16686: Adland’s Systemic Racism Repeats In New York, New York.

Mediapsssst at MediaPost spotlighted a report from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) in New York City, presenting proposals to expand access to careers in Adland for New Yorkers of color.

 

Has this organization contacted the New York City Commission on Human Rights for a few pointers?

 

With all due respect, the CUF report reads like a student essay compared to the work done by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, along with Cyrus Mehri and the Madison Avenue Project.

 

Hard to imagine CUF will fare better than the aforementioned entities—who only achieved temporary success at best—as systemic racism has proven to be a powerful force in Adland. Plus, CUF is not being nearly as assertive in its ambitions. Time will tell.

 

Report: How To Fix Madison Avenue’s Diversity Problem

 

By Richard Whitman, Columnist

 

A new report from a New York City thinktank indicates that the advertising industry remains one of the least diverse sectors in the city.

 

That’s not new. The city has been complaining about poor Adland diversity numbers for decades.

 

What’s interesting about the report is some of the ideas it offers to improve the situation.

 

The report, from the Center For An Urban Future, recommends that city and state leaders expand access to advertising careers in New York City through a series of investments, including an “Advertising Talent Pipeline,” modeled on the successful Tech Talent Pipeline.

 

And the report also gives a shoutout to some programs that appear to be working like the 4A’s Foundation’s Multicultural Advertising Internship Program and “promising steps” taken by Horizon Media to combine career exploration in high schools with paid internships that lead to jobs.

 

The city and the industry should redouble efforts to “promote, replicate, and scale up industry efforts that are already working,” like the above-referenced efforts, per the report.

14261: Mo Momentum Mumbo-Jumbo.

Adweek published divertsity daydreaming from Momentum North America President Donnalyn Smith, who declared it will require “a sincere commitment” to ignite change in the advertising industry. Sorry, but Smith’s lack of familiarity with the global dilemma puts her sincerity in question.

Smith shared her alleged commitment for diversity by stating, “In recent years, the advertising community has started to come to grips with the bold-faced truth that we haven’t really talked the ‘real’ talk, much less walked the walk. If you take a hard, honest look at the range of companies in our industry at the present time, they all too often reflect the workforce of 1978, not 2018.”

First of all, people who claim diversity has become a hot topic for adland “in recent years” have clearly been ignorant ignoring the problem, as heated conversations have been happening for scores of decades. The last serious protest took place in 2006 when the New York City Commission on Human Rights spanked Madison Avenue shops, and other diversity discussions date back to the early 1970s at least. Anyone holding even half a clue recognizes the current White-dominated workforce reflects 1958 versus 1978.

Smith is obviously a proponent for divertsity, not diversity. For her, enlightenment struck “in recent years” as the White women’s bandwagon leapfrogged racial and ethnic minorities in the battle for equality. Hell, Smith was actually named a 2017 Working Mother of the Year by She Runs It. Her divertsity dream involves creating a mentoring scheme styled after graduate school programs. Gee, Smith’s brainstorm sounds like a White women’s version of MAIP—which, incidentally, has been running for over 40 years. It’s always amazing how the pseudo-revolutionaries believe they’ve invented a breakthrough concept, when they’re ultimately exposing their corporate and cultural cluelessness by mimicking a long-standing tactic.

If Smith has truly turned Momentum into a multicultural Mecca, MultiCultClassics extends sincere apologies and requests that everyone please disregard this post. But progressiveness is unlikely, based on the patronizing pap penned by her boss, as well as the company website store selling MoMo Hammer Pants and dates with the MoMo IT guy—the latter sales item seeming quite inappropriate in these days of heightened sensitivity around sexual harassment.

Diversifying in Advertising Requires Creativity and a Drive to Instill Fairness

Company output won’t be inclusive if your workplace isn’t

By Donnalyn Smith

The fundamental idea is very simple, like all powerful notions. A marketer’s best work is only made possible through a diversity of talent applied to that company’s business. In recent years, the advertising community has started to come to grips with the bold-faced truth that we haven’t really talked the “real” talk, much less walked the walk. If you take a hard, honest look at the range of companies in our industry at the present time, they all too often reflect the workforce of 1978, not 2018.

It is unassailably clear that there is still much work to be done for our industry to mirror the demographic diversity emerging in the early 21st century in the U.S. and abroad. And with the tumultuous events of the past few years highlighted by the emergence of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements for women’s empowerment and anti-sexual harassment, the broader culture is intensely focused on the fight for respect and equality for diverse, often marginalized groups, particularly women and people of color.

While diversity as a centerpiece of social justice efforts is reaching a fever pitch, what can our industry leaders do to spark increased hiring and retention of talent from a mix of backgrounds and identities? While there have been nascent attempts in several quarters to infuse a broader range of cultural and social perspectives into both client and agency marketing teams, we as an industry are still a long way from critical mass. Clearly, there are still many organizations that haven’t prioritized diversity, or perhaps they have but are struggling for guidance for the most effective way to implement best practices.

A sincere commitment

If a marketer or an agency is truly devoted to staff diversity, they must apply sizable resources toward achieving it. This could take the form of investing in a fully integrated program offering entry-level immersion experiences that includes job rotations through a broad range of marketing disciplines over an extended period of time, up to a year if it makes sense.

Similar to a graduate school program, aspirants should be schooled across the wide palette of marketing and advertising disciplines including creative, media, client-side brand marketing and PR. If this sounds like a souped-up, deluxe version of your traditional agency internship program, that’s not where I’m leading. Rather, I envision something much deeper and impactful. The experience and mentoring with senior company executives—including the C-suite—could be much more focused and regimented and then lead into a more sophisticated and beneficial experience. As most of us know or have experienced, traditional company internship programs are often more rudimentary, and the curriculum or training is much more cursory and often administered by middle managers with limited senior-level or C-suite active participation.

What I am advocating can only be accomplished through extensive training and 360-degree feedback modules that bring together the gamut of stakeholders in an ongoing, committed basis including the C-suite and evp/svp level, chief talent officers, recruiters and, of course, the diverse talent.

A program of this caliber, if executed properly, would rise to the level of postgraduate, master class work. Imagine, if every company in our ecosystem—large, medium and small—took this approach en masse. In this way, we would all be the catalysts for broader industry-wide transformation. For inspiration, one need turn no further than to Verizon, whose chief marketing officer, Diego Scotti, has been one of the pioneers on this front with his Ad Fellows program.

By launching something similar at your company, you will reap strategic benefits; this would not simply be an altruistic endeavor. You would in effect be creating a mechanism that would actively create and identify a healthy pool of diverse talent on an ongoing basis, which you can ultimately draw from to contribute to the greater success of your company and your partners. The goal could be to place all participants post-program within the industry.

Hopefully, these thoughts and ideas will work to inspire a wave of similar efforts from brands and agencies across the entire industry. There is a lot of work ahead to increase diversity in advertising and marketing, but companies should look at diversity as an opportunity not an obligation. Those corporate cultures that value innovation and progress have the opportunity to foster a competitive advantage that could transform the company in more ways that you could imagine. Cheap PR, like cotton candy, tastes nice but is ultimately unsatisfying. Elbow grease and creativity to support an unshakeable will to fairness and personal growth will actually be beneficial to the bottom line. It really is about progress and prosperity.

Donnalyn Smith is president, North America of Momentum Worldwide, based in New York.

