10836: The Audacity of Diversity.

From The New York Times…

Cabinet Diversity Poses a Question for Obama

By Michael D. Shear

It has been 15 years since a white man served as secretary of state or secretary of labor.

Yet no woman or minority member has ever led the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency or the Treasury Department. The White House chief of staff has also always been a white man.

As President Obama ponders how to shuffle his cabinet for a second term, he faces decisions that could continue these patterns — in which some cabinet jobs remain the domain of white men, while others endure as bastions of diversity — or that could break them.

Attention so far has focused on the possibility that Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, would become secretary of state, succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton followed Condoleezza Rice, Colin L. Powell and Madeleine K. Albright, with Warren Christopher, who stepped down in 1997, being the last white man to serve as America’s top diplomat.

President Bill Clinton’s nomination of Ms. Albright in 1997 broke the mold of what an American secretary of state should look like. And it established a pattern that succeeding presidents have been eager to follow.

Fred I. Greenstein, an emeritus professor of politics at Princeton University, offered the academic theory of “path dependence” as one possible explanation. The theory argues that earlier decisions by leaders often guide the decisions of their successors, he said.

“You get in a kind of rhythm of doing the same thing,” Mr. Greenstein said.

That theory might also help explain the tendency for presidents to nominate women as labor secretary. In the last 25 years, one man and six women have occupied that post. Hilda L. Solis, a former congresswoman from California, is the current labor secretary.

(The first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet was Frances Perkins, the labor secretary for 12 years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ms. Perkins was followed by 14 consecutive men; only one man, Robert B. Reich, has held the post since 1987.)

The theory of path dependence could also be why some cabinet jobs have continued to draw from a smaller demographic pool.

The most frequently mentioned candidate to follow Timothy F. Geithner as treasury secretary is Jacob J. Lew, the White House chief of staff. Were Mr. Lew to move across the street, the possibilities to succeed him include Denis R. McDonough, the deputy national security adviser, and Ronald A. Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But Mr. Obama also has options for the Treasury and Defense Departments, the C.I.A. and the chief of staff that would break with precedent.

He is reportedly considering Michèle A. Flournoy to take over at the Pentagon after serving as the under secretary for defense. Lael Brainard, the Treasury under secretary for international affairs, is considered a contender to become secretary, although that is considered more likely later on in Mr. Obama’s second term.

The president could tap Nancy-Ann Deparle, his deputy chief of staff, to be the chief of staff. And if Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. leaves this year, Mr. Obama might shift Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, to the Justice Department, which would make her the country’s second female attorney general after Janet Reno.

Also on the list of possible successors for Mr. Holder: Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, who would be the cabinet’s first Indian-American, and Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Patrick dined with Mr. Obama right after the election, though he has said that “under no circumstances” would he take an administration job.

“It’s certainly a concern,” Marcia Greenberger, the co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, said of the lack of diversity in some cabinet jobs. “It is important that minorities and women just become natural candidates for these positions.”

The rest of the cabinet has a more diverse history, though white men dominated for decades. Women and minority members have led the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy and Education. They have also served as trade representative and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Norman Y. Mineta, a former congressman from California, became the first Asian-American in the cabinet in 2000 when Mr. Clinton appointed him commerce secretary. Lauro F. Cavazos, a former education secretary, became the first Hispanic American cabinet member in 1988.

Mr. Obama might also make history by nominating the first openly gay cabinet member. John Berry, the director of the president’s Office of Personnel Management, is said to be a candidate for interior secretary when Ken Salazar departs. And Fred P. Hochberg, the chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank, could get the nod as commerce secretary.

If Mr. Obama does break the pattern with one of these positions, he could end up changing the way future presidents look at candidates to lead those agencies.

It was not that long ago that secretary of state seemed an unlikely symbol of workplace diversity.

10835: Mocking Black Body Image.

From The Root…

Tennis Player Mocks Serena’s Body?

