17127: Mickey D’s Sings, “Ba-Da-Ba-Ba-Ba-Buh-Bye, Burrell.”

Advertising Age reported Mickey D’s named Translation as AOR for the Black consumer market, replacing 50-year incumbent Burrell Communications Group.

 

Regarding the account reassignment, Burrell’s relatively new leaders—who purchased the iconic Black advertising agency in 2023—are probably not thinking, “i’m lovin’ it!” However, it’s unclear if Burrell was completely dumped from Mickey D’s roster.

 

Translation President Jonathan Akwue said, “McDonald’s is leaning on Translation as cultural experts to evolve how the brand shows up—honoring the legacy that earned its place in Black culture while finding even more relevant and authentic spaces to amplify its presence in the daily lives of [African American] consumers.”

 

The legacy that earned its place in Black culture? Um, Tom Burrell would probably argue his agency’s groundbreaking work, which began in the 1970s, created the legacy that helped the Golden Arches earn its place in Black culture.

 

McDonald’s adds Translation to its agency roster

 

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

 

McDonald’s has hired Translation as its agency of record for the African American consumer market following a review.

 

Under the remit, the agency will lead creative efforts to “deepen cultural connection and drive growth with Black consumers” across all consumer touchpoints, according to Jonathan Akwue, president of Translation.

 

Translation replaces Burrell Communications, which previously handled this work. McDonald’s declined to comment on whether it would be working with Burrell at all going forward. Burrell did not return multiple calls for comment.

 

The review was managed by MediaSense’s R3.

 

Translation’s first assignment in its new role was to help create messaging around the revival of the McDonald’s Snack Wrap. Wieden+Kennedy New York, McDonald’s creative agency of record, made the hero campaign, including ads featuring “Succession” actor Brian Cox. Translation was in charge of helping drive demand for the Snack Wrap among what McDonald’s calls the African American consumer market, as described by McDonald’s.

 

For the push, Translation created the character Unc, who is played by actor Hassan Johnson and appears in a series of ads to help influence the younger generation to try Snack Wraps for the first time. Unc also claims credit for convincing McDonald’s to revive the beloved menu item.

 

Akwue said it was critical to target younger consumers who may have missed the Snack Wrap during its first run. The item was taken off most menus in 2016.

 

“In the Black community, Unc isn’t just a relative—he’s a neighborhood staple,” Akwue said. “He’s the one at the cookout telling stories, cracking jokes and giving unsolicited wisdom. He bridges generations with credibility, humor and love. So we made Unc our messenger—the one person who can co-sign the return of the Snack Wrap and convince the youngins it’s worth the hype.”

 

Akwue said the agency’s music distribution company, UnitedMasters, was critical in the pitch to win this business. “We are extremely proud of how the entire teams at Translation and UnitedMasters came together to secure this important win,” he said.

 

McDonald’s has leaned on Translation to deliver culturally relevant work before—the two companies have a history that dates back more than 20 years. Steve Stoute, the founder and CEO of Translation and UnitedMasters, has previously noted that he and Translation were a key part of the creative process that led to the creation of the Golden Arches’ iconic “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline in 2003. Translation also worked on the 2013 “Think with Your Mouth” Big Mac campaign.

 

“We’ve long championed the power of culture as a driver of meaningful connection and business growth,” Akwue said. “McDonald’s is leaning on Translation as cultural experts to evolve how the brand shows up—honoring the legacy that earned its place in Black culture while finding even more relevant and authentic spaces to amplify its presence in the daily lives of [African American] consumers.”

 

The appointment comes as the fast-food giant has seen weakness in sales at longstanding restaurants. McDonald’s first-quarter U.S. same-store sales declined 3.6%, its largest domestic comparable sales drop since the 8.7% decline reported in the second quarter of 2020 during statewide lockdowns brought on by the COVID pandemic.

 

Morgan Flatley, McDonald’s global chief marketing officer and head of new business ventures, told Ad Age in a recent interview that her brand strategy has been to lean into fan truths—described as moments, rituals, memories, or behaviors that are inextricably linked to McDonald’s—while simultaneously promoting messaging focused in value, which is critical in reaching customers today who are more cost conscious in the shaky economy.

 

Translation’s appointment also follows McDonald’s retiring some of its diversity, equity and inclusion goals at the start of the year.