13931: Human Rights In Adland.

Today is Human Rights Day, which presents an opportunity to consider human rights as applied to the advertising industry—specifically, pertaining to the concept of diversity. Despite the industry’s efforts to politely position diversity as a business imperative—i.e., diversity is good for business, embrace diversity of thought for better ideas, gain relevance by reflecting the diversity of the marketplace, blah, blah, blah—diversity is a human rights issue. After all, when Madison Avenue came under fire for its dismal dearth of diversity over a decade ago, the charge was led by the New York City Commission on Human Rights.

To commemorate the special day, Human Rights Watch coordinated with 24 landmarks around the world to shine bright blue in a show of solidarity. One participating building is the John Hancock Center, home of FCB Chicago, a member of the IPG empire. In regards to diversity, a peek at FCB Chicago leadership hardly displays a reflection of the marketplace (the 2010 United States Census—advertised by Draftfcb, incidentally—recorded city demographics at 32% Black and 28% Hispanic). Plus, the scenes of the White advertising agency’s office are typically exclusive, with the most prominent Black staffers appearing to be serving in the mount room. Meanwhile, IPG boasts to be recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion, yet the White holding company also owns a list of offenses to counter the clichéd claims of commitment—including the latest sexual harassment scandal via The Martin Agency.

So take a moment to meditate on human rights and diversity in the advertising industry. It’s well beyond being time to do the right thing—and the human rights thing.

13816: Surveying Failure.

A MultiCultClassics visitor pointed to an Advertising Week 2017 tweet inviting people to take a survey allegedly designed to assess how far the advertising industry needs to go in terms of diversity and inclusion. The survey inadvertently delivered on its objective, as the questions are primarily focused on diverted diversity—that is, the promotion of White women—and essentially ignore the racial and ethnic inequality that has forever plagued adland. In short, the survey perfectly reflects the industry’s true interest in diversity and inclusion. It’s also important to remember that Advertising Week 2006 served as a backdrop when the New York City Commission on Human Rights sent subpoenas to agency executives as part of an investigation into the lack of Blacks on Madison Avenue. The decline of Black representation in the field underscores the “progress” made over the past decade—and ultimately shows how far the advertising industry needs to go in terms of diversity and inclusion. But hey, survey participants can provide data to confirm the obvious and receive a $5 Starbucks Gift Card for their efforts, which is $5 more than the average Black person will ever see from Madison Avenue.

13670: Hilltop View.

Campaign reported on 4As President and CEO Nancy Hill’s farewell address delivered at the 2017 Transformation Conference, where the outgoing leader offered accolades and affirmations to the advertising community. Stressing that the industry should not be branded by the “alleged bad behavior we read about in the headlines,” Hill declared, “We are better than that. You are better than that.” Okay, but how much better?

Hill admitted that when assuming her 4As role in 2008, “We were already behind in technology, we were already behind in media and, we were clearly behind in taking a leadership role in the growing discussion on diversity and gender equality.” But she countered the confessions by claiming, “We have taken a front-and-center position on diversity and gender equality. We have built a media practice that benefits all of our members and has allowed us to take a stance on issues as wide ranging as trust and transparency, measurement standards, privacy, fraud and ad blocking. As well as SAG/AFTRA negotiations & patent trolling. And, we have become digitally centered with a mobile-first approach on every new product we develop.”

Really? Even the statement about becoming “digitally centered with a mobile-first approach on every new product we develop” is debatable—simply attempt to navigate the 4As website on any mobile device, and it will underscore that most advertising people have as long a way to go with digital as they do with diversity.

And as diversity remains a major concern for this blog, MultiCultClassics will critique Hill’s contentions on the topic.

First of all, despite anything that follows in this post, MultiCultClassics salutes Hill for having attempted to bring about change in the area of diversity. Unfortunately, a trade organization does not have the power and authority to mandate—or for that matter, even influence—new industry practices, attitudes or behaviors. Regardless, Hill took on the challenges better than her predecessor, O. Burtch Drake—although that’s like saying Lloyd Christmas is smarter than Harry Dunne. In short, Hill cannot force anyone to change, especially when the people who must change have steadfastly refused to do so for over 60 years.

Hill believes, “We have taken a front-and-center position on diversity and gender equality.” Around 2008, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, Sanford Moore and Cyrus Mehri were speaking out, condemning the discriminatory conditions that persist on Madison Avenue. Today, the protestors are virtually invisible, as White women have leapfrogged over racial and ethnic minorities to take a front-and-center position in the diversity discussion. The 4As jumped on the gender bandwagon with the rest of the industry too.

Since 2008, the advertising industry has made little progress in the area of diversity, and it’s actually regressed with certain segments. There’s little evidence of anything being better—except perhaps the smokescreens and shields created to conceal the truth.

Nancy Hill’s farewell: ‘We’re better than that’

By Douglas Quenqua

In a tearful address, the departing 4A’s president urged the agency community to look beyond salacious headlines and focus on progress.

Nancy Hill, the departing president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, delivered a tearful farewell address at the group’s 2017 Transformation conference in Los Angeles on Monday, assuring the agency community that it is not defined by the “alleged bad behavior we read about in the headlines.”

“We are better than that,” she said to applause. “You are better than that.”

Which is not to say Hill doubted the behavior exists.

“I know that sexual harassment happens,” she said. “I know that racism and sexism both exist. I know that there are probably some bad actors out there that maybe aren’t as forthright with their clients as we’d like them to be.”

But the agency world has much to be proud of, including “talent that creates work that moves brands, moves markets and moves perceptions,” and “work that influences culture, shapes the conversations and changes lives,” she said.

Hill, who was elected president in 2008, has overseen a tumultuous era in the agency business that’s included the Great Recession, existential challenges to the agency business model, a number of high-profile sexual harassment scandals, the erosion of trust between agencies and brands, and accusations of dirty dealing among media agencies.

But rather than taking the tough love approach, as she did at least year’s conference, Hill used her opening remarks on Monday to reminisce about her journey in the industry and encourage its members to focus on the progress they’ve made.

“Thirty-five years ago, when I started as a traffic coordinate at W.B. Doner in Baltimore, I would have never, ever imagined myself up on this stage in front of all of you,” Hill began, pausing midway to joke about the tears she was already shedding.

“The odds on when this was going to happen were not this early,” she said.

Though the 4A’s faced intimidating challenges when she took the job in 2008—“We were already behind in technology, we were already behind in media and, we were clearly behind in taking a leadership role in the growing discussion on diversity and gender equality”—the organization and its members have come a long way in addressing them, said Hill.

“We have taken a front-and-center position on diversity and gender equality,” she said. “We have built a media practice that benefits all of our members and has allowed us to take a stance on issues as wide ranging as trust and transparency, measurement standards, privacy, fraud and ad blocking. As well as SAG/AFTRA negotiations & patent trolling. And, we have become digitally centered with a mobile-first approach on every new product we develop.”

Marla Kaplowitz, CEO of MEC North America, will assume the presidency when Hill steps down in June.

Before taking the position in 2008, Hill served as CEO of Lowe New York and EVP and managing director for BBDO New York after working at Doner, TBWA/Chiat/Day and Goldberg Moser O’Neill, which became Hill Holiday in 2001.

Hill plans to consult and spend more time in Ecuador, where she volunteers and teaches, after she steps down in June.