By The Root Staff

Well, this was awkward. At a recent exhibition match in Sao Paulo, 22-year-old Caroline Wozniacki stuffed her tennis outfit with padding in what many are interpreting as an imitation of Serena Williams’ body, and “made many in the audience laugh as she swung her tennis racket while displaying her fake assets,” News One reports.

The display strikes us as inappropriate, to say the least—and even more troubling when one considers the ongoing negative comments and mockery that Williams has faced because of her shape for as long as she’s been on the court.

The Olympic gold medalist, however, apparently got in on the joke, tweeting, “Hummmmm do they make Brazilian bikinis for ummm well … Me??” and “In Brazil trying to buy a Brazilian bikini.”

Is laughing it off (and winning) the best approach to scrutiny of black bodies that shows no signs of letting up?

10834: Check out Beyoncé’s Can.

The New York Times reported on the latest deal between Beyoncé and Pepsi, including a limited edition can design.

10833: WTF Wendy Williams.

The New York Daily News reported Wendy Williams posed for PETA in the hopes of discouraging holiday shoppers from buying furs. Williams said, “We should all try to be comfortable in our own skin and let the animals keep theirs.” Um, if Williams is comfortable in her own skin, why is she always wearing wigs and tons of makeup? The PETA shot looks pretty Photoshopped too.

10832: Adweek’s Diversity Progress…?

Back in 2005, DiversityInc. criticized Adweek and Advertising Age for the publications’ “dearth of diverse imagery,” which MultiCultClassics attributed to the dearth of diversity within the subject matter—that is, the advertising industry—as well as the dearth of diversity of the trade journals’ staffs. Over the years, Ad Age has shown some progress in the area. In the latest issue of Adweek, Executive Editor James Cooper saluted his staff in a piece featuring the illustration above. You be the judge on Adweek’s progress.

10831: PepsiCo’s Global Lazy Launch.

Advertising Age reported on PepsiCo’s latest lazy product launch happening in China: Pepsi-Cola chicken-flavor Lay’s Potato Chips. Like Doritios Locos Tacos or Mtn Dew A.M., this semi-fresh concoction combines seemingly disparate products from the corporate portfolio. In China, however, preparing chicken with cola is a common delicacy. PepsiCo even recreated a classic Michael J. Fox Pepsi commercial to hype the new shit. Although Coca-Cola already connected with chicken in a more breakthrough fashion.

Chicken-and-Pepsi Chips?! Cola Brand and Lays Team Up for Snack Flavor in China

In Potato-Chip Form, Flavor Is Vaguely Similar to Barbecue With Sugary Aftertaste

By Angela Doland

PepsiCo is taking its global Power of One program to jointly promote beverages and snacks a step further in China, with the marriage of two Pepsi brands in a single product: Pepsi-Cola chicken-flavor Lay’s potato chips.

Cola chicken is a common recipe in China, with chicken wings tossed into a wok and caramelized in soy sauce, spices and cola. In potato-chip form, the flavor is vaguely similar to barbecue with a sugary aftertaste. If there’s any hint of Pepsi, it’s fleeting and lacks fizz.

Richard Lee, PepsiCo’s chief marketing officer in China, said the idea came from a brainstorming session involving teams from marketing and R&D, as well as Pepsi ad agency BBDO, Shanghai. Lay’s launches a new flavor every year, and this time the goal was fusion.

“We thought it would be really cool to have a cola combined with chicken. ... It’s a very popular dish in China,” said Mr. Lee, who in 2010 became the first person to be put in charge of marketing and portfolio management for both food and beverage brands in China. “Also it would be very cool to involve one of our most-iconic soft drinks,” he added.

The launch, in August, was much bigger than for any previous Lay’s flavor in China, which include such unusual flavors as lemon tea (subtle), cucumber (cloying) and hot-and-sour fish soup (fishy).

The TV ad campaign played a joke on viewers, starting out like a Pepsi ad, with a guy rushing out to buy cola for his girlfriend—not to drink, it turned out, but to use to cook chicken.

The product’s name is a sophisticated word play. String Pepsi’s and Lay’s Chinese brand names together, and you get a double meaning: “Anything can be happy” as well as “Pepsi can become Lay’s.”

Lay’s overall brand message in China is about enjoying the small things in life, a theme that resonates in a market where people can be dogged about earning more money and getting ahead.

“We want to celebrate a philosophy [that says] you can find happiness all around you,’” Mr. Lee said.

PepsiCo, like Coca-Cola Co., is making big investments in China. In Shanghai in November, it opened its largest R&D center outside North America, part of a 2010 plan to invest $2.5 billion over three years. Coca-Cola’s soft-drink brands outsell PepsiCo’s, according to Euromonitor International, but PepsiCo’s snack portfolio is an extra asset.

“Coke and Pepsi have both stalled out in terms of growth potential in China,” said Ben Cavender, associate principal at the China Market Research Group. “It’s important for them to be developing new products and driving into these growth categories. I think Pepsi is probably better-positioned with the packaged food that it has to really make some gains there.”

10830: Wendy On Wendy’s.

A reader at Parade magazine asked, “What is Wendy Thomas’ favorite thing to order at Wendy’s?” Ms. Thomas answered, “A single cheeseburger, baked potato, and a Diet Coke. … And of course a Frosty. I love to dip my fries in it; it’s really good!” Yeah, sure it is. Even picking conservative portion sizes, Dave’s daughter’s dining collects a whopping 1240 calories and 42g of fat. Nice.

10829: Make The Logo Dignified.

The Los Angeles Times reported on the uproar caused by the University of California’s new logo. As even the online comments for the story indicate, everyone wants to be a design critic—not unlike when graphic updates happened for brands including Pepsi, the Gap, JC Penney, Tropicana and more.

Online protest rages over ‘ugly,’ ‘undignified’ new UC logo

Some students and alumni have started an online petition to drop the University of California’s new and simpler logo.

“The old logo is elegant. The new one looks like a logo from a bad online university,” one person wrote on a Facebook page devoted to the issue.

“I want to keep the dignity of the UC seal,” another wrote.

The new logo has a solid “U” containing a “C” resting at the bottom, in various colors. Foes contend it “does not represent the stature and honor of the University of California.”

They want the 10-campus system to use the traditional circular medallion that shows an open book, the motto “Let There Be Light” and the 1868 date of UC’s founding. Or find a dignified alternative.

UC system spokeswoman Dianne Klein said critics wrongly assume that UC is eliminating the traditional symbol. In fact, that will remain on all diplomas and official correspondence such as presidential letters, among other uses.

But she said the old logo does not reproduce well in small size on Internet pages and that UC wanted something more visually contemporary and versatile, especially for online efforts to seek donations and recruit applicants.

“Like anything with design and change, people have opinions,” Klein said. She added that alumni, students and parents were consulted about the new design, which was created by an in-house design team at no extra cost to the university.

10828: Toy Deserts R Us…?

From The New York Times…

The Great Divide, Now in the Toy Aisle

By Ginia Bellafante

Earlier this year, at the 109th Annual American International Toy Fair, held at the Javits Convention Center as one of the culture’s most convincing cases for childlessness, a former investment banker named Jill Todd displayed “The Tuneables,” an interactive DVD series she had created through her company, the Music Intelligence Project. The daughter of two musicologists, Ms. Todd developed the project in conjunction with her parents as an instructional system in melody, rhythm and tone — the fundamentals of music leveraged as a means to enhance cognitive function. Nearby, but easily obscured by the acres of primary-color plastic, was a booth for a company called Fat Brain Toys, whose games and puzzles in logic and sequencing came with an impressive lineage, some of them designed by the celebrated inventor Ivan Moscovich, a Holocaust survivor.

Walking into one of the three branches of Toys “R” Us now in the Bronx, you would find nothing from either of these ventures. Just as we are unlikely to unearth dilled artisanal long beans from the farms of northern Vermont, we are unlikely to find these sorts of diversions — small-batch toys aimed at the parent for whom it is never too early to begin LSAT drills — in large retail chains. Instead, they are the provenance of independent toy stores that maintain a presence almost exclusively in the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, the receipt of a Fisher Price farm set on Christmas Day would have conferred nothing terribly distinctive about class, having come from a department store and having appeared just as probably under the tree of a white-shoe lawyer as it would have under the tree of a brick layer. But toys, like lettuces or chocolate, have long since become another manifestation of difference. (And this is even before we arrive at an absurdity like the $1,499.99 Etch-a-Sketch encased in Swarovski crystals, currently at F. A. O. Schwarz, something that would appear to have been created as an engagement offering for an 8-year-old Trump to give a 6 ½-year-old Kardashian.)

What finds its way off the shelves of the chains is not what disappears from stores like Boomerang in TriBeCa, or Mary Arnold, the 81-year-old toy store on the Upper East Side. At those stores, the best-selling product of recent years has been something called Magna-Tiles, geometrically shaped magnetic tiles that allow children to imaginatively build virtually anything but what, in my experience, often turns out looking like the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. Last Christmas, a flood near the factory where the tiles are made in Asia caused a shortage and a rise in price, with boxes of tiles, which usually retail for roughly $1 a tile, going for hundreds of dollars on eBay. By Dec. 12 last year, Ezra Ishayik, the owner of Mary Arnold, told me, he’d sold $20,000 worth of tiles and had run out.

Magna-Tiles are not sold at Toys “R” Us. Uninterested in sharing company with licensed products rendered in offensive colors, manufacturers like these resist the taint of the mass market, selling instead in museum gift shops and small, aesthetically palatable shops that draw from a narrow slice of our demographics. At the same time, as Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst at the investment bank Needham & Company explained it, the market for educational toys is never quite as big as we would like it to be. While a company like Toys “R” Us carries educational toys, over time its commitment to promoting them has eroded, he said.

In many parts of the city, though, beyond Manhattan and the various precincts of brownstone Brooklyn, something like Toys “R” Us is really all that exists. As I learned when I phoned recently, Castle Hill Toys and Games in the Bronx, for instance, doesn’t consider itself much of a toy store at all anymore, having transitioned into a focus on bikes and bike repairs when Toys “R” Us came to be common in the borough.

In the way that we have considered food deserts — those parts of the city in which stores seem to stock primarily the food groups Doritos and Pepsi — we might begin to think, in essence, about toy deserts and the implications of a commercial system in which the least-privileged children are choked off from the recreations most explicitly geared toward creativity and achievement.

It was precisely with this notion in mind that Dawn Harris-Martine — a former New York City schoolteacher who sent two daughters to Hunter College Elementary School, and one of them on to Wharton — expanded her Harlem bookstore six years ago to include toys geared in obvious ways toward intellectual development. Called Grandma’s Place, it originated as a literacy center, with Ms. Harris-Martine teaching both parents and children to read. What she realized, she said, was that many parents didn’t know that play served as a major component of early learning. “As a parent, I had never bought a toy in a five-and-dime,” she said.

The obvious counterpoint to these arguments is that there is no clear proof that toys intended to bolster cognitive abilities actually do so. At the very least, though, they signal to a child a parental investment in ambition and accomplishment, in active absorption over passive observation. It would take a very expansive view of the iCarly Truth or Dare Bear to believe it might do the same thing.

10827: Canada Dry.

Was this Canadian campaign for Mae by Damiva—a vaginal lubricant—inspired by the Summer’s Eve bullshit from The Richards Group?

From Ads of the World.

10826: The Hallmark Of Stupidity.