 

McDonald’s spent $690 million on U.S. measured media in 2024, up from $609 million in 2023, per MediaRadar estimates. In the first quarter of 2025, the company spent $126 million in the U.S., down from $148 million in the first quarter of 2024, according to MediaRadar.

16981: BHM 2025—AbelsonTaylor Group.

It’s been disturbing to see most White holding companies and White advertising agencies ignore Black History Month—especially in terms of deciding against publishing performative PR or contrived and clichéd campaigns.

 

Equally disturbing is seeing messages from the few enterprises that did acknowledge the annual event.

 

AbelsonTaylor Group—a pharmaceutical marketing firm—spotlighted its Black ERG and Black icons from Adland.

 

Side effects include drowsiness and nausea.

16979: BHM 2025—Channels Changers.

 

Channels Changers—the breakthrough documentary by Lowell Thompson—is hyped as follows:

 

This powerful film shines a light on the trailblazing African American admen and women of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It showcases their groundbreaking contributions to the advertising industry and the lasting legacy they’ve left behind.

 

Watch it via PBS now.

16700: Replaying Lowell Thompson On His Channels Changers Documentary.

 

In January 2023, Print Magazine interviewed Lowell Thompson, spotlighting his Channels Changers documentary on Chicago’s Black advertising executives.

 

The Daily Heller: Lowell Thompson’s Documentary on Chicago’s Black Ad Men and Women

 

By Steven Heller

 

Channels Changers is a documentary that chronicles African Americans who made a significant impact on Chicago’s advertising industry, as the film’s co-creator, Lowell Thompson, says. Advertising was, as he points out in this interview and the film clip below, an entry point for creative practitioners, many of whom learned “on the street” and produced iconic commercials and campaigns for national and local brands. This is an important missing link in the history of American advertising (and myth-making).

 

Thompson started his creative career at Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago, in 1968, as an art director trainee, a few months after Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis. He spent the next 50+ years creating advertising, art, books and more.

 

Channels Changers is almost finished, but needs GoFundMe support to complete post-production. Here, Thompson tells us more about the project.

 

Is Channels Changers the first film to cover this subject matter?

 

I think so. I actually planned it as a book, but then I met Cotton Stevenson on Facebook. He’s a “white” retired adman who worked in some of the same agencies I did in Chicago about 10 years after I’d been there, so we’d never met. He retired, moved to San Jose, went back to school and earned a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking. He’d been watching my … er … exploits on Facebook, and when I put up some things about my memoirs, Mad Invisible Man, he called and suggested we make it a film.

 

Why has this been such a well-kept secret?

 

Vance Packard called ad folks “the hidden persuaders.” AfAm ad folks are the most hidden hidden persuaders. We’re even hidden from other hidden persuaders … unless they happened to bump into us in one of the few agencies that hired us. But to actually answer your question, I think although ads and commercials are rampant, the ad industry as a subject is inherently secret. It’s kinda like what they say about making sausage. People just want to eat the sausage, not watch it being made. Ads are even worse. People don’t go out of their way to “eat” ads. They only like some of them, at best. They don’t want to think about them, period!

 

About 10 years ago, Art & Copy, a documentary about some of the top ad creative people, came out. I think it was very good, but I don’t think many people saw it. The only movie I know of that was ever made about this subject was Putney Swope. It was a feature film satire directed by Robert Downey Sr. [about a white-run ad agency that by mistake elects a Black president]. I suspect part of the reasons no one has done what we’re doing is that in New York, African Americans in advertising were even more invisible than Ellison’s Invisible Man. Although AfAm Chicagoans have historically been lesser in numbers than in New York, we have almost always been a bigger portion of the whole population. That fact gave us more political, economic and cultural clout in our city.

 

I want to make sure we make this point in Channels Changers. The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s was made famous because it happened in the city where American media was based. But the real renaissance had already been happening in music since Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and then Louis Armstrong came up from New Orleans and made the roaring ’20s roar in Al Capone’s Jazz joints on the South Side of Chicago.

 

The world-famous Harlem Globetrotters? Born on Chicago’s South Side in the mid-’20s. Abe Saperstein dubbed what was then the Savoy Big Five (Wendell Phillips High School students who played out of the Savoy Ballroom), “The Harlem Globetrotters.” Why? Because New York white elites and media people were going up to Harlem to slum and had made Harlem synonymous with “Black America.”

 

What is it about Chicago that provided opportunities that did not seem available on Madison Avenue?