“Thank you for letting me represent you for just a little while,” Hill said on Monday. “It’s been an honor and a privilege. Thank you.”

Kaplowitz is slated to take the stage at Transformation later on Monday, when she will share her vision for the future of the 4A’s in an interview with Bill Koenigsberg, Chairman of the 4A’s Board of Directors and President, CEO and Founder of Horizon Media.

12886: Delayed WTF 31—Advertising Week XII.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

Advertising Week XII inadvertently spotlighted the diversity dilemma that has plagued Madison Avenue and beyond since, well, forever.

This year’s New York soiree actually featured a Diversity & Inclusion Track, presenting a pile of patronizing pap that did little to legitimately further and/or foster diversity and inclusion. Additionally, there was a separate Talent Track. Leave it to the advertising industry to decide Diversity & Inclusion and Talent should be segregated endeavors.

The Diversity & Inclusion Track opened with the following promotional copy:

Diversity & Inclusion

In the midst of the biggest effort in history to introduce comprehensive civil rights to the LGBTQ community, the media storm continues to swirl around national diversity challenges. Caitlyn Jenner has fueled much of the attention as of late, providing a high profile face to the debate around acceptance. Brands and advertisers still face biases in planning and executing media campaigns yet the buying power continues to grow in minority and historically excluded groups. The Inclusion of targeting and segmenting meaningful content to truly diverse audiences based on their consumer behavior and exclusive of their lifestyle choices, ethnicity or background is the recipe brands need to experiment with to optimize ROI. As the awareness and controversies rise in the media and progress is made and lost on various fronts, it is certain to be a passionate time in our history.

Only a handful of advertisers in the scheme of things have shown boldness in their work to understand, reach and service diverse audiences. Which brands are striving to understand and embrace diversity? What brave and bold campaigns will we see arrive on the scene? How will advertisers balance the perceived risks of polarizing audiences?

The diversity and inclusion track at advertising week is certain to provide insights into some of the biggest questions of our time.

Notice how the above bullshit makes zero mention of the biggest question of our time: Why are the staffs at most advertising agencies still predominately White?

Instead, the Diversity & Inclusion Track included: a single, obligatory panel discussing diversity of talent; a couple of LGBT events; an examination of media targeting women; the rise of diverse non-network shows; an autobiographical share with Lin-Manuel Miranda; an Emilio and Gloria Estefan self-promotional tour stop; a peek at Broadway Video’s Latino Network; a hand-wringing session on the Whiteness and maleness of the digital arena, and; a conversation on “the power of inclusiveness” in storytelling.

Hell, the most noteworthy diversity-related happening was the Here Are All The Black People incident—and The One Club program wasn’t even a part of Advertising Week XII.

Remember when Advertising Week served as the perfect stage to call out and condemn the dearth of diversity? Where are Cyrus Mehri, Patricia Gatling and the NYC Commission on Human Rights and John Liu? Why isn’t anyone demanding that Madison Avenue agencies publicly reveal the alleged progress?

Advertising Week XII put the “x” in exclusivity.

11304: John Wren—Pioneer Of Diversity…?

The 2013 AAF Diversity Achievement and Mosaic Awards & Forum named Omnicom President-CEO John Wren a Pioneer of Diversity. It’s not clear what criteria was used to justify the honor. Wren has consistently delegated diversity via stereotypical solutions like launching a Diversity Development Advisory Committee, hiring a Chief Diversity Officer, sponsoring ADCOLOR® and approving obligatory contributions to minority scholarships, minority internships and minority youth outreach programs. Additionally, Omnicom originally balked at dealing with the New York City Commission on Human Rights back in 2006. Wren later ordered his agencies to come into compliance with the diversity agreements by the end of 2008. Didn’t happen. Of course, Wren has mastered the fine art of Corporate Cultural Collusion—and he even created a minority advertising agency in order to win multicultural business from Nissan.

Yep, the guy’s a bona fide pioneer.

11101: Ad Age On Mad Men.

From Advertising Age…

‘Mad Men’ Recap: Invisible Woman

Is the Show Finally Taking on Race?

By Matthew Creamer

About midway through last night’s “Mad Men,” Pete Campbell issues a warning to his fellow partners at the agency: “I might remind you and everyone that the Commission on Human Rights is continuing to investigate our industry regarding the employment of Negroes.”

The partners’ regular meeting has been interrupted by a suddenly ballsy Harry Crane. The media-department head is incensed that his secretary has been summarily canned by Joan after she ditched work early and had another of the “girls” punch out her time card. The other girl is Dawn, Don’s secretary and the lone recurring black character over the past couple of seasons. Pete’s reminder frames one question—can we really afford to fire one of our few black employees when the city is demanding that we hire more?—that leads to a bigger one: Is “Mad Men” finally ready to talk about race?

In the real 1968, New York City’s Human Rights Commission would make the whiteness of Madison Avenue a story. Hearings in March would be followed by more information gathering throughout the summer, culminating in a report issued in November.

That report, which you can still read online, is a damning account of the industry’s attitude toward race at a time when the country was consumed by it. This was, after all, years since the Civil Rights movement began and the year in which Martin Luther King Jr. would be assassinated, setting off widespread riots.

Reading the report now, we see that the industry’s actual attitude toward race was pretty much in line with how it is depicted in the character of Pete: “an unacceptable pattern of exclusion—tokenism.” Between September 1967 and September 1968, the city’s largest advertising agencies, under pressure from the commission, improved the representation of “Negroes and Puerto Ricans” to about 7% from about 5%. But this came on a declining base and predominantly through the hiring of low-level employees. The biggest strides came in the category of “all others” which, according to the report, represents the “lower depths” of the industry. There was no movement in general management and little in other categories with upward mobility, like research, creative and account management.

The report claims that even as the industry was aware of the problem, it was unwilling to do anything to fix it. The commission encountered institutional defeatism, which it countered with a little snark: “If you were able to sell Volkswagens at the time you did and in this New York market, you can discover ways to hire, train and integrate into your staffs persons so long excluded from the industry.”

This is an amazing line that takes aim at the central case study of the 1960s creative revolution: DDB’s post-war turnaround of Volkswagen by eviscerating its German past. In other words, if you can do it for it our fairly recent enemies, you can do it for our own people. The commission also gives the industry a generous dollop of credit for being the kind of idea generators and problem solvers who find a way to deal with big challenges.

Could this be the moment “Mad Men” finally engages with the question of race? Dawn’s introduction last season, coming after that memorable racist water-balloon incident, felt like a head fake. We got that one strange night on Peggy’s couch and then nothing. But now with the King assassination looming, we’re getting some sense of a more developed black character. We even see Dawn outside of work twice, eating at a black coffee shop with a friend.

These scenes are bracing because we’re unaccustomed to any action that doesn’t involve at least one of the show’s (white) principal characters. It’s almost like being thrust into different show despite the fact that not all that much goes in the scenes. Dawn describes the loneliness and alienation she feels in the white-dominated world, telling of seeing another black friend downtown, near work, but not really seeing him.

“We were walking through the plaza and we passed each other and we just nodded,” she says. “He didn’t talk to me and I didn’t talk to him either.”

It might not conjure the pain of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” but Dawn’s words suggest the alienation that comes with being part of the paltry 5%.

Read the full column here.

10900: Seabrook Heading Into Tank.

