17357: BHM 2026—The King Center.

 

The King Center and Clear Channel Outdoor celebrate Black History Month with weekly billboards.

 

17321: MLK Day 2026 In Adland (Cont’d 2).

 

Upon reviewing social media posts, no Adland holding companies acknowledged MLK Day.

 

Some could argue most holding companies are not US enterprises, being headquartered in Japan, France, the UK, etc.; hence, since MLK Day is a US holiday, the foreign-based holding companies had no obligation to salute the event.

 

Not sure what excuses Omnicom or Stagwell might offer to explain the snub. IPG—recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion—no longer exists, so the former White holding company is absolved of its performative do-gooder duties.

 

In the end, CES trumped MLK.

 

Hell, even ERGs were seemingly deprived of a delegating diversity opportunity.

 

For Adland, the dream continues to be deliberately diverted, delegated, deferred, diminished, dismissed, and denied.

16924: MLK Day 2025 In Adland.

 

The past year has seen dramatically diminishing DEIBA+ commitment from White advertising agencies and White holding companies—as well as decreasing performative PR and heat shields.

 

Relating to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it’s time to revise the DEIBA+ acronym:

 

Dream

Erased

Indefinitely

By

Adland

16505: Greetings From Adland On MLK Day.

 

Seems like only a handful of White advertising agencies and White holding companies bothered to acknowledge MLK Day via social media. The messages are contrived, including the standard sentiments such as:

 

“Today we honor…”

 

“Today, we celebrate…”

 

“As we pay tribute…”

 

Tomorrow, we go back to systemic racism.

 

Hopefully, the companies recognize that the words and images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are not in the public domain—and the King estate has been paid for usage rights.

 

 

16504: MLK Day 2024 In Adland.

 

To extend the previous year’s Adland theme, MLK Day 2024 could be titled: AI Have A Dream.

 

In context to Adland and the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., AI stands for:

 

Artificial Inclusivity as White advertising agencies continue to deliver performative PR on DEIBA+ commitments—while steadfastly maintaining exclusivity and systemic racism.

 

Artificial Investment as diversity budgets and crumbs are reduced, promises and pledges are reneged, and HBCU promotions are ridiculous.

 

Artificial Interest as Chief Diversity Officers and ERGs are delegated the nettlesome task of drafting annual email tributes to the civil rights icon.

 

Artificial Intelligence as an industry that boasts being in tune with—and at the cutting edge of—pop culture remains culturally clueless.

16108: MLK Day 2023—Considering The Beloved Community In Adland.

 

Here’s another belated MLK Day thought for the day…

 

To commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2023, the King Center presents a celebratory theme: “Cultivating a Beloved Community Mindset to Transform Unjust Systems.” The strategic rationale includes:

 

The pioneering work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrated that Kingian Nonviolence … is the sustainable solution to injustice and violence in our world, ultimately leading to the creation of the Beloved Community, where injustice ceases and love prevails.

 

The persistent challenge in Adland is that the industry represents a community where the beloved members are ranked according to White privilege. 

 

The U.S. Adland Beloved Community Org Chart looks something like this:

 

 

It’s difficult to create the Beloved Community in an environment where injustice prevails and love ceases to be extended based on one’s proximity to Whiteness.

 

And it sure doesn’t help when such matters are only considered for a single day of the calendar year—if at all.

16098: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

Is it odd for a bank to salute “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principled life of service” by being closed for the day—denying customers of banking services?

15845: Confession Puts Progress In Perspective.

 

The latest Digiday confessions series installment inadvertently shows how DEI remains a pipe dream in Adland. An anonymous executive at a performance marketing agency confessed, “Getting through Q4 [without a recession] is my dream right now”—versus, say, working to help realize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream…

 

‘Getting through Q4 is my dream right now’: Confessions of a performance marketing agency exec fearful of a recession

 

By Kristina Monllos

 

The uncertainty of the current economic landscape has been a challenge for marketers and agency execs as they’ve had to figure out how to communicate inflation hikes as well as deal with fears of a possible recession. In the latest edition of our Confessions series, in which we exchange anonymity for candor, we hear from a performance marketing agency exec on how the economic uncertainty and possible headwinds are affecting client expectations.

 

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

 

People fear a looming recession. Have your clients been talking about that or changing their approach to advertising?

 

For some of our clients, we’ve noticed there’s been a slowdown on sales from earlier in the year, even compared to what they were in 2019 and 2020. Since 95% of our business is e-commerce consumer brands, everyone is watching every dollar a little bit harder. One client asked us the other day, ‘How do we make more out of every dollar that we spend?’ They want to bring in a bit more cash now versus their expenses. For brands that have a peak season in September, it’s crunch time right now as they’re spending a lot on product so they don’t have as much money in the bank. They’re trying to make a bit more revenue than they normally do. Brands are watching their expenses as a whole. Where am I spending money? Where does it not make sense to spend money?

 

Are there other effects you’ve noticed so far?

 

Some clients want more attention than they may have wanted in the past. They think they might need to be moving faster, having more meetings to make sure things go better. [One bit of feedback we got from a client we didn’t win] was that they went with the other agency because they were going to meet with them every week. They think there are going to be more opportunities to strategize but you can only strategize so much. Weekly meetings will not guarantee the outcome of better success for your paid advertising. Also, depending on what you spend, most brands aren’t spending enough to meet every week for a meaningful discussion. Most meetings can be a phone call or an email.