 

Even though the Black population has dropped precipitously in Chicago (it was about 40% when Harold Washington was elected mayor in 1983) in the last decade, we still make up a little under 30%. New York’s Black population gradually moved up to 25%. I think Black Chicago also had a more cohesive culture because they came overwhelmingly from Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama. Many more in New York weren’t even born in the USA, being from the Caribbean, Haiti, Cuba, South America and many countries in Africa. That’s why the most powerful Black media names came out of Chicago: Ida B. Wells, The Chicago Defender, Johnson Publishing (which published Ebony and Jet). We’ll show how that media savvy and success led to the first successful Black-owned ad agencies.

 

Was there a ghettoization of Black creative directors in the industry? Did your colleagues mostly work on products aimed at Black people?

 

Oh, that’s an easy one. No. I didn’t work at a Black-owned agency or on a “Blacks-only” account until my last days working full time. I ended my full-time career at Burrell, as VP, associate creative director. Tom Burrell was the only person in the creative department above me. Before that I’d worked at Foote, Cone & Belding, McCann-Erickson, Young & Rubicam, Needham, Harper & Steers, J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett, never on Black accounts.

 

Your film also brings to light talented Black women.

 

Yes. I started in the business about the same time as Carol Williams, who now owns what she says is the largest independent-owned Black ad agency in the world. But there was also Barbara Proctor, who started her own agency in the early ’70s. And there were a good number of AfAm writers and some art directors like Alma Hopkins, Emma Young and others I worked with. But in New York there was Caroline Jones, who started as a secretary at a big white agency and went on to found more than one agency. The reason is the same as AfAm men.

 

Where did the creative workforce come from? Did it have anything to do with Chicago’s music heritage?

 

In my case it just came in off the street. The music heritage had more influence as suppliers, not workers in the agencies, although Barbara Proctor did work in the music business as a promoter and PR person before she got into advertising. She is said to have helped bring the Beatles to the U.S. when she worked at an AfAm-owned record company, VeeJay.

 

Did you learn to be an ad man in school or by working?

 

I tell folks I went to kindergarten at FCB and got my Ph.D. from JWT. I didn’t have a clue about advertising until I was smack-dab in the middle of it. That’s why I attribute my career to Dr. M.L. King and the Civil Rights Movement. But I would guess that most creative people of any color in the business in my day never planned to create ads and commercials for a living. They seemed to be would-be journalists, novelists, artists, actors, etc.

 

There are some iconic ads that sprang from Chicago. Was there much cross-pollination between there and New York?

 

Man, am I glad you asked that question. One of the people I’ve been trying to catch up with to interview for Channels Changers is Joey Randall. He’s a native New Yorker who came to Chi-Town in the mid ’70s, I think. He told me he actually came to Chicago because he had an idea for a Coke commercial that featured a bunch of guys doo-wopping. It became the iconic “StreetSong” spot for Coke the put Burrell on the TV advertising map. James Glover had worked at Y&R New York before he came to Needham, Harper & Steers and did the “Morning Glory” spot for McDonald’s breakfast. Harry “the legend” Webber came to Chicago for a few minutes. I ended up taking his office at Leo Burnett. Shirley Riley, who did a series of Clio award-winning spots for AT&T, came to Chicago but did not have a good time.

 

How far along are you with the film? Are they other “heroes” of the industry yet to be documented?

 

We actually have almost all of the interviews done. Cotton is about to get on a plane to Florida this weekend to go to interview Tom Burrell and Ray Lyle (who was an art director/producer on the Uncola campaign). We’re planning to start editing next month. There are plenty of heroes and sheroes, and not just in Chicago. Byron Lewis, who started UniWorld, is still kickin’. There are some folks on the West Coast who have done some great stuff.

 

Graphic design was long a second cousin to advertising. Was it that way in Chicago?

 

Yes, as far as I know, graphic designers lived on a whole other planet. It takes a strange mentality to be an ad person, and graphic designers generally don’t make great ad folks. Neither do novelists or journalists.

 

What do you want the audience to take away from this film that has been lost and now found?

 

Ha! That the whole multicolored mix of media, advertising and entertainment we live with today started—more than any other place on the planet—in Chicago.

16699: The Latest On Lowell Thompson.