From The New York Times…

Ex-Lawmaker Gets 5 Years in Corruption

By Benjamin Weiser

Larry B. Seabrook, a pillar of Bronx politics whose nearly three-decade tenure included stints as an assemblyman, state senator and city councilman, was sentenced to five years in prison in a corruption case on Tuesday by a federal judge who said he had betrayed the public trust.

Mr. Seabrook, 61, was also ordered to pay $620,000 in restitution to New York City.

Mr. Seabrook automatically lost his City Council seat in July after he was convicted of orchestrating a broad scheme to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in city money to friends, relatives and a girlfriend through a network of nonprofit groups he controlled.

His lawyers had asked that he not be sent to prison, citing his years of public service and what they called his immense shame and his potential for rehabilitation.

But the judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said that while she did not doubt Mr. Seabrook’s contributions as an elected official, the evidence had “clearly established that his qualities and accomplishments as a public servant are vastly diminished because of his sense of entitlement, arrogance, nepotism and greed.

“Instead of holding himself to a higher fiduciary standard as a councilman,” Judge Batts continued, Mr. Seabrook had “held himself above the law” and “betrayed the public trust by using his office to enrich himself and others.”

Mr. Seabrook was given until March 8 to surrender.

In speaking briefly to the judge before she imposed the sentence, Mr. Seabrook appeared to blame others for his predicament, much as his lawyers had sought to do during his trial last year.

He said that some of the people to whom he had given opportunities “did not do what they were supposed to do.”

“And I guess I will take the responsibility of that which they did,” he said, “but I know that the level of criminality that they might have done certainly was not a part of me.”

A prosecutor, Karl Metzner, responded briefly, telling Judge Batts that the jury had not found “that someone else was responsible for these frauds.”

“They found that Larry Seabrook was responsible for these frauds,” he said.

Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers, Anthony L. Ricco and Edward D. Wilford, said that their client would appeal.

They had contended that Mr. Seabrook, a Democrat who as a councilman represented communities like Co-op City, Williamsbridge and Baychester, had created programs to help Bronx residents, but had been betrayed by people he had brought in to run the groups, who stole money without his knowledge.

Mr. Seabrook’s first trial ended in a mistrial in December 2011 after a jury said that it could not reach a verdict. In a retrial, which lasted just over a month, he was convicted on 9 of 12 counts, including mail and wire fraud.

Prosecutors said, for example, that Mr. Seabrook had appointed his girlfriend, Gloria Jones-Grant, executive director of the nonprofit groups, even though he knew she was unqualified.

Ms. Jones-Grant received more than $300,000 in city money from those positions and consulting, the government said.

The judge noted that Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers had argued “that there should be some adjustment to the amount” of money considered lost through the frauds “for work actually performed on the contracts awarded” to Mr. Seabrook’s nonprofit groups.

But, the judge added, “The trial record is devoid of evidence of work actually performed.”

After Mr. Seabrook’s conviction last summer, Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, which had opened the inquiry into him, called him “a master of diversion and misdirection.”

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office had sought a sentence of at least 7 ¼ years, said after the sentencing on Tuesday that Mr. Seabrook had been “a flagrant and serial abuser of City Council discretionary funds in a far-too-familiar New York tale of corruption.”

“We remain committed to making those who are corrupted by power pay the price,” Mr. Bharara added, “and the public can expect more arrests of politicians who have not learned this lesson.”

Mr. Seabrook declined to comment after the proceeding. His City Council seat has been filled by Andy King Jr., a community activist elected in November.

10501: Lenders, Liars, Losers.

Adweek reported the fickle LendingTree selected a new AOR—Merkley + Partners in New York. The online lending service had sought a fresh agency less than a year after choosing Y&R in 2011. The latest winning shop is notorious for having failed to meet diversity goals promised to New York City’s Commission on Human Rights in 2008. So it looks like a perfect match—lenders + liars = losers.

LendingTree Selects Creative Agency

New shop’s first work is expected in March

By Andrew McMains

Five months after hiring a media agency, LendingTree has found a new lead creative shop.

Merkley + Partners won the pitch for LendingTree’s creative account and will break its first campaign in the spring. The New York shop outstripped two other finalists—McKinney in Durham, N.C. and Anthem Worldwide in San Francisco—to land the business.

Media spending on the brand totaled $22 million last year—a slight uptick from 2010, according to Nielsen. That figure does not include online spending, however, and Merkley’s assignment includes some digital responsibilities.

That said, LendingTree’s internal creative department of about 10-15 produces most of the company’s online ads, according to Fred Saunders, svp of marketing. LendingTree also uses outside digital shops for projects when needed.

The new shop’s first campaign will include TV, print and online ads and could launch as soon as March 2013.

In April, the online hub for bank loan offers hired Ocean Media to handle media planning and buying after a review. So, heading into the last quarter of 2012, LendingTree finally has its agency lineup set.

In hiring Merkley, Gabe Dalporto, the company’s chief marketing officer, cited a “powerful” campaign platform that the shop presented in the pitch. Marketing executives didn’t elaborate but Saunders said they were excited about the pitch idea and hoped to produce it. The company will test the idea first, however.

Merkley CEO Alex Gellert described LendingTree as an “iconic brand and a pioneer in changing how people secure financing.” The agency’s other accounts include Mercedes-Benz, Ferrero Rocher and Sun Products.

LendingTree’s three finalists emerged from a broader field of six. The review began shortly after Saunders arrived in April. Before that, he was director at account management at The Buntin Group in Nashville. Earlier in his career, Saunders was a brand director at Euro RSCG in San Francisco, where he worked on the Charles Schwab brand.

10355: NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook Cooked.

From The New York Times…

Bronx Councilman Is Convicted of Fraud and Loses Seat

By Benjamin Weiser

City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook, a mainstay of Bronx politics for nearly three decades, was convicted on Thursday of orchestrating a broad corruption scheme to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in city money to his relatives, friends and a girlfriend through a network of nonprofit organizations that he controlled.

A federal jury in Manhattan, which deliberated over the course of three days, convicted Mr. Seabrook on 9 of the 12 counts he faced, including wire and mail fraud. He faces maximum sentences of 20 years on each of the nine counts.

The conviction of Mr. Seabrook, 61, a Democrat, automatically vacates his Council seat; a special election to fill the remainder of his term will be held on Nov. 6, a city official said.

His undoing was his use of Council discretionary funds, or earmarks, to finance the nonprofit groups that purportedly ran job training and diversity programs.

Instead, Mr. Seabrook used the money to enrich those closest to him: Prosecutors said that Mr. Seabrook installed his girlfriend, Gloria Jones-Grant, as executive director of the nonprofit groups even though he knew she was “incompetent,” and that through those positions and consulting, she received more than $300,000 in city money.

The trial, which lasted just over a month, was the government’s second effort to convict Mr. Seabrook, a veteran Democratic politician. In a trial last year, a jury considered the same charges for more than a week before it reported on Dec. 9 that it was deadlocked, and a judge declared a mistrial.

In a statement, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said that Mr. Seabrook had “abused the power of his office to influence public contracts and to fund his own corrupt friends and family plan.”

“Today’s conviction,” Mr. Bharara added, “ensures that the councilman will pay for betraying the public trust.” Judge Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court will sentence Mr. Seabrook on Jan. 8.

After the verdict, Mr. Seabrook, accompanied by his wife, lawyers and other supporters, spoke briefly outside the courthouse.

