tribune…

On Muslims, gays and tolerance in America

By Eboo Patel

No one is happier to wave goodbye to 2010 than American Muslims. Favorability ratings for our faith actually declined this year. Leading public figures compared Muslims to Nazis, swift-boated one of our most respected religious leaders and basically suggested we were planning a hostile takeover of America.

But there was a silver lining to this year of religious bigotry. Every time the forces of intolerance made a move to marginalize Muslims, the forces of inclusion in America rose up to defend us. In the process, Muslims learned that we have some pretty unlikely allies.

There were prominent Evangelical preachers like Jim Wallis who helped organize a Christian response to Terry Jones’ threatened Quran burning, and Bob Roberts who tweeted a series called “What I Love About Muslims” to his followers. There were prominent Jewish figures like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made an impassioned call for a canopy of religious tolerance that extends over every geographic area of New York City and includes all its diverse communities.

As the founder and president of an interfaith organization, I’ve had the chance to witness the forces of inclusion up close. Much of the attention of our staff and board — people who come from five faiths and include a number of nonreligious folks as well — has been focused on speaking out for their Muslim neighbors.

One young intern at Interfaith Youth Core stands out to me. He’s a student at DePaul University with a bright smile and a snappy wardrobe. We gave him the task of tracking media relating to the Cordoba House situation in New York City and the public discourse around Muslims. He spent hours every day reading the hundreds of articles and blog posts on the slings and arrows suffered by Muslims, compiling regular reports on the trends, highlights and points of concern.

Recently, he wrote an article of his own. It was about Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who committed suicide after his sexual encounter with a man was streamed live. Nick wrote that he understood Clementi, because as a gay man, he had planned his own suicide many times. He described it in detail: the note he would write, the pills he would swallow, the look on his grandmother’s face when she found his body. And he called out one group in particular for causing his distress: religious people.

It occurred to me that Muslims weren’t the only people who had experienced bigotry in 2010. Yes, we faced an especially ugly strain of intolerance, but nothing like what gay men had suffered — torture in the Bronx, bullying so severe it led to multiple suicides.

It amazed me that a member of that group was spending his time sticking up for Muslims.

Why would Nick volunteer for an organization advocating tolerance for religious people? For Nick, the reason was simple. If he wanted his community to be free and safe in America, he had to work for an America where everybody was free and safe.

I’ve done a lot of public speaking this past year, from Evangelical churches to Jewish conferences to campuses across the country, talking about the importance of people standing up for Muslims in this time of Islamophobia. Nick’s story made me wonder: Would we Muslims stand up for him?

Many people have observed that suffering intolerance seems to be a rite of passage in America. Jews, Mormons, Catholics, blacks, Latinos, gays — lots of groups have known the fire of bigotry. It’s part of becoming American.

Well, right now Muslims are in the fire. But I don’t think getting burned is the most important step in a group’s American journey. Communities achieve their American identity not so much by knowing the fire themselves, but by refusing to let others get burned.

And we — collectively — achieve America when we put the fire of prejudice out for everybody, for good.

Eboo Patel is founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago.