A few blogs have already picked up on the Whopper FREAKOUT! (Ghetto Version 2.0). Whatever. The creative force responsible, asathecomic, actually has a funnier bit with Obama here.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Essay 4960
A few blogs have already picked up on the Whopper FREAKOUT! (Ghetto Version 2.0). Whatever. The creative force responsible, asathecomic, actually has a funnier bit with Obama here.
Essay 4959
The comments continue in response to the Bob on Barack Bullshit. In fact, a few folks called Garfield a racist. Funny, when MultiCultClassics questioned Garfield’s potential for bias, the man got all indignant. Maybe he needs to ponder a line from his own story: Even hardened racists feel the impulse to believe they are no such thing. In the event that Garfield’s multi-daily Technorati™ searches on himself lead the man here, he ought to check this (Hint: review passive bias).
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Essay 4956
Going nowhere in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Wesley Snipes lost his bids to delay and relocate the upcoming federal tax-evasion case. His next move: replace his lawyers with the guys representing R. Kelly.
• Michael Vick was relocated from Virginia to a Kansas jail. Wesley Snipes will probably be inquiring about the availability of Vick’s lawyers.
• A new study showed girls who consider themselves unpopular are more prone to gaining weight. And once they do, they likely become even more unpopular.
• The new Starbucks CEO—who is actually the old Starbucks CEO—announced plans to close some stores. Shutting down a Starbucks would force customers to, well, walk across the street to the other Starbucks.
Essay 4955
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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Obama’s success is making us all winners
By JESSE JACKSON
Barack Obama’s stunning victory in Iowa lifts our hearts, no matter whom we support. You can’t help but be touched by a brilliant, passionate African American with a message of hope winning the vote of Iowa’s presidential caucuses. Although it’s only a first step in a long race for Obama, it is surely a giant step for America.
Nearly 44 years ago, Fanny Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Democratic convention in Atlantic City, challenging a Mississippi delegation that had systematically excluded all blacks. Hamer had to kick open locked doors simply to gain a hearing. She was dismissed by President Lyndon Johnson as an “illiterate.” In the end, two delegates from the Freedom Democratic Party were seated, on condition that Hamer not be among them. Four years later, Democrats required equal representation. And now four decades later, an African-American leader can compete on a more level playing field.
On the stage of the Democratic debate Saturday night in New Hampshire were the leading candidates for the nomination -- a white woman, an African American, a white man and a Latino -- strong leaders all, contesting for the presidency. (Dennis Kucinich was unfairly excluded from the debate.) We have come a long way.
George Bush the First talked in New Hampshire’s primary about having the “Big Mo,” as in momentum. Obama enjoys far more than that. He’s got the “Big M’s”: magnetic personality, magic moment, message, money and momentum. And the preposterously short primary season – it’s all over essentially by Feb. 5 -- dramatically favors anyone who can win the early contests, in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. If Obama wins today in New Hampshire, he will be well on his way.
The media are into the horse race: Who’s up? Who’s down? Daily polls, focus groups, on-the-street interviews. Lost in all this are the issues Americans care most about.
Never was this more apparent than in the New Hampshire debate. Moderator Charles Gibson came with videos on various issues to set up discussions. The first, on nuclear weapons and terrorism, stimulated a serious discussion. The second was on the budget deficits, priorities and entitlements, but Gibson clearly was tired of substance. He turned to Clinton and asked her what positions of Obama she thought ought to be “vetted.” Rather than substantive differences on Social Security and spending -- of which there are many -- he teed up the tit-for-tat discussion that got the headlines the next day.
It is time to get real. This economy is probably already in recession. Last month, the private sector lost jobs. Millions are facing the loss of their homes. More and more students are getting priced out of college. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our cities being ignored; New Orleans has been abandoned. Oil is at $100 a barrel. The dollar is sinking. Catastrophic climate change is a real and present danger. We’ve squandered lives and resources on the war in Iraq, even as al-Qaida is consolidating and a nuclear-armed Pakistan is in turmoil. Kenya (the home of Obama's father), which is now disintegrating into violence, somehow was not part of the debate.
We need commentators to probe these issues with candidates. Not with “gotcha” questions – “Do you know the name of the interim Uzbekistan prime minister?” -- but in ways that are as sober as the moment.
Obama is now the Democratic front-runner, with Mike Huckabee and John McCain running strong on the Republican side. They will and should be scrutinized. But let’s put aside the opposition research and partisan jibes that magnify the petty. Let’s focus on their answers to real challenges.
Essay 4954
Dimetapp’s multicultural marketing tactic—shooting the same ad with different kids—is sick.
Essay 4953
Looks like Bob Garfield’s peculiar perspective on Barack Obama inspired a range of responses.