From The Huffington Post…

‘Bigger Boobies’ Hallmark Card For 13-Year-Olds Provokes Angry Protests On Twitter

The Huffington Post | By Meredith Bennett-Smith

An American author’s find of an unusual young adult birthday card sparked anger across Twitter and culminated in an apology from Hallmark UK on Friday.

The card, created by company Arnold Barton, reads “You’re 13 today! If you had a rich boyfriend he’d give you diamonds and rubies. Well, maybe next year you will—when you’ve bigger boobies!”

Maureen Johnson, an American novelist traveling through the United Kingdown posted a picture of the card on Twitter, with the outraged hashtag, #letsmessgirlsupearlywithcards. Johnson’s tweet was re-tweeted more than 800 times by Friday afternoon.

Outraged users demanded answers from Hallmark, which scrambled to communicate with Hallmark UK.

A few hours later, the company responded with an apology and an explanation.

A statement posted to Hallmark UK’s newsroom section of its website read:

This card was printed over 15 years ago by Arnold Barton before Hallmark UK acquired that brand. This card has not been reproduced since and we are surprised that a copy was still available for purchase in a retail store. We agree the card is not appropriate; we apologize on behalf of Arnold Barton and will do our best to track down any copies remaining in circulation.

This is not the first time Hallmark cards have been found offensive.

In 2010, members of the Los Angeles NAACP accused the company of marketing a graduation card the group claimed included a racist greeting vocalized using a micro-speaker. The card, which had a solar system theme, included the phrase, “And you black holes, you are so ominous. Watch your back.”

But members of the NAACP heard a demeaning reference, according to KABC.

“That was very demeaning to African American women. When it made reference to African American women as whores and at the end, it says ‘watch your back,’” Leon Jenkins of the Los Angeles NAACP told the station.

“You hear the ‘r’ in there. ‘Whores,’ not, ‘holes.’ The ‘r’ is in there,” Minnie Hatley said.

In February, Target pulled a Valentine’s Day card after customers complained the card’s message made light of stalking, Forbes reports.

The front reads simply: “Stalker is a harsh word,” while the inside says, “I prefer Valentine.” Kristy Welker, a Target spokeswoman, told Forbes the company had removed the card from its selection.

10825: McScary Halloween Ad.

Positioning McDonald’s food as Halloween candy is another reason to seriously restrict children’s advertising.

From Ads of the World.

10824: U.K. Adpeople Reflect—Literally.

Campaign presented a piece titled, “How was it for you?—Some of adland’s finest share their highs and lows of 2012 and hopes for 2013.” The group certainly reflected the industry’s exclusivity with what appears to be nine White men and one woman. Of course, no one even mentioned diversity and/or expressed any hopes for it in 2013.

10823: Ebony Evolves.

From The New York Times…

Ebony Looks to Its Past as It Moves Forward

By Matt Haber

DESIRÉE ROGERS, the C.E.O. of Johnson Publishing, which owns the magazines Ebony and Jet, and Fashion Fair, a makeup line aimed at women of color, can see many sights from her 21st-floor corner office across from Millennium Park. “This is a good view of Chicago,” Ms. Rogers told a recent visitor, gesturing at a panorama of Lake Michigan, Grant Park, Navy Pier, the Adler Planetarium and Soldier Field. But the sight that holds the most personal meaning for Ms. Rogers may be a portrait by Robin Harper just above her purple retro sofa, depicting the boxer Jack Johnson with a soft, wounded expression.

The portrait, Ms. Rogers said, reminded her of looking at pictures of Muhammad Ali in the pages of Ebony with her grandfather as a little girl growing up in New Orleans. “My grandfather really liked fighters,” she said. As they flipped through the magazines, she said, he’d tell her: “I hope you’re great. And I hope one day you’ll be in those pages.”

Ms. Rogers, 53, has been in the pages of Ebony many times since her first appearance in April 1989 in a photo from George H. W. Bush’s inauguration. Her name now sits atop the magazine’s masthead, just below that of her best friend, Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman of the company.