“My reaction is that I continue to have faith in God, faith in the system, faith in my attorneys,” he said, adding that he would “now prepare myself for whatever is next.”

Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers said they would consider all of his legal options.

“I’ve known Councilman Seabrook since the beginning,” one lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, said, “and it was very sad to sit in the courtroom and experience what I knew to be the end of his political career.”

Mr. Seabrook, who served in both houses of the State Legislature, had been on the City Council since 2002, representing communities including Baychester, Co-op City and Williamsbridge.

The case, announced in 2010, stemmed from an inquiry by the city’s Department of Investigation, which referred its findings to Mr. Bharara’s office.

Calling Mr. Seabrook “a master of diversion and misdirection,” Rose Gill Hearn, the investigation commissioner, said that his conviction would end his “power to channel the flow of taxpayer funds to himself, his family and his cronies.”

Mr. Seabrook’s use of earmarks illustrated the lack of transparency and oversight in how such funds have been used in the past. The Council allocates about $50 million toward earmarks annually, a Council spokesman, Jamie McShane, said.

“We have enacted specific reforms to address the abuses highlighted by this case in an effort to prevent abuses like this from ever happening again,” Mr. McShane added.

Jurors left the courthouse without commenting. In closing arguments this week, the defense and the government clashed over whether Mr. Seabrook had been aware of fraud in the nonprofit groups.

Another of his defense lawyers, Edward D. Wilford, said in a closing argument on Monday that his client had put “good ideas” in place to benefit the people of the Bronx. “Unfortunately, the people that he hired to run those programs had a different agenda; their agenda was to steal, rob and pillage,” Mr. Wilford said.

But in a rebuttal summation Tuesday, a prosecutor, Randall W. Jackson, said the evidence showed Mr. Seabrook had clearly been involved in the fraud, which occurred from 2002 to 2009, the indictment says.

Mr. Jackson cited, for example, testimony by Mr. Seabrook’s girlfriend, Ms. Jones-Grant, that she had given Mr. Seabrook money to help with his legal defense.

“Of course Mr. Seabrook accepted the money,” Mr. Jackson told the jury, “because they were partners throughout this thing.”

In all, a government trial exhibit shows, the nonprofit groups made payments of more than $600,000 to Mr. Seabrook’s relatives and friends, including two of his sisters, a brother, two nephews, a granddaughter and Ms. Jones-Grant.

“Most of us spend money on our family members — that’s one of our big expenses,” the prosecutor, Mr. Jackson, said. “But Mr. Seabrook was outsourcing that expense to the city.”

In one scheme, Mr. Seabrook arranged for the nonprofit groups to rent office space through another company he controlled, which then billed the city at a higher price. The inflated rent scheme defrauded the city of about $100,000, prosecutors said.

At Mr. Seabrook’s district office on Boston Road in the Bronx, employees declined to comment on the conviction, and shut the door before any questions could be asked.

Mr. Seabrook was acquitted of three counts related to an alleged kickback scheme in which prosecutors said he had taken nearly $50,000 in payments from a Bronx businessman whom he had helped to win a contract to install boilers in the new Yankee Stadium in 2006.

The trial was not a duplicate of the earlier case, but throughout the retrial, the prosecutors, Mr. Jackson, Karl Metzner and Steve C. Lee, focused on the same central themes: that Mr. Seabrook had betrayed the people of the northeast Bronx who needed training and jobs, by “sending their money to his girlfriend and his family members,” as Mr. Metzner told the jury Monday.

“The people who have spent their lives on the outside looking in,” Mr. Metzner said, “they ended up being sold out by the man who could have helped them.”

Aaron Edwards and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

10232: Larry Seabrook, Round Two.

From The New York Times…

Retrial Begins for City Councilman in Corruption Case

By Benjamin Weiser

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have again asked a jury to convict City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook on corruption charges, accusing him on Wednesday of having abused his office “to enrich himself, members of his family and a woman he was having an intimate relationship with.”

The government’s claim came in the opening of the retrial of Mr. Seabrook, a Bronx Democrat, in Federal District Court. His first trial ended in a mistrial in December after the jury was deadlocked.

As Round 2 began, the government had changed the order of witnesses from the first trial and thus the way the evidence would unfold before the jury.

But both sides’ arguments seemed largely unchanged. A prosecutor, Steve C. Lee, told the jury that Mr. Seabrook, 60, had engaged in a series of schemes that defrauded the city of more than $1 million in taxpayer money.

Mr. Lee said that the councilman had used “a dysfunctional network” of nonprofit organizations that he controlled to funnel money to family members and to his girlfriend.

In another scheme, Mr. Lee said, Mr. Seabrook helped a Bronx businessman win a contract to install boilers in the new Yankee Stadium, and then “helped himself to over $40,000 in corrupt and illegal payments” as a reward for what he had done.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Seabrook obtained the illegal payments by having the businessman donate money to a Bronx political club that Mr. Seabrook controlled, and that Mr. Seabrook then submitted fake receipts to the club for reimbursement.

Mr. Seabrook’s lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, rejected the government’s portrait of his client. He depicted Mr. Seabrook as an honorable public servant who had established many job and educational programs, and said that any wrongdoing had occurred without the councilman’s knowledge.

“You are really being subjected to a false view of what the evidence is going to show,” Mr. Ricco told the jury. “The evidence is going to show that Mr. Seabrook is a distinguished man. He’s not the bum that was described.”

Mr. Seabrook represents communities like Co-op City, Williamsbridge and Baychester. A fixture in Bronx politics for three decades, he also served in the State Assembly and the State Senate.

He declined to comment on Wednesday. Judge Deborah A. Batts told both sides last week that she wanted the case “tried in this courtroom, not in the media.”

During the government statement, Mr. Lee told the jury about a $177 deli receipt for a bagel and a Snapple drink that in some ways has come to symbolize the government’s case against Mr. Seabrook. Prosecutors say the items originally cost about $7, but that the receipt was doctored and that Mr. Seabrook submitted it for reimbursement at the higher amount.

Mr. Lee cited the receipt as one of several examples of how Mr. Seabrook had sought reimbursement for false or personal expenses from the Bronx club, saying Mr. Seabrook ran it “as his personal piggy bank.”

Mr. Ricco, though, estimated that Mr. Seabrook submitted 2,500 to 5,000 receipts a year. “They’re going to put one receipt up there for a bagel, another receipt for some wine, and one trip to Washington, D.C.,” he said, adding that had Mr. Seabrook “ingratiated himself the way the government said, you would see hundreds of them.”

Mr. Ricco also told the jury that some government witnesses who had worked for the nonprofit organizations and received immunity would testify that they had forged documents or stolen money from the groups.

“But they’re going to be united in one truth,” he said. “They never brought it to the attention of Councilman Seabrook.”

9596: Seabrook Filleted.

From The New York Post…

Baloney on a bagel

City Councilman Larry Seabrook — you know, the guy who eats $177 bagels — must take New Yorkers for rank fools.

What else could explain his outrageously cynical appearance on NY1 Tuesday, portraying himself as a victim of run-amok prosecutors leveling spurious allegations?

Seabrook thinks folks will believe that he and those many friends and relatives of his who got jobs at taxpayer-funded nonprofits are no different than, say, John and Robert Kennedy or ex-Gov. Hugh Carey and his kin — even Mario Cuomo and son Andrew, the current governor.