Garfield’s gone from being acceptably wack to acceptably hack.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Essay 4950
Monday Morning MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Wesley Snipes is not giving up efforts to have his upcoming federal tax evasion trial moved out of Ocala, Florida. The actor’s lawyer filed a motion to relocate and postpone the trial, currently scheduled for January 14. Snipes must think he’s R. Kelly.
• A study shows that Blacks still get inferior treatment for cancer versus Whites, a trend that has persisted since being revealed in the 1990s. Research indicated the problems were just as bad in 2002 as in 1992. Which is almost as long as the wait for the R. Kelly trial.
• The CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts resigned, as the company continues to struggle. America runs on Dunkin’—and apparently runs away from Krispy Kreme.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Essay 4947
Bob Garfield took a break from his Comcast jihad to pontificate on race, politics, Barack Obama and Halle Berry. As always, there’s a comedic clumsiness to his cultural commentary. Plus, Garfield’s contention that Obama “will win the racist vote” is pretty ridiculous. Perhaps it’s best to simply categorize the ad critic/curmudgeon as “acceptably wack.”
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Why Even Hardened Racists Will Vote for Barack Obama
In the Electoral Marketplace, He Had to Pass the Halle Berry Test
By Bob Garfield
A few years back, a relative was visiting from out of town and showed us a snapshot. It was his son posing with a new acquaintance. Big smiles all around. The acquaintance was a priest. And he was black.
Why carry around this otherwise unremarkable photo and make a show of it?
Because the son is a five-alarm racist, and so is his dad -- the guy proudly displaying the snapshot. The subtext here -- about one micron below the surface -- was: “See? A black friend!”
Why did these folks feel the need to show off this man as if he were a two-headed goat? Did they imagine it negated the decades of “nigger” talk? God knows. But the episode demonstrated two things for sure:
1) Even hardened racists feel the impulse to believe they are no such thing.
2) Hence, they are always in the market for someone “acceptably black.”
Yes, the market. And, yes, acceptably black. We used that term the other day on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” to talk about Sen. Barack Obama and watched the interviewer visibly flinch. “I’m gonna take some of the edge off of what you just said,” he said.
What edge? Acceptably black means being nonthreatening to white people inclined to feeling threatened by black people. It means standard English, clean-cut appearance (or, as Joe Biden fumbled, “clean”) and the most Caucasian features possible. These obviously are not objective measures of character or worth; just as obviously, they are measures of what sells to the vast, white audience. Halle Berry and Denzel Washington are acceptably black. Your local news anchors are acceptably black. Tupac was not.
Flip through a magazine and check out the ads. In any group of three or more models, one invariably will be black. (If there are six or more models, one will be Asian and one Hispanic.) Same on TV. In any commercial for beer or snack food, one of the guys on the sofa is always black. This probably misrepresents the incidence of interracial hanging out, but it isn’t just tokenism. It’s a harmony fantasy, buried deep in the collective conscience.
It’s the snapshot of the trophy priest, writ large.
The phenomenon has many social and cultural ramifications, one of which is opportunity -- including political opportunity.
The subject of the “Hardball” exchange was Obama’s latest commercial, “Unify,” which deftly trades on the presidential hopeful’s extraordinary ability to seduce and inspire his audiences with his messages of hope and uncompromising determination. “We have the chance to bring the nation together,” he says. “A nation healed, a world repaired.” He’s said it so often it sounds almost perfunctory -- but Obama’s version of perfunctory can still send a chill up your spine.
Matthews wanted to know if the Baptist-preacher cadences would “work with that white crowd out in Iowa.” Yet when we replied, “There’s a world of white people who would love to pull the lever for a black man” -- on the above-stated grounds -- and invoked the concept of acceptable blackness, that’s when he flinched and felt the need to point out Obama’s sterling political credentials.
Well, of course. The gentleman from Illinois does seem to be the real deal. (Disclosure here: He’s the first presidential candidate of any party to impress us in our lifetime.) But to have access to the electoral marketplace, he still had to pass the Halle Berry test -- whereupon the hitherto disqualifying racial factor suddenly conferred advantage. We have no idea what will become of Obama’s candidacy, but we’re pretty sure he will win the racist vote.
Essay 4946
The Sunday newspaper’s coupon collection hit the cultural trifecta: Rastus, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. Hey, where’s Post Honey Bunches of Oats laborer Diana?
Essay 4945
From AdAge.com…
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Multicultural Players Make Social Networks, Mobile Their Priorities
ANA Survey Finds Clients Show More Movement, Interest in Areas Than General-Market Counterparts
By Laurel Wentz
NEW YORK -- Multicultural marketers are doing more mobile marketing and are more interested in using social networks than their general-market counterparts.
The Association of National Advertisers recently surveyed its members and found 38% of multicultural marketers are using mobile marketing, compared with just 28% of general-market advertisers.
A few more respondents in the general market (20%) said they already use social networks than respondents working in multicultural areas (16%), but the trend is clear: Twice as many multicultural marketers (36%) said they plan to start using social networking for the first time in the next year, compared with 19% in the general market.
It’s not surprising that multicultural marketers are moving fast into mobile marketing.
Beyond the basics
“Hispanics are much more likely to do advanced mobile activities,” said Tamara Barber, an analyst at Forrester Research. They are more likely than non-Hispanics to have cellphones with cameras (65% and 48%), video (41% and 17%), music (42% and 15%) and internet access (57% and 39%), according to Forrester’s phone survey of 3,000 Hispanic adults.
In social networking, Ms. Barber said a number of general-market sites have added Spanish-language pages, such as MySpace Latino and a bilingual LinkedIn. “There’s a ton of energy right now around Spanish and bilingual sites.”
MySpace, for instance, hired a former AOL Latino account director, Manny Miravete, in December 2007 as its first VP for U.S. Hispanic sales and strategy to develop advertisers for MySpace Latino, which has almost 9 million Hispanic profiles.
BlackPlanet
Multicultural sites are also active in social networking. Community Connect’s BlackPlanet worked with Coca-Cola during Black History month to celebrate black musicians. With a sponsored profile for Coke, a Coke mini site and a music area on BlackPlanet, Coke netted 250,000 friends, said Kay Madati, VP marketing at Community Connect.
Multicultural marketers trail the general market in other areas, such as use of search, blogs and websites. Almost all general-market companies surveyed -- 95% -- have websites, compared with 86% of respondents who said their companies have sites for the multicultural market. That gap is closing as more companies make multicultural consumers a priority. Best Buy, for instance, introduced a Spanish-language version of its website in November 2007.
The money multicultural marketers spend on new media was fairly evenly split between incremental dollars (35%); budgets shifted from traditional media (40%); and dollars taken from other marketing efforts such as PR, promotions and direct marketing (33%).
The ANA surveyed 326 marketers from the general market and 53 executives who do multicultural marketing.
Essay 4944
This column actually appeared in The Washington Post on August 8, 2006, but it’s worth reading still…
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The N.Y. Times’ Unwitting Racism
By Jabari Asim
WASHINGTON—You may not know Yvette Nicole Brown’s name, but it’s quite likely that you’ve seen her face. The actress has appeared in countless television commercials, sitcoms, dramatic episodes and feature films. She has cherubic cheekbones and a bright, winning smile. She’s also one of those performers who can do a lot with a little, making a brief line or two as meaningful as a long monologue.
Brown unwittingly played a supporting role in a recent New York Times article addressing the phenomenon of “sassy, overweight” black actresses in TV commercials. According to the article, some observers are troubled by the sight of these women, who are “200 pounds plus,” most of which is “pure attitude.” They are frequently cast in roles, the article said, “where their aggressiveness is a defining trait.” The pioneer in this regard is “the heavy black spokeswoman for Pine-Sol.”
Curiously, none of the black actresses discussed in the article was quoted. The story was accompanied by two photos, one of which showed Brown as a distressed airline passenger in a Dairy Queen commercial. I recognized her and decided to track her down.
“My agent called me at like 9 in the morning and said are you sitting down? The day started off bad,” Brown told me in recalling the morning the story appeared. She has worked in television commercials since 2001. In 2003 she broke into TV and movies. She’s a size 14, she said, and has never weighed 200 pounds. “I’m not just some chubby chick who makes faces in commercials,” she added.
Brown arrived in Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Akron. She’d had a taste of the bright lights before, having signed a singing contract with Motown while still a teen. After completing college, however, she decided to focus on acting. “I said I would try to be a commercial actor. I got a commercial agent, and praise God, the work started flowing in.” Appearances on shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Two and a Half Men” soon followed.
She said she’s not aware of producers specifically casting for a “heavy” or “sassy” black woman. “Most of the commercials that I book are not written for black people. At auditions I’m often the only black person in a sea of white people. I have been on sets before when a director says, ‘Can you make it more ethnic?’ I always say, ‘Can you demonstrate to me how you want it done?’ That usually ends it.’’
Brown disagreed strongly with the notion that performances such as hers perpetuate negative stereotypes. “I project strength without being threatening,” she said. In her view, she fits comfortably in the range of portrayals currently being seen. “I believe we’re blessed right now to see all types of black women in TV and commercials, everything from working women to college students. It’s the entire spectrum of our beauty.”
That spectrum includes Diane Amos, who has been Pine-Sol’s TV face for 13 years. She told me that people who see a link between her work and harmful images from the past are caught up in their own misconceptions. “Why does it have to be Aunt Jemima? Why can’t I be Etta James at home, or Ella Fitzgerald on her off time? Why do I have to be held up to what they’re still calling a stereotype?”
I asked her if black folks ever give her a hard time about her portrayal. “Not once,” she replied, “and I get recognized every day, everywhere I go. I have never heard a negative comment.”
Brown and Amos take strong exception to any suggestion that their appearances are a setback for African-Americans, and I heartily agree. If I wanted to find troubling images of black female performance, I’d turn first to hip-hop videos, which often feature young, barely clad women mindlessly gyrating while a crotch-fondling thug spits bad rhymes.
And I don’t get this “sass” thing either. Stubbornness, blunt expression and withering sarcasm are attributes of the collective American personality. Citizens from all levels of society dish out large quantities of sass, from the disgruntled burger-flipper at the corner drive-through to the leaders of the Western world. Take, for example, George W. Bush, who once challenged insurgents in Iraq to “bring it on.” Or Vice President Dick Cheney, who memorably brought vulgarity to the Senate floor.
That it becomes troublesome when black women “bring it on” is, well, troubling.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Essay 4940
What’s out in 2008 in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Coca-Cola is dumping Coke Blak. Sure, get rid of the Blaks first.
• Mickey D’s is dumping the McRib. Look for the BBQ Pork Breakfast Snack Wrap Burrito soon.
• Washington Mutual is closing 25 of its 146 local branches in Chicago, Illinois. Do banks hold going-out-of-business sales?
• Talbots will close 78 children’s and men’s clothing stores, as 4Q sales have fallen far below expectations. The move affects 800 employees. Hopefully, the employees didn’t bank at WaMu and enjoy lunching on McRibs and Coke Blak.
• Kraft might eliminate “several thousand jobs” as the food giant executes restructuring moves. Dumping jobs and reassigning employees supports Kraft’s “goal of creating a lean operating structure to provide funds for growth,” said a company spokesperson. “We have the chance to create a more effective and efficient structure.” Hopefully, the affected employees won’t get axed while wearing Talbots outfits, banking at WaMu and dining on McRibs and Coke Blak.
Essay 4939
From The New York Times…
---------------------------------
Firehouse Dispute Raises Racial Tension in St. Louis
By MALCOLM GAY
ST. LOUIS — An African-American firefighter’s complaint that he found a stuffed monkey hanging by its neck in his firehouse last month has become a stark reminder of this city’s troubled racial legacy.
Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently ruled out a hate crime in its inquiry into the complaint, the incident has pitted many of the city’s black firefighters, who say the toy was meant to evoke a lynching, against their white colleagues, who say the monkey was simply hung up to dry after being found at a fire scene.
That explanation has not satisfied Capt. Addington Stewart, chairman of the Firefighter’s Institute for Racial Equality, a fraternal organization that represents all but a few of the department’s more than 300 black employees. “What I know is what I saw,” Captain Stewart said, describing a strap wrapped around the neck of a stuffed monkey dangling from a coat hanger. “I take that to be unconscionable.”
The episode might have remained an internal squabble were it not for the recent demotion of the city’s first African-American fire chief, Sherman George, which came after Mr. George publicly refused demands by Mayor Francis G. Slay to promote a group of mainly white firefighters. Many of the city’s black leaders have lined up behind the former chief, who resigned soon after being demoted.
In demoting Mr. George, some of those leaders said, Mr. Slay brought St. Louis race relations to a new low. Some started a petition drive in support of a mayoral recall.
“Sherman George was an African-American in one of the highest positions in the mayor’s administration — he was an icon,” said Alderman Terry Kennedy, chairman of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. “To push him out like that? You’re not doing anything but causing trouble.”
The current controversy has its roots in a lawsuit filed in 2004 by a group of black firefighters who raised accusations of racial bias in the promotion examinations for firefighters.
[Read the full story here.]
Friday, January 04, 2008
Essay 4938
Rocking the vote in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Barack Obama was a big winner in Iowa. But so was Mike Huckabee. Guess it’s society’s way of balancing out signs of progress.
• A New Jersey legislative committee approved a measure that will lead to the state apologizing for slavery. Another vote takes place in the Assembly on Monday. Hey, if Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee can win in Iowa, anything’s possible.
• Toyota passed Ford Motor Company to become the No. 2 automaker in the U.S. No surprise at all in that contest.
• A northern state in India has a unique proposal for its unemployed youth: sterilizing wild monkeys that have been raiding farms. “It is a ridiculous idea and what is worse, it will do nothing to contain the problem and probably make it worse,” said an ecologist, referring to the monkeys versus the unemployment. “Can you imagine what having badly sterilized monkeys running around will do to the levels of aggression?” It will also make for really bizarre entries on résumés.
Essay 4937
With all the recent hoopla surrounding Native Americans as mascots, it seemed peculiar that Natural American Spirit cigarettes would use the puffing chief for a logo. The artsy packaging—with the bird and graphic patterns—pushes the cultural imagery pretty hard. It’s a wonder the manufacturer resisted naming the smokes Native American Spirit.
Despite being acquired by Reynolds American in 2002, the brand is produced by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which brags about actually donating portions of profit to Native American causes. Plus, the company appears to have strong commitments to eco-friendly endeavors. And they even boast honest and straightforward communication, insisting on responsible marketing. Or at least as responsible as one can be with a product designed to kill people.
It’s hard to criticize the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company’s sincerity. At the same time, it sure feels hypocritical when tobacco manufacturers hype philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Essay 4934
From AdAge.com…
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JC Penney Opens Review for $32 Million Hispanic Account
Splits With Dieste Harmel; Vidal and Conill to Participate
By Laurel Wentz
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- JC Penney Co. has started a review for its $32 million U.S. Hispanic account after splitting with Omnicom Group’s Dieste Harmel & Partners, Dallas, and the marketer expects to pick a new agency in March.
The retailer is putting together a list of three to five Hispanic shops for the pitch, said Olivia Vela. Ms. Vela was promoted to multicultural marketing director at JC Penney in October 2007 after her predecessor, Manny Fernandez, moved to a human resources post focusing on diversity at the company.
Saatchi connection
The review will include the Vidal Partnership, an independent Hispanic agency based in New York, and Conill, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Hispanic agency, she said. Saatchi, part of Publicis Groupe, is JC Penney’s general-market agency, and the retailer moved its account for Puerto Rico to Badillo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, San Juan, in December 2007.
Dieste issued a press release yesterday saying the agency had decided in December to resign the account. Ms. Vela said JC Penney had informed Dieste that the agency’s contract would not be renewed.
“The plan is to over the next six weeks have a few agencies come and do a presentation and we’ll award the business in March,” she said. “It’s not going to be a long, drawn out process. We’ve done our homework on who the up-and-coming agencies are.”
Account includes media
She said JC Penney is looking at the “overall agency and what it has to offer” and will not necessarily require retail experience. The account includes Hispanic media. No consultant is being used for the agency search.
Retail is the second-biggest ad category in the Hispanic market after automotive, accounting for almost $600 million in ad spending in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. JC Penney ranked No. 31 among the top Hispanic advertisers, spending $32.5 million in 2006, up 29% from the previous year. In 2007, the retailer spent $15.5 million during the first half of the year, up from $11.8 million for the same period the previous year. Sears Holdings Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores are also bigger spenders, at $83 million and $66 million, respectively, in 2006.
Essay 4933
Adweek once again permits self-proclaimed futurist huckster Marian Salzman to dazzle us with her amazing grasp of the obvious. Salzman and co-moron Ann Mack recently brainstormed “80 Things to Watch in 2008,” and Agency Spy actually posted the nonsense. The list included British Actress Keira Knightley, Mobile Technology Explosion, U.S. Presidential Election and Weak Dollar/Strong Euro. Wow, the gals must have Googled™ an entire afternoon for those gems. If there’s a legitimate trend to spot, it’s that Salzman is a world-class windbag whose predictions don’t ever seem to positively affect her agency’s work. Hence, MultiCultClassics is only posting the first two paragraphs of the Adweek drivel.
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Art & Commerce: That’s So Next Year
By Marian Salzman and Ann Mack
With more companies, brands, products, messages, media outlets, content purveyors and platforms out there than ever before, people are locked in constant decision-making mode. What’s worthy of my time? What exactly should I pay attention to? And what should I buy into?
As trendspotters, it’s our job to make sense of the chaos, to connect seemingly disconnected details and put them into context, all with an eye toward what it means for the future. Our job is also about recognizing patterns from the past that are emerging in new but eerily predictable ways.
[It’s really not worthy of your time, not exactly worth paying attention to, and you shouldn’t buy into it, but you can read the complete eerily predictable bullshit here.]
Essay 4931
To gain 10 pounds in 10 days, use QUICKMASS. Or, just hang out with Kirstie Alley and Rosie O’Donnell.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Essay 4930
From The Washington Post…
--------------------------------
For Cheyenne Woman, It Still Hurts to Hail the Home Team
By Courtland Milloy
These are the times that try Suzan Harjo’s Cheyenne soul.
Her lawsuit claiming that the name “Redskins” denigrates Native Americans appears to have stalled in the courts. Several tribal elders who were among her staunchest allies recently died. And everywhere she looks, the dreaded name and logo of Washington’s professional football team are in full bloom.
“It’s sad because I’m outside the fellowship of good feeling,” Harjo, a District resident and president of a Native American advocacy organization, told me recently. “I want to support the home team. But it’s very hard when they are carrying a racist name.”
Fans, it seems, couldn’t care less. They are on the “warpath,” all but drowning out Harjo’s concerns with cheers for a team that’s headed for the National Football Conference playoffs. Owner Dan Snyder says the name is an honorific, not a slur, and has vowed not to change it.
But what Snyder won’t do, Harjo is hoping the courts will.
In 1992, she and six other Native Americans petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel federal trademark protections of the Redskins name. Expert witnesses testified that the use of Indians as sports mascots adversely affected the self-esteem of Native American children. It was bad enough, they argued, that the Indian population had been targeted for genocide. To now caricature and stereotype the survivors only added insult to injury.
“Regardless of what non-Native people claim the word means, for us it refers to Indian scalps taken by European bounty hunters,” Harjo said. “It’s the effect of the word on those who see and hear it that matters, not the intention of those who use it.”
A three-judge panel of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed and ruled in Harjo’s favor. But a federal judge later reversed the decision, siding with claims by Pro-Football Inc. that there was no proof that Native Americans are offended by the name and saying that even if they were, they should have complained in 1967, when the federal trademark was granted.
Harjo appealed. And now, with the case in its 16th year, she must try hard to keep the faith. Another plaintiff in the case, Vine Deloria Jr., a Lakota and intellectual force behind the movement against Indian mascots, died last year. His 1969 book, “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto,” addressed Indian stereotypes and challenged white audiences to take a closer look at the underhanded ways the West was really won.
Vernon Bellecourt, a Lakota and president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, died in October. A fiery activist and eloquent spokesman for Indian rights, he didn’t mince words when referring to Washington’s home team: “Start playing football and stop playing Indian,” he’d say.
Harjo’s spirits were lifted in 2006, when six young Native Americans filed a lawsuit against the Redskins that was similar to hers. The plaintiffs were ages 18 to 24 -- which meant they could not have complained about the trademark in 1967 because they were not yet born.
“The younger generation understands that this is no minor issue,” Harjo said. “When people can be racist in public and target your kids with derogatory stereotypes, all responsible people must take a stand.”
Harjo founded the Morningstar Institute in 1987. Through her advocacy, she has helped Native Americans recover hundreds of thousands of acres of land and numerous sacred sites. She is also a poet and columnist for Indian Country Today and served as a founding trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian.
When she began speaking out against negative stereotypes of Native Americans in the 1970s, there were more than 3,000 Native American sports mascots. Today, there are fewer than 1,000.
The Redskins are likely to be the last to go. But all has not been lost for Harjo.
In the 1980s, the football team gave the District thousands of large decals bearing the Indian head logo; the city in turn decorated residential trash cans with them. After Harjo filed the lawsuit and others began speaking out against the name, the city removed the decals.
“If anything, we got the Indians off the trash cans,” Harjo said.
And there’s one other thing: The team has not been to the Super Bowl since the suit was filed. We’ll soon find out whether the curse lives on.
Essay 4929
The story below appeared at AdAge.com. Scroll through it quickly to read the brief MultiCultClassics commentary immediately following…
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When Targeting Multicultural Audiences, Be Relevant
OMD Study: Doing It Wrong Is Worse Than Not Doing It at All
By Megan McIlroy
NEW YORK -- Warning: When it comes to making ads relevant for multicultural audiences, doing it wrong is worse than not doing it all.
A new study from OMD Worldwide found that ethnic groups are turned off by ads that rely on stereotypes and caricatures rather than meaningful cultural cues.
“The respondents were saying, ‘We want to see ourselves represented in ads, but not in a stereotypical matter,’” said Pamela Marsh, group director-primary research and insights at the Omnicom media agency.
Consumer behavior
The OMD study, a telephone survey of 1,453 respondents 18 and older, sought to understand how ethnicity affects consumer behavior and advertising receptivity. Four different groups were represented: blacks, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and the general market (which was about 76% Caucasian in the study).
The ethnic groups agreed that messages should be culturally relevant, but they responded more positively to ads with multicultural cues, such as ethnic characters, phrases, expressions and values, than ads that were simply translations of general-market ads.
“Ad relevancy is more about communicating in kind than speaking in a language,” Ms. Marsh said.
Cultural relevance is also important for media placement, the study said, noting that ad models created on the basis of general population statistics, such as channel planning, are likely to fall short if they do not take relevant ethnic differences into account.
How to reach them
Though all segments in the survey gravitated toward the same top four media -- TV, radio, internet and mobile -- different ethnic groups spent different amounts of time with each of them. Blacks, for instance, spent the most time with TV; Hispanics spent more time with radio; and Asians used the internet at significantly higher rates.
The study also found that black consumers place a higher premium on word-of-mouth information before making buying decisions -- particularly when seeking feedback about a product. Asian-Americans also rely heavily on word-of-mouth because they are less receptive to ads than other segments of the population, according to the study.