Ms. Johnson Rice’s father, the late John H. Johnson, founded Johnson Publishing in 1942 with a $500 loan he secured against his mother’s furniture when he was 24. Since then, Ebony (the name was the suggestion of Ms. Johnson Rice’s mother, Eunice Johnson) has gone on to become one of the most recognizable African-American publications in the world. The Harper image was part of the huge art collection of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (no relation to the boxer), and it graced the cover of the magazine in March 1978.

Ms. Rogers joined Johnson Publishing just over two years ago after a short, controversial run as White House social secretary for President Obama. Among the tasks she has set for herself is making Ebony a lifestyle brand.

“We started looking at the assets that we have and also to really think about the Johnsons and what they were creating,” Ms. Rogers said. “We have incredible loyalty and love from the community. We have great relationships with our clients, who have been rooting for us to turn around and modernize.”

In early November, Ebony.com introduced The Ebony Collection, an online shop that sells framed prints of 2,000 photos selected from the magazine’s million-image archive. Reprinted from the original negatives stored in a climate-controlled room, the images were selected by Ms. Johnson Rice, who spent months poring over her father’s original commissions. “We kept everything,” Ms. Johnson Rice said. “Every major event that’s happened to African-Americans since 1945, with Ebony as a repository for all those photographs and as a voice for all that happened.”

Paying respect to history is a theme repeatedly invoked in the Johnson Publishing offices, so much so that it was no surprise running into Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of the Harvard W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, in a conference room. Professor Gates was there with a film crew shooting a PBS series, “Many Rivers to Cross: The History of the African American People,” and was being shown images from the archives by Ms. Johnson Rice for an episode that will cover 1940 to 1980. “My family got Ebony,” he said later. “Every family subscribed to Ebony and Jet if they were black.

“They still have cultural resonance among all classes of African-Americans,” Professor Gates said. “Very few organs of journalism reach a wider swath of the African-American community than Ebony and Jet.”

In 2013, that community will once again welcome the Ebony Fashion Fair, which began bringing high fashion to 160 cities across the country in 1958, but has been on hiatus since Eunice Johnson’s death in 2010. (“It’s the No. 1 question I get as I travel the country,” Ms. Rogers said. ‘When is the show coming back, Desirée?’”)

Ms. Rogers and Ms. Johnson Rice are also working closely with Suzanne Lovell, an interior designer, on a line of Ebony-branded textiles, with concepts being developed for bags, Hermès-inspired bangles and other accessories based on the flamboyant wall and floor coverings commissioned for Johnson Publishing’s original headquarters. Eunice Johnson’s personal style will be honored in March when the Chicago History Museum exhibits 60 pieces of haute couture culled from her collection of 7,000.

The coming year is also the 40th anniversary of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, which has grown from a direct-mail promotion in Ebony into an internationally available line of 240 products. Clarissa Wilson, president of Fashion Fair, said that the search is under way for the face of an anniversary campaign.

Then there are the magazines themselves. Ebony has been redesigned: its original logo, a red banner with white lettering based on Life magazine’s, has been replaced by one that Amy DuBois Barnett, the editor in chief, described as “retro cool.” Jet, the 61-year-old digest, is also due for a redesign, and has recently begun getting attention for a stronger, more youthful voice (the magazine recently featured its first same-sex wedding announcement).

In addition to commissioning the new logo, Ms. Barnett, who took over as editor of Ebony two years ago, added a slogan to the magazine’s spine that could function as a cri de coeur for all of Johnson Publishing as it extends Ebony across various platforms: “It’s More Than a Magazine, It’s a Movement.”

“It’s not just another magazine, it’s something far greater,” Ms. Barnett said. “There are very few magazines that hold the iconic place within their community and with their readers that Ebony does.”