 

Reel Chicago spotlighted a screening of Channels Changers, a documentary on Chicago’s Black advertising executives created by Lowell Thompson, Alaric Martin, and others. Thompson is an original crusader in the battle for diversity in Adland, steadfastly fighting to change the channels of systemic racism in the industry and beyond.

 

Check out the Reel Chicago content, which includes lots of photos of VIP attendees.

 

The Black ad community celebrates the premiere of Channels Changers

 

By Barbara Roche

 

Members of the advertising community gathered at the Gene Siskel Center on Monday evening to honor the veterans and icons of Chicago’s Black ad agencies, whose legacies are now documented in the heartfelt film Channels Changers.

 

Produced by Gypsy Chicago Productions, Channels Changers introduces viewers to the largely unseen world of African American ad professionals of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

 

The film highlights the pioneering Black advertising executives in Chicago’s top agencies, who significantly transformed the landscape of advertising and media during that era and beyond.

 

Lowell Thompson, an expert on the subject who introduces the film, collaborated with fellow veteran adman, Cotton Stevenson, to create a documentary about this remarkable period and the Black ad trailblazers. Producer, Laurel Dobose brought in Editor, Alaric C. Martin, who throughout the evening was referred to as the Mastermind behind the film. Alaric had the enormous task of sifting through hours of footage to painstakingly create the template in which the story unfolds. Truly a labor of love by all involved.

 

Channels Changers illustrates how the Civil Rights movement and the riots following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination prompted corporate America to finally open its doors to Black people.

 

Gypsy Chicago Productions interviewed over 20 Black ad professionals from that period, including industry giants Tom Burrell and Carol H. Williams, who went on to establish nationally renowned agencies. The stories of these trailblazers reveal the significant challenges they faced as they entered the predominantly white advertising world. The film also features a number of ads, commercials, and campaigns that many may not have realized were created by African Americans.

 

Stevenson assembled a team of top-level filmmakers, many of whom were old friends from his days as a Chicago creative executive. The film’s initial funding came from the Field Foundation of Chicago and Chicago ad agencies FCB, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, and DDB, with additional financial support from a GoFundMe campaign.

 

A reception followed the screening, where old friends exchanged hugs, laughs, and memories… lots of memories. It was much like a family reunion. There were no strangers in the room. Everyone’s paths had crossed at some time during their career.

 

The documentary was created as an educational film. At this time it is not likely that it will be seen on the streaming services. For further information about Channels Changers, please contact Terry Peigh, Executive Producer (tpeigh@me.com).

 

Film Credits:

 

• Executive Producers: Cotton Stevenson, Lowell Thompson, Terry Peigh

 

• Producer: Laurel Dobose

 

• Writers: Lowell Thompson, Alaric C. Martin

 

• Consulting Producer: Alaric C. Martin

 

• Director/ Director of Photography: Bill Youmans

 

• Editor/Motion Graphics: Alaric C. Martin

 

• Sound Design & Mix: Sidney Jones, Jr. BAM Studios Chicago

 

• Colorist: Pete Jannotta, Color By Pete

 

• Trailer Colorist: Bob Sliga

 

• Title Design Animation/ Webmaster: Dani Dudovick, Double Dog Productions

 

• Videographers: Dennis Thompson Joe Brooks Cal Evans

 

• Location Sound: Dustin Berta, Case Chamberlain, Daniel Hernandez

 

• Main Title Music: Darryl Duncan, GameBeat Studios

 

• Hair and Makeup: Marcus Geeter

 

• Wheel Man: Michael J. Manhoff

 

• Legal: Ellen Duff Ratcliffe, Duff & Peel

 

• Transportation Coordinator: Maura Donahue

 

• Special Project Consultant: Bill Izzo

13832: Burrell Breaks Barriers.

Adweek reported Tom Burrell became the one Black in The One Club Creative Hall of Fame. Kudos to Burrell, but surely there are other worthy Blacks—including Georg Olden, Roy Eaton and Harry Webber—who also deserve recognition in the exclusive club.

Tom Burrell Becomes First African-American Inducted Into One Club Creative Hall of Fame

He founded Burrell Communications Group in 1971

By Erik Oster

Burrell Communications Group founder Tom Burrell, who has been breaking barriers his entire career, has added yet another one to the list.

The One Club inducted Burrell into its Creative Hall of Fame, making him the first African-American to receive the honor, which dates back to Leo Burnett’s inaugural induction in 1961. Burrell was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame back in 2004.