“I think there was a president named John Kennedy, and he hired his brother, named Robert Kennedy,” Seabrook noted, contemptuously. “I think there was a governor named Mario Cuomo, and there was a son that ran his campaign and also ran a nonprofit,” he hissed. “I think he’s the governor now.”

Never mind that the decades-old appointments Seabrook cites bear absolutely no resemblance to the kind of corruption he’s accused of.

Never mind that Seabrook is facing a new trial, after a jury deadlocked on a mile-long list of charges against him — some with sentences as long as 20 years.

This is the guy, recall, with the $177 deli receipt — for a bagel and a Snapple! — that he used for an expense reimbursement.

(Guess he was trying to schmear New Yorkers then — just as he was Tuesday.)

And that’s just the tip of the whitefish spread: Seabrook’s charged with funneling more than $1.2 million in taxpayer cash to nonprofits where his mistress and relatives got more than $600,000. He’s also accused of squeezing a contractor for $40,000.

And the fact that his trial ended in a hung jury by no means vindicates him.

“We fully intend to retry the case and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the councilman criminally exploited his official position in order to enrich his friends, his family and himself,” insists Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.

Best of luck to him.

And when he’s finished with Seabrook, there will be plenty of work remaining.

Fact is, city and state statutes practically beg pols to see what they can get away with.

Legislators get millions each year to butter their own bagels; they use the dough to buy political backing or enrich themselves and others — a sorry state of affairs indeed.

As long as the pols refuse to outlaw the underlying temptations and make it truly difficult for each other to steal from taxpayers, New Yorkers, alas, will continue to see more Larry Seabrooks.

And $177 bagels.

9585: Seabrook Sails Off.

From The New York Times…

With Jury Deadlocked, Mistrial Is Declared in Councilman’s Corruption Case

By Benjamin Weiser and Colin Moynihan

A federal judge declared a mistrial on Friday in the corruption case of City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook, who had been charged in an elaborate scheme to direct more than $1 million in New York City taxpayer money to a network of nonprofit organizations that he controlled, purportedly for community programs.

Prosecutors had claimed that Mr. Seabrook, a Democrat from the Bronx, then used the groups to funnel more than $600,000 to family members and friends, some of whom, the government said, shared their money with him.

But the jury, which deliberated in Federal District Court in Manhattan for more than a week, told Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. in a note late Thursday that it remained deadlocked on all 12 counts in the indictment — an impasse it first reported on Monday. At Judge Patterson’s request, the jury renewed its efforts to reach a verdict in recent days, requesting large numbers of exhibits, witness testimony and other evidence.

On Friday morning, the jurors wrote that they remained deadlocked on each count. The judge encouraged them to keep deliberating. But shortly before 3 p.m., the jurors wrote, “We remain deadlocked on all counts, and it appears we will remain deadlocked.”

The mistrial, granted at the request of the defense, came on the heels of an acquittal of State Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., a Brooklyn Democrat, last month in the same courthouse, and could be seen as a setback for the government’s efforts to combat political corruption in New York.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said his office would retry Mr. Seabrook and “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the councilman criminally exploited his official position in order to enrich his friends, his family and himself.”

Mr. Seabrook, 60, standing outside the court with his lawyers, family and other supporters, said he continued to have “faith in God and faith in the jury system.”

“I will continue to keep the faith,” he said.

The councilman made clear that he would continue to focus on representing his district, despite his legal problems. “I’ll be at the business of doing what has to be done for my constituents,” he said.

Most of the jurors declined to comment as they left the courthouse, although several remained to speak privately with prosecutors and defense lawyers. The foreman, Frank DiBrino, told reporters that “there was movement back and forth” on each of the 12 counts and that the split among the jurors was “different on different charges.”

“It wasn’t the same all the way down” the 12 charges, Mr. DiBrino said, attributing the split among jurors to “different views on the evidence.”

According to one person who was briefed on the deliberations, the jury was split 6 to 6 on the first count, which charged Mr. Seabrook with accepting thousands of dollars in illegal gratuities from a Bronx businessman whom he helped to obtain a boiler contract for the new Yankee Stadium.

On other counts, the jury was split in different ways, but typically there were groups of jurors on each side, not just single holdouts, the person who was briefed said.

For nearly three decades, Mr. Seabrook has been a fixture in Bronx politics, serving the last decade on the Council, representing communities like Co-op City, Williamsbridge and Baychester. He also served in the State Assembly and the State Senate.

During the three-week trial, his lawyers depicted Mr. Seabrook as a self-made man who had worked hard to create the kinds of jobs and diversity programs that prosecutors said he had cheated. They said Mr. Seabrook had been unaware of wrongdoing in the nonprofit organizations, and they invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders who had been imprisoned, and said that they, too, had been subjected to the kinds of accusations that had been leveled at Mr. Seabrook.

The prosecutors, Brent Wible and Steve C. Lee, offered a much more tawdry picture, of an ensconced politician who used nonprofit groups as a kind of “employment program” for friends and family.

In one case, they said, he installed his girlfriend as the director of nonprofit organizations. She received more than $300,000 in payments, prosecutors said, and then kicked back “a piece of her profits” to Mr. Seabrook.

The counts against Mr. Seabrook included fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges, a number of which carry prison terms of up to 20 years.

His lawyers, Anthony L. Ricco and Edward D. Wilford, did not seem surprised at the announcement that the government intended to retry the case.

“It’s certainly something that we anticipated and we look forward to the retrial of the case,” Mr. Ricco said.

9583: Seabrook Saga Continues.

From The New York Times…

Judge Chides Defense in Official’s Trial

By Benjamin Weiser

The jury in the federal corruption trial of City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook was sent home on Tuesday evening after deliberating for a third full day without reaching a verdict.

The jury told the judge on Monday that it was at an impasse on all 12 counts in the case, in which Mr. Seabrook, a Bronx Democrat, has been accused of participating in a series of fraud schemes to direct more than $1 million in taxpayer money to nonprofit groups he controlled, so that he could then funnel money to family members and friends.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors accused Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers of making comments outside court that could influence the jury’s deliberations.

Writing to Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors cited comments by one lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, to reporters after deliberations ended on Monday that the jury “hasn’t accepted the government’s theory of the case.”

Mr. Ricco was also quoted as saying that he hoped jurors would “continue to deliberate but not really abandon their heartfelt views.” And, he added, “People shouldn’t be asked to compromise their views for efficiency or expediency.”

In court, the judge cited the prosecutors’ letter and said it was unfortunate that news accounts of Mr. Ricco’s statements “could interfere” with the deliberations. He cautioned Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers to “be careful” about what they said to the news media.

In their letter, prosecutors said Mr. Ricco’s comments were “misleading” because deliberations were continuing and the jury “plainly has not yet accepted or rejected any theory.”

Although the judge had warned jurors not to read news accounts of the case, prosecutors said, there remained a risk that they could inadvertently be exposed to such reports.

Mr. Ricco’s comment that jurors “shouldn’t be asked to compromise their views,” prosecutors added, “could have the effect of hardening the lack of consensus and negating any further instructions by the court that the jurors should keep an open mind to each other’s views so that they may in good faith reach a consensus if one is available.”