Marketers have a significant opportunity to influence the purchases of blacks and Hispanics, the study said, because they are more open to advertising than other groups but feel as though most marketing messages are not relevant to them.
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It’s 2008, people. How many more times does some (usually) non-multicultural marketing company have to conduct a survey to gather consumer reactions to multicultural marketing? There is not a single new point in this Ad Age report. And it’s unlikely there’s a single new insight in the OMD Worldwide study. If a client paid for the research, they should absolutely demand a refund. If OMD financed the exercise, the internal accountants should stroll into Pamela Marsh’s cubicle and slap her upside the head.
Is it any wonder that Omnicom needed to assemble a special committee for dealing with diversity in the advertising industry?
Essay 4928
We are sorry to present this MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• New Jersey lawmakers will soon consider a measure to become the fifth state to apologize for slavery. “This is not too much to ask of the state of New Jersey,” said the bill’s sponsor. “All that is being requested … is to say three simple words: ‘We are sorry.’” No word if there will also be an apology for the New Jersey Nets.
• Retailers are extending the shopping season with Latino customers by promoting Three Kings Day—the day in Christian tradition when the three wise men visited the baby Jesus. Wal-Mart began heavily promoting the January 6 celebration last year, and it intends to expand the sales. Guess you’ll be able to pick up your gold, frankincense and myrrh at always low prices.
• Eddie Murphy married film producer Tracey Edmonds. No word if Murphy immediately left the wedding ceremony after learning he didn’t win an Oscar for his performance in Dreamgirls.
Essay 4927
As more states legalize civil unions, expect a veritable rainbow of targeted advertising for the special events.
Customize your own jewelry. Or your own jingle.
Accommodations are spectacular. Why, Hilton will even create a rainbow over the hotel.
Find the perfect—or purrfect—getaway. Atlantic City lets you paint the town red. And orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
Not sure why you’d settle for The Three Waiters. After all, the Village People are available for private affairs.
Customize your own jewelry. Or your own jingle.
Accommodations are spectacular. Why, Hilton will even create a rainbow over the hotel.
Find the perfect—or purrfect—getaway. Atlantic City lets you paint the town red. And orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
Not sure why you’d settle for The Three Waiters. After all, the Village People are available for private affairs.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Essay 4924
An all-new 2008 MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• New Hampshire gay and lesbian couples rang in the New Year with wedding bells, as a new state law legalizing the civil unions went into effect at midnight. “We’ve been together 20 years; we’ve been waiting for this moment for 20 years; finally the state will recognize us as we are,” remarked one woman about her partnership. The ceremonies expected to take place this year could help ignite the Village People’s career.
• Class pictures have a different meaning for schools in Calexico, California, where a photographer snaps Mexican kids illegally attending the public schools. School board officials hired the photographer two years ago. “The community asked us to do this, and we responded,” explained the school board president. “Once it starts to affect you personally, when your daughter gets bumped to another school, then our residents start complaining.” Wonder if they’ll publish a special yearbook.
• A 12-year study funded by the Department of Health and Human Services found ER doctors are less likely to give narcotics to Blacks and Latinos to relieve pain. The study suggested racial or ethnic bias contributed to the doctors’ decisions. Guess discrimination hurts more than one might realize.
Essay 4923
From The New York Times…
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Consumed | Edward F. Boyd b. 1914
Sales Leader
By ROB WALKER
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a certain unease could be detected about the American drift toward a culture of selling, marketing and consumerism. Even Fortune magazine opined in 1947 that “the American citizen lives in a state of siege from dawn till bedtime,” seeming to echo the sentiments raised in the best-selling novel “The Hucksters” and the celebrated play “Death of a Salesman.” One sales executive at the time, a man named Edward Boyd, later recalled leaving a performance of Arthur Miller’s famous play in tears. “I related to it,” he said. Even so, Boyd stuck with his job, possibly because his own role in the machinery of American selling was a bit more complex: He was a black man building an African-American sales force within the Pepsi-Cola Company when corporate America was anything but integrated.
Boyd was hired by Pepsi, which was based in New York, in 1947, when he was 33; he grew up in California and graduated from U.C.L.A. His story is a key element of the recent book “The Real Pepsi Challenge,” from which the above anecdote is taken and in which Stephanie Capparell argues that Boyd and those he hired helped break the color barrier in big business.
In the post-World War II economy, black Americans were still marginalized in two ways: in their access to better professional jobs and also as consumers. The latter point was not trivial, if you consider that lunch-counter sit-ins, lawsuits against hotels and other key tactics in the civil rights struggle were fundamentally about marketplace access. According to Capparell, “Unlike the mainstream media, the African-American press didn’t join the chorus of criticism of business.” Instead, black newspaper publishers informed the marketing trade about the untapped potential of black consumers. No doubt they wanted advertising dollars from the big companies that had previously ignored them, but the implicit message was that in a market-driven economy, consumer equality matters. Ebony went so far as to call the African-American embrace of the Cadillac, and G.M.’s supposed discomfort about that embrace, part of the “war for racial equality.” And indeed, part of what Boyd had to contend with was a perception that brands adopted by blacks might be rejected by whites.