A pioneer in recognizing and celebrating the purchasing power of the African-American community, Burrell coined the phrase “Black people are not dark-skinned white people.” His advertisements for Coca-Cola are archived at the Library of Congress, recognized for their cultural and historical significance.

Tom Burrell began his career in the mailroom at Wade Advertising while still at Roosevelt University. The agency’s first black employee, he soon earned himself a junior copywriting position, working on the agency’s Alka-Seltzer and Robin Hood All-Purpose Flour accounts, according to the Advertising Hall of Fame. He went on to work at several agencies, including Leo Burnett and FCB, before founding Burrell Communications Group in 1971.

He retired in 2004 and currently serves as chairman emeritus for the agency, which is now led by co-CEOs Fay Ferguson and McGhee Williams Osse and CCO Lewis Williams. Burrell Communications Group currently counts McDonald’s, P&G, Comcast, Walmart, Toyota Motor Sales Inc., AARP and Hilton among its client roster.

In addition to his work in advertising, Burrell is the author of Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority and founded nonprofit The Resolution Project to “challenge and reverse ongoing mass media stereotypes and negative race-based conditioning.”

13790: The One Club’s One Black…?

The 2017 inductees of The One Club Creative Hall of Fame includes Tom Burrell. The One Club added a blurb that reads:

The iconic advertising pioneer whose illustrious career transformed both the way people of color were portrayed in communications, as well as their roles within the industry itself. It’s a never-ending mission, but one with a defined starting line that he helped create.

With all due respect to Burrell, the statement isn’t accurate. While the iconic advertising pioneer certainly helped transform how Blacks were depicted in advertising, he was preceded by others in the field. The statement about transforming “their roles within the industry itself” is also fuzzy. Burrell’s agency served—and continues to serve—as a launching pad/stepping stone for many Blacks in advertising, but given the diminishing numbers, it’s tough to define any transformative phenomenon.

On the flipside, to recognize the plight of Blacks in advertising as “a never-ending mission” is factually correct. Sobering too, despite Leo Burnett’s prediction that the Promised Land is a mere 66 years away.

To be clear, Burrell’s induction to The One Club Creative Hall of Fame is a well-deserved honor. That he appears to be the only minority in the rare company is a tad disturbing.

10208: Emmett McBain (1935-2012).

From Target Market News…

Emmett McBain, Burrell Advertising co-founder and prominent artist, dies at 77

Emmett McBain, a renowned water color artist, and co-founder of what became the largest African-American owned advertising agency in the U.S., died on Tuesday, May 22 at his home in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The agency he started in 1971 was Burrell McBain, Inc. and would go on to be known as Burrell Communications Group.

McBain and co-founder, Thomas J. Burrell opened the ad agency in to focus on the African-American consumer, Black families and relationships. In short order, the agency succeeded in its ability to interpret client’s messages and gain the loyalty of black consumers.

“Emmett was key in getting the agency started in the early days,” said Tom Burrell. He was a visual thinker, always had fresh ideas to the approach of marketing, my senior in the business and I looked to him for leadership,” said Burrell adding that McBain left a long standing impression on him. “He said something that really resonated with me which was, ‘there is always a reason to not do something’ and from that moment we worked toward creating an agency.”

Born in 1935, McBain attended Sexton Elementary School and Tilden Technical High School in Chicago and following graduation, studied advertising design. He attended the Ray Vogue Art School, the American Academy of Art, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He later became a designer for Vince Cullers and Associates, an art supervisor at J. Walter Thompson, a creative consultant for Soft Sheen Products, and ultimately the co-founder of Burrell McBain, Inc.

An inventory of visual advertising has been created in McBain’s honor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Library, entitled “Emmett McBain Design Papers.” The collection includes print ads, transparencies of billboards and record album covers ranging in date from 1961 to 2000. The assortment of works also includes the series of ads for Philip Morris, McDonald’s print ads, and others.

In 1974, McBain left Burrell McBain to pursue a career in art and independent design in Chicago’s Hyde Park community, where he has since lived.

“Emmett was a pioneer in the advertising industry and a gifted artist,” said McGhee Williams Osse, Co-CEO of Burrell Communications Group. “To know him was to be intrigued and always fascinated by his wit, talent and very interesting perspectives about culture, life, and world affairs.”

McBain is survived by 8 children, 8 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. A memorial is being planned to take place at the DuSable Museum, 740 East 56th Place, Chicago on Saturday, June 30th, at 2 pm.