“The government’s concern is a valid one,” Mr. Ricco said later on Tuesday. “We have the same concern.” At day’s end, Mr. Seabrook, joined by lawyers outside the courthouse, told reporters, “Well, I will continue to have faith, faith in the Creator and certainly faith in the jury system.”

Mr. Ricco said, “We’re hoping that the jury will continue its deliberations and reach a just verdict.”

The jury’s notes on Tuesday offered no further clues about the impasse. One request listed more than two dozen exhibits; another said simply, “We would like a calculator.”

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

9581: The Jury Is Still Out On Seabrook.

From The New York Times..

Jury in Councilman’s Trial Says Its Split Has Widened

By Benjamin Weiser and Colin Moynihan

Halfway through its second full day of deliberations, the jury in the federal corruption trial of City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook indicated on Monday that it was at an impasse on all 12 counts in the case.

A note from the jury offered no clue as to how it was split, except to suggest that it was divided into two groups, rather than there being a holdout juror or two. “Neither side” had been able “to persuade each other to a verdict,” the note said.

The judge, Robert P. Patterson Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, told the jury to renew its efforts to reach a unanimous verdict.

Mr. Seabrook, a Democrat from the Bronx, has been accused of participating in a series of fraudulent schemes to direct more than $1 million in taxpayer money to nonprofit organizations he controlled, so that he, in turn, could funnel over $600,000 to family members and friends.

On Friday, the jury reported that it was at an impasse on the first count, which charged Mr. Seabrook, 60, with accepting thousands of dollars in illegal gratuities from a Bronx businessman whom he had helped obtain a boiler contract for the new Yankee Stadium.

The note delivered at 1 p.m. Monday said the impasse had broadened. “After much discussion,” the note said, “we are unable to reach a consensus on any individual count verdict.” The jury continued to deliberate through the afternoon before being sent home at day’s end, and it was expected to resume deliberations on Tuesday.

Mr. Seabrook spoke briefly with reporters outside the courthouse after the jury was sent home.

“I think we are just going to wait and see what the jury has to say,” he said. “The jury will speak and we will follow what the jury says. I’ve always had the faith.”

One of Mr. Seabrook’s lawyers, Anthony L. Ricco, said, “The important thing to realize is that the jury hasn’t accepted the government’s theory of the case.”

As the jurors worked to resolve the case, he added, he hoped they would “continue to deliberate, but not really abandon their heartfelt views.”

“People shouldn’t be asked to compromise their views for efficiency or expediency,” Mr. Ricco said.

Prosecutors had no comment.

Judge Patterson said outside the jury’s presence that he was somewhat troubled to think the deliberations might have taken the form of the jurors’ “taking sides.” When he addressed the panel, he encouraged the jurors to take another look at the evidence to see if a verdict could be reached.

9570: Speculating On Seabrook.

The New York Times reported on City Councilman Larry Seabrook, who was a key figure in battling Madison Avenue on diversity.

City Councilman’s Lawyer Calls Charges ‘Speculation’

By Colin Moynihan

During closing arguments in the federal corruption trial against City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook on Thursday, a defense lawyer urged the jury to weigh 30 years of public service against “so-called evidence.”

In their summation a day before, prosecutors had told jurors in Federal District Court in Manhattan that Mr. Seabrook carried out several schemes to funnel money to himself and others through nonprofit groups and a political club that he controlled.

But on Thursday, Edward Wilford, one of Mr. Seabrook’s two lawyers, compared that argument to “a shell game” or a street-corner game of three-card monte.

“There’s no evidence to connect the dots,” he told the jurors. “There’s only speculation to support the government’s theory.”

During a closing argument that lasted about an hour, Mr. Wilford assailed the prosecution’s case from several directions. He reminded jurors that Arlington Leon Eastmond, a Bronx businessman who prosecutors said gave unlawful gratuities to Mr. Seabrook, testified that he had a long history of giving money to the councilman’s political club and wanted to help the community with those donations.

Mr. Wilford went on to portray Mr. Seabrook as an unwitting victim who had entrusted nonprofit groups like the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corporation and the African-American Legal and Civic Hall of Fame to seemingly qualified appointees, only to be surprised and disappointed by their actions.

He also questioned the credibility of several government witnesses who had worked for those groups and who had implicated Mr. Seabrook in wrongdoing, but had also acknowledged that they too had committed crimes, including forgery and falsifying financial records.

Under cross-examination, those witnesses, including Tyrone Mitch Duren, an executive director at two nonprofit groups, and Felicia Jude, a secretary at the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corporation, told jurors that they had hidden their misdeeds from Mr. Seabrook.

“Where’s the proof that Councilman Seabrook joined a conspiracy?” Mr. Wilford asked. “There is none.”

In a rebuttal, a federal prosecutor, Steve C. Lee, told jurors that Mr. Wilford had engaged in misdirection and distractions during his summation, and he urged them to focus on evidence supporting the charges against the councilman, who did not testify.

“The government has met its burden of proof and surpassed it,” he said. “Larry Seabrook lied and cheated time and time again to get money into his pockets.”

After the summation, Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. gave instructions to the jury, which then began deliberations.

9152: Martin Sorrell, Scumdog Millionaire.

Earlier this year, WPP Overlord Martin Sorrell participated in a panel that noted industry-wide diversity and inclusion might increase because of the shift in ad dollars in Asia and abroad. Now Advertising Age reported WPP is outsourcing jobs to India, which will likely lead to terminating up to 100 employees in North American agencies. Wonder what the New York City Commission on Human Rights will think of this solution for addressing White exclusivity. Give Sorrell a new nickname: Scumdog Millionaire.

WPP Shops Planning to Outsource Some U.S. Jobs to India

In Drive for Efficiency, More Than 100 Staffers Expected to Be Cut

By Alexandra Bruell

In a bid to slash overhead, the North American operations of several WPP network agencies are planning to outsource numerous finance-related jobs to India, Ad Age has learned.

So far, the shops embarking on this outsourcing plan—which WPP suggested isn’t a mandate from the top but a decision on behalf of senior finance executives at the network agency level—include Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, Grey, Y&R and Wunderman. All told, more than 100 positions will be eliminated in the coming months.

The agencies “have decided to seek greater efficiencies in their companies and presently plan to have ‘non-client’ facing services delivered from an offshore specialist center in India,” a WPP spokesman said in an email. “In most cases, the positions impacted are in New York, but depending on the agency, finance department staff in other North American offices may also be impacted. The total number of jobs under consideration represent less than one percent of overall staff (including associates) and the job transfer will happen over the coming months.”

As of May, WPP, the largest advertising holding company in the world by revenue, reported having 146,000 employees, including associates, who work in 2,400 offices in 107 countries.

The cuts will be deepest at Ogilvy, which plans to eliminate 85 jobs during the next 18 months. John Seifert, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather North America, notified staff of the moves as part of a recent town hall meeting last week.

“Following a thorough review of the company’s finance operations, Ogilvy & Mather North America has decided to outsource a number of its transactional finance processes,” Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer Eleanor Mascheroni explained. “This action will reduce overhead costs while maintaining the quality and level of support we provide to our clients and partners. We have entered into an agreement with a top-tier business process outsourcing-services provider specializing in this kind of service delivery at lower costs to handle the processes. Many of our clients have been working with this model for many years.”