 

Are clients actively preparing for a recession or just talking about the possibility of one?

 

It’s more looming fear [that there will be a recession]. Clients are trying to get email marketing in a better position. We’re trying to get clients who don’t take email marketing seriously to take it seriously because of first-party data [opportunities]. It’s an untapped opportunity for some brands. But a lot of [what we’re hearing from clients] are fears of a recession. Everyone is unsure what to do. It’s hopefully months away, if not next year. Getting through Q4 [without a recession] is my dream right now. 

 

Given the success some e-commerce brands experienced last year and the year before, are you having to spend more time setting client expectations given the current landscape?

 

One thing we’ve done a lot more of than past years is working hard to set expectations with clients. Clients need to realize the golden era of e-commerce that was 2021 probably means you won’t see better results this year than you did last year. Last year did so much better than 2020, it’s going to be hard for clients to have a 2022 that beats 2021. We’ve seen such a ramp up for sales online in the last two years that some people’s expectations are not based on reality for 2022. There’s lots of conversation around what should expectations be and why sales are down. Clients have asked why sales are down a lot. The consumer fear of a recession has people spending less money, or being more conscious of what they are spending their money on, so this year probably won’t be as big of a growth year, especially compared to last year versus 2020. That’s the big focus of the last three or four months.

 

What are those conversations like? Do clients understand what’s happening?

 

Most clients understand it. Some don’t believe that it’s happening. They don’t believe there are economic forces outside of the ad account that [can account for] why they are seeing fewer sales. That’s especially true if they are in a country where they aren’t seeing [the possible recession winds blowing]. We’re really seeing a decrease in sales in across North America, a couple of countries in Europe. But there are also countries where they’re not feeling the effects of a potential recession yet so getting clients to realize that if you’re running ads in multiple countries what’s happening in your country isn’t necessarily what’s happening in other countries. You have to localize things a bit [to understand sales].

15685: Just Another Day In White Adland…

To underscore the point being made in the previous post, MLK Day presented no commemorative mentions in Adweek and Advertising Age; plus, the “Collections” at Clio’s Ads of the World—despite featuring categories for Chinese New Year, International Women’s Day, Halloween, Girl Power, Donald Trump ads, and more—include no MLK campaigns.

15684: CDO MLK DAY WTF.

 

In Adland, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives all the reverence, recognition, regard and respect of a Chief Diversity Officer. Nuff said.

15683: Google Says, “I Have A Dream—But Not A Head…”

 

The Google doodle commemorating MLK Day presents a decapitated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. …? Perhaps it symbolizes Google’s reluctance to offer an honest headcount to expose the company’s true diversity.

15600: Dr. Aaron Rodgers Versus Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

NFL Superstar Aaron Rodgers had the audacity to defend his lies and ignorance by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and declaring, “You have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense…”

 

Okay, but MLK also said:

 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Nothing worthwhile is easy. Your ability to overcome unfavorable situations will provide you with time to demonstrate your true strength and determination for success. Always set your standards high, your greatest achievements lie within the infinite feats you achieve in your life.”

 

And as a self-proclaimed critical thinker who allegedly did lots of research to conclude that getting vaccinated wasn’t right for him, Rodgers should consider the following MLK quote:

 

“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”

 

Oh, and based on the rules of Offensive Karma, Rodgers effectively fumbled away the Green Bay Packers’ dream of winning Super Bowl LVI.

15280: MLK Day After.

 

Here’s a belated MLK Day perspective:

 

In the advertising industry, awards, applause, and accolades are bestowed upon “leaders” in White advertising agencies and holding companies for their faux commitment to diversity. The faux adjective, incidentally, is used to note that—despite persistent public pontificating—the Caucasian corporations have little or no authentic progress to exhibit. That is, EEO-1 data shows non-Whites remain woefully underrepresented. The diversity trophy winners are not living up to their revolutionary reputations.

 

Meanwhile, non-Whites actively advocating for change are covertly or blatantly criticized, condemned, cursed at, cold-shouldered, crapped on and cut from the industry. To make an ironic—and perhaps inappropriate—observation, the true leaders for equality get shot down.

 

What would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about that?

15278: MLK Day Of Reckoning.

For the advertising industry, MLK Day exposes heightened hypocrisy in 2021. After all, the past 12 months have underscored how the dream has been diverted, delegated, deferred and denied for decades. WPP—the “most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation”—reported single-digit diversity figures. The Pioneer of Diversity at Omnicom plotted an eight-part plan for “systemic equity”—a polite phrase crafted to deflect discussing the systemic racism embedded in the corporation. A pledge of $50 million to fund heat shields essentially amounts to croissant crumbs from Publicis Groupe. Despite self-promotional gobbledygook about being recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion, IPG confessed, “We must do better”—and revealed numbers proving the place is doing no better than any other White holding company. Dentsu dodged diversity dissection by detonating dramatic downsizing, but Wendy Clark is sure to deliver deceptive drivel. As for Havas, well, never mind. Oh, and independent enterprises—e.g., The Richards Group—turned the dream into a nightmare.

 

How will Adland celebrate the day? With flowery declarations to diversity dedication? Patronizing presentations and wondrous workshops from Chief Diversity Officers—or announcements on the appointments of new Chief Diversity Officers? Tax-deductible donations to minority charities and causes? Advertisements featuring royalty-free clip art of MLK images?

 

Expect the dreamy feelings to vanish by Tuesday.