9095: Burrell Battles Brainwashing.

From Today’s Chicago Woman, August 2011

8714: A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Brainwash.

From Advertising Age…

Tom Burrell on Marketing and Black ‘Inferiority’

Ad Legend Outlines Past Propaganda, Sees Hope for Future Voices

By Rance Crain

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, in which more than 600,000 soldiers were killed. By the end of the war four years later, 4 million slaves were freed.

The economic impact on the South was devastating. The South depended on agriculture for its well being and it depended on slaves to harvest its bounty. As the Economist stated, the South’s wealth was concentrated in land and slaves. “The war destroyed that wealth.”

But the southern economy, 150 years later, is now almost on par with the North.

Slavery’s effect on black people, however, is still a powerful disruptive influence, according to Tom Burrell, founder of the advertising agency in Chicago bearing his name.

In his book “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority ” Mr. Burrell asserts that “one of the greatest propaganda campaigns of all time was the masterful marketing of the myth of black inferiority to justify slavery within a democracy.”

Mr. Burrell admits that while “on a personal level I’m revolted, yet as a marketing man I find it to be an audacious and ingenious strategy. It’s as if,” he says, “the original colonial elites hired a PR agency to sell the concept that Africans were innately inferior and it was indeed completely justifiable to treat them as subhuman beasts. The last several centuries still haunt us, and hinder our advancement and achievement.”

Although he says black progress is more visible today than ever before, Mr. Burrell contends that “the unwritten, audacious promotion of white superiority and black inferiority was (and still is) the most effective and successful marketing/propaganda campaign in the history of the world.”

In a chapter on “Why can’t we stop shopping?” Mr. Burrell notes the good news/bad news character of the U.S. black economy. The good news is that black buying power is almost $800 billion a year. “The bad news? Because of our undisciplined, indiscriminate buying habits, African-Americans are America’s poorest group.”

Modern advertising pounds away at all groups, but blacks are most susceptible, Mr. Burrell maintains. “The buy buy, now now sales pitches are all around. We are flooded with offers to purchase every day and every minute. Messages are in magazines, and on billboards, radio, TV, the internet, bus kiosks, T-shirts, taxi roofs, tote bags, blimps, and stuffed in envelopes with the bills for the stuff we’ve already bought.

“It’s difficult for any American to resist the relentless marketing barrage and gain a modicum of a financial foothold. But I believe the cues to incessantly buy resonate differently with a race that had to secure the right to be treated as humans and force white businesses to treat them like any other American consumer.”

During slavery, blacks had little control over their lives. Families were ripped apart, and men were stripped of their traditional duties while women were often given servant jobs in their white owners’ households.

“In caricature, even after slavery ended, black men were depicted as vile, buffoonish loafers who thrived in neighborhoods filled with corruption and vice. Juxtaposed against this were images of black women happily separated from these men enjoying safety and privilege in the sanctity of calm, well-ordered, clean, and wholesome white environments,” Mr. Burrell observed. And these conflicting roles bred mutual disrespect, he added.

Because their lives were so uncertain and at the same time dependent, “this seeded a sense of ‘living in the now’ in our psyches. In a society where rank is determined by material wealth, we are still seeking to buy lost status, only this time through mindless, unbridled consumption,” Mr. Burrell said.

Humor in ads helps blacks cope with their feelings of unworthiness—and loosens up their pocketbooks, he explained. For 45 years he said he was engaged in the field of “systematic persuasion, convincing people through mass communications to buy—buy a product, buy a service, buy an idea. In almost all cases, the means by which people are convinced to buy rarely has anything to do with reason or logic, and humor is one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of persuasive communication.”

But what’s needed, Mr. Burrell opined, is that “we must learn to incorporate critical thinking when dealing with ourselves, our hang-ups and habits, and when dealing with the world we live in. Then we will be better able to laugh through our problems.”

As founder of the Resolution Project, a nonprofit organization to create “stop the brainwash” campaigns, Mr. Burrell sees the new media as the way out of the black inferiority cycle he describes. “With technology, we have the opportunity to institute a new communication model, elevate cultural dialogue and reward positive thinking.” Using blogs and websites, the “new black brains,” as he calls them, can counter negative propaganda and create new success stories.

“Branding got us into this mess. Branding can get us out. Only this time we’re branding ourselves,” Mr. Burrell concludes.