Other companies were using black entertainers and athletes in ads, but Boyd wanted to move in a different direction, with a series of ads called “Leaders in Their Fields,” highlighting black professionals, including Ralph Bunche, the diplomat and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. While these were clearly Pepsi ads, schools and universities ordered up copies. For store promotions, Capparell writes, “he wanted to show a black family in the same kind of idealized setting as those used in mainstream ads.” And while the “Leaders” campaign was extended twice, increasingly the African-Americans in Pepsi’s ads tended to be happy, young, bourgeois consumers, and inspirational copy gave way to more familiar (and banal) sales pitches: “So Much More Fun! So Much More Zest!”
His job was not easy: Boyd was thrown out of hotels and had to confront his white boss about using an offensive racial epithet. But from today’s perspective, what seems remarkable isn’t the pervasiveness of ignorance and racism but the degree to which these things trumped even the profit motive. Pepsi seemed enlightened by the mere act of openly courting black consumers. Its dominant rival, the Coca-Cola Company, did not advertise in the black press at all until 1951 — and its ads did not depict black faces until the mid-1950s.
Boyd’s career at Pepsi ended in 1951. In the years after a management change at the company, he and much of the team he assembled left. After stints at an ad agency, the humanitarian organization CARE and in consulting, he retired in 1981 and started raising alpacas upstate. Meanwhile, the commercial-culture “state of siege” that Fortune bemoaned 60 years ago never let up, though today the world depicted in mainstream advertising has become a harmonious place, where buddies of all races happily pursue consumer dreams together. In his comments to Capparell, Boyd seemed proud of his contribution. Perhaps the world depicted in advertising, then and now, was a fantasy, but part of Boyd’s thinking seems to be that it’s a fantasy that black consumers wanted to be part of — and would respond to.
Essay 4922
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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The Rev. King’s message still leads us toward true justice
By JESSE JACKSON
A new year beckons. A fresh start. A new direction. After the calamities of the past months -- from Iraq to the mortgage crisis, from Katrina’s stain to our prisons’ shame -- we take hope from the new day. In 2008, we will elect a new president and a new Congress. Hope cometh in the morning.
This year also marks the 40th year after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King. King’s words will be heard in commemorations from Shanghai to Soweto.
Why is he so honored? He held no political office. He amassed no great financial wealth. He led neither military forces nor global corporations. In his life, he was arrested, reviled, denounced and investigated. He disrupted not simply the segregationists such as Bull Connor but also the liberals such as Kennedy and Johnson.
We remember King because he helped to lead a great movement. His armies were committed but unarmed, engaged but dedicated to nonviolence. King’s greatness came from his faith: “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” His faith in the Maker gave him immense hope for the better angels of God’s creation.
King understood that great leaders do not forge change, that oppressors, even the most enlightened of them, do not give the oppressed their freedom. Only people in motion can force real change. The oppressed must demand their freedom, struggle for it, sweat for it, sacrifice for it -- and force the oppressor to react.
King labored during the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson. Kennedy’s election in 1960 sparked great anticipation. But Kennedy’s grace and Johnson’s forceful brilliance were not enough to drive real change. Conservatives opposed change forcefully. Liberals wanted change, but in all deliberate speed, slowly, without disruption. King was a liberator, not a liberal; he understood the “fierce urgency of now.”
If you try to start a fire with green wood by lighting paper on top of it, you’ll get a small flame and some smoke, but the fire won’t catch. Fires grow hot only when built from the bottom up, with the match igniting the dry kindling beneath the dense logs. King understood that. Kennedy and Johnson might provide light at the top, but change would come only if the movement he helped lead could ignite the kindling at the bottom.
The civil rights movement pushed Kennedy and Johnson to go further and faster than they had ever imagined -- the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the end of legal apartheid. But King understood that equal opportunity was not enough: “Despite new laws, little has changed. … The Negro is still the poorest American -- walled in by color and poverty. The law pronounces him equal -- abstractly -- but his conditions of life are still far from equal.”
So he kept extending the argument. In his final months, he was organizing a poor people’s campaign, bringing people together across lines of race, region and religion, to march on Washington for basic economic rights. As part of this struggle, he went to Memphis to march with sanitation workers striking for a decent wage. King gave his life in the struggle to empower working people -- an agenda even more pressing in this day.
Now, we feel the same anticipation. Change is coming. But let us remember what King taught us. Change will come only if it is built from the bottom up, only when people of conscience join those in need and mobilize to drive that change. That is the great hope for the New Year. Happy New Year, everybody.
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