The India-based billings service provider will be Genpact, according to a number of executives. Though WPP referred to the outsourcing plan as a way the agencies themselves want to find efficiencies, some executives close to the situation told Ad Age there has been pressure from the holding company, which works with consultant KPMG, to cut costs.

Grey said it could potentially lay off as many as 30 people beginning in mid-2012. “We are in the earliest stage of looking at outsourcing some financial positions at Grey Group headquarters,” a Grey spokesman said. “No layoffs would take place until the middle of next year.”

JWT said the move likely will affect 16 people or fewer. Cuts at Y&R will also affect direct-marketing agency Wunderman; a small percentage of two dozen people in a shared billings department would be cut, spokespeople for the agencies said.

8426: Diversity Diversions On Madison Avenue.

From Advertising Age…

Sorry State of Diversity in Advertising Is Also a Culture Problem

Despite Temporary Hike in Minority Creatives After Recruiting Efforts, Agency Environments Seem to Be Turning New Hires Away

By Michael Bush

NEW YORK—It’s 2011, and while many things have changed in the advertising industry, the sorry state of diversity hiring isn’t among them.

Despite some positive trends over the past year—general-market agencies are hiring more Hispanics (as they try to win more Hispanic business)—a number of watchdog groups and industry professionals still think the situation is far from good.

Though the most current figures aren’t yet available, the New York City Commission on Human Rights doesn’t seem to be satisfied with progress made since it intervened in 2006. And while holding companies say they’re making progress, the threat of a class-action lawsuit still looms.

Hiring, of course, is only part of the problem. The failure to retain minority talent, which many believe is due to the lack of an encouraging environment, is the other issue.

Carol Watson, president, Tangerine Watson, a cross-cultural talent consultancy, said she hasn’t seen dramatic differences in minority hiring over the past year but has noticed one positive trend.

“Employee resource groups and affinity groups are a big thing now for general-market agencies that get a lot of multicultural assignments,” Ms. Watson said. “There has been more hiring, of Hispanics in particular, for these groups that pitch and consult clients, discuss messaging and help identify all of the opportunities in multicultural marketplace.”

Rob Norman, CEO of WPP’s Group M North America, said diversity hiring has occupied more of his time than he thought it would since taking the CEO role one year ago. He said the agency has brought on a full-time diversity recruiter. But he said that all of the programs and efforts may never be enough to rectify the problem.

“Not only do you have to recruit people that are diverse, you have to create environments under which those people are comfortable working in,” Mr. Norman said. “There’s also a wider issue for the industry of making it more attractive and inclusive. The hardest thing is making people aware that our industry exists, that it’s open to a broad range of talent and it’s a credible profession for people to seek out.”

Clifford Mulqueen, deputy commissioner general counsel at the NYC Commission on Human Rights, said the commission will soon be releasing a report on its investigation into the diversity hiring practices of 15 ad agencies including Arnold, Euro RSCG, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey Direct and Grey Interactive, Y&R, Ogilvy & Mather, Kaplan, DraftFCB, Gotham, BBDO, DDB, Merkley and Partners and PHD.

After finding fault with the diversity-hiring practices at many of the big ad agencies in New York, in 2006 the commission signed a memorandum with them. The sides came to an understanding that the agencies would increase their minority hiring. “We asked them to set goals for three years and from information they provided two years ago most of them actually met or exceeded their goals over that three-year period,” he said. The commission went back to the agencies in 2009 looking for more current demographics and hoping that positive hiring trends had continued. It wasn’t happy with what it saw.

“The numbers weren’t as good as you might have thought they were based on the information they provided for that three-year period,” Mr. Mulqueen said. “Now we are in the process of analyzing that information and we are going to issue a report on those findings.”

“A court action may not be the way to go,” Mr. Mulqueen said. “It seems like they have to do something to change the entire culture.”

In an email, Heide Gardner, senior VP-chief diversity and inclusion officer of Interpublic Group of Cos., said the holding companies have improved for women and minorities. “Our workforce data show continued progress across our U.S. operations. Looking at the 2010 numbers, we see year-over-year improvement for women and people of color at both the manager and executive levels. And despite an overall headcount reduction due to the broader economic conditions, our population of people of color at all management levels increased by about 11% last year, and women by over 40%.” Interpublic, it should be pointed out, ties diversity-hiring targets to executive incentive compensation.

Cyrus Mehri, an attorney at Mehri & Skalet, who filed charges with the EEOC against the various holding companies and a number of their agencies for discriminatory hiring practices and one of the people behind the Madison Ave. Project, said this is an industry that’s behind the times in terms of diversity hiring. “As a result it’s missing opportunities in terms of talent and business opportunities,” Mr. Mehri said.

Mr. Mehri points to a study centered around Super Bowl 2010, which found that of the 60 or so commercials aired during the game, not one of them was captained by a minority creative director. “That’s a shocking revelation,” he said.

What’s Being Done?

A look at a few of the efforts designed to boost diversity in the ad industry

4A’S MAIP (MULTICULTURAL ADVERTISING INTERN PROGRAM)
Established 1973
Places multicultural students in 10-week paid, full-time summer internships at member agencies nationwide.

AAF MOST-PROMISING MINORITY STUDENT
Established in 1996
Awards and recruiting conference connect the advertising industry with the nation’s top minority college seniors.

MARCUS GRAHAM PROJECT
Established in 2007
The project’s mission is to identify, expose, mentor and train ethnically diverse men and women between the ages of 16 and 34 in all aspects of the media industry.

ADCOLOR
Established in 2005
AdColor is intended to promote increased diversity in the advertising, marketing and media industries, while inspiring current and future communications professionals of color by celebrating the accomplishments of diverse role models and industry leaders.

AAF MOSAIC AWARDS
Established in 2001
The awards recognize successful multicultural marketing and diversity efforts.

BRANDLAB
Established in 2011
BrandLabs connects Minneapolis marketers and agencies with students at low-income high schools and allows students to take advertising classes and apply for internships at some of the city’s ad shops.

4A’S AND HOWARD UNIVERSITY’S JOHN H. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
Established in 2008
The partnership is intended to establish a center to address challenges, eliminate barriers and identify opportunities to achieve a more diverse and inclusive advertising industry workforce at middle to senior management levels.

MEDIAVEST DIVERSITY WEEK
Established in 2010
Diversity Week celebrates MediaVest’s community and diversity efforts, as well as the establishment of MediaVest’s Diversity Council. It includes sessions on understanding the dual responsibilities of working parents, celebrating individuality in the workplace, and showcasing multicultural communication work produced by MV42 and Liquid Thread.

SMG DIVERSITY EXCHANGE WITH AAF MOSAIC CENTER
Established in 2010
The Exchange is an interactive workshop that showcases emerging minority- and women-owned media suppliers, with the aim to help level the playing field, by providing education, access and networking opportunities to these suppliers.

SMG L.I.N.K.S. (LIFESTYLE AND INTEREST NETWORKS FOR KNOWLEDGE AND SUPPORT)
Established in 2006
L.I.N.K.S. was created to bring new and current employees with common interests together by spurring participation between nine affinity groups including African-American, Asian, Latino, GLBTA and more.

GROUP M PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
Established in 2010
It is available to students in CCNY’s Advertising/Public Relations Program, with an emphasis on undergrads with diverse backgrounds. The project consists of a scholarship program and a separate enrichment fund designed to benefit a wide range of Ad/PR majors by allowing them to participate in professional development opportunities.