That may explain why some readers were taken aback by the appearance of NeNe Leakes, one of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” on the cover of the December 2012-January 2013 issue. Ms. Leakes, who also stars in the NBC sitcom “The New Normal,” was photographed in a bathtub full of diamonds holding a gold-rimmed Champagne flute, an image that struck some as the wrong one for the magazine, especially given that the issue also contained the Ebony Power 100 list of the most influential African-Americans, a conceit celebrated with a gala at Lincoln Center in New York.

“I think NeNe Leakes is fabulous and I very much respect what she’s been able to accomplish in her life,” Ms. Barnett said. “We didn’t shoot NeNe in a business suit sitting behind a desk with a briefcase. We shot her in a very tongue-in-cheek setting to glorify the thing that turned her into a pop culture icon.”

She added: “That speaks to our sense of humor. That speaks to the sense of irony we can also have. There’s no reason Ebony magazine should only feature staid and conservative content.”

It’s hard to imagine another general-interest magazine editor having to justify putting a reality star on her cover. But then, few other editors are running a magazine that once employed Martin Luther King Jr. as an advice columnist and won a Pulitzer Prize for a photograph of Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King. “As with any magazine, it’s the same kind of work, but there’s just another layer of historical responsibility,” Ms. Barnett said.

“We’ve been here so long,” said Ms. Johnson Rice in her own corner office, which has its own, equally impressive view of Lake Michigan. “The history and richness runs so deep within the community. We own this. It’s personal. It’s very personal.”

10822: Digital Versus Old White Guys.

Digiday editor Brian Morrissey wondered, “Do Brands Have an ‘Old White Guy’ Problem?” The question actually emerged via a taped interview featuring Hennessy Director of Digital Montana Triplett. At about 19:30 into the video discussion—which was part of the Digiday Brand Summit—Triplett quipped, “In our business, we work with a lot of old White guys, and they are used to…the trade…they like their POS and they want more trade dollars. And they don’t understand this digital thing, and they don’t really care about a like.” Not sure Triplett’s old White guys are directly related to the Old White Guys this blog has identified over the years. Rather, it appeared as if the Hennessy executive was fueling the flames of the stereotypical digital versus traditional battle. It should be interesting to see if there is any fallout or negative response to Triplett’s revelation. It’s one thing for the group’s members to refer to themselves as Old White Guys—but they tend to take offense when others tag them with the label. Hell, the Hennessy Director of Digital may be asked to meet with the Hennessy Director of HR. Or with Socialistic CEO Colleen DeCourcy.

10821: Begging For Trouble.

From The Inquisitr…

CB2 Pulls Purse That Mocks Homeless, Lucky Beggar Wallet Causes Outcry

Crate And Barrel’s CB2 has pulled a coin purse from its stock after complaints the “Lucky Beggar Wallet” mocked the plight of the poor and homeless.

CB2 is the less expensive, hipper and more urban-oriented version of the brand, much like an Old Navy to a Gap in price point. But the shop came under fire after its “Lucky Beggar Wallet” was deemed insensitive to the homeless, and the brand has apologized and removed the product.

The appearance of the “Lucky Beggar Wallet,” styled to look like a crushed, iconic coffee cup common both in New York coffee shops and among panhandlers in the city, caused outrage in the blogosphere and prompted and eventual apology from Crate And Barrel’s CB2.

Before the item disappeared from CB2′s website, a description for the “Lucky Beggar Wallet” also took a rather hiply-ironic view of the plight of the legion homeless residents of New York City, skimming over their suffering in a blurb that jokes about the cliched sight:

“Street Fare. Inspired by the iconic blue and white coffee cup often seen in the hands of New York City panhandlers, this quirky wallet begs to be seen.”

Laura Clawson of The Daily Kos opined on the “Lucky Beggar Wallet,” writing:

“The thing is, if this wasn’t marketed as a joke on homeless people, it would just be a wallet of a coffee cup … But that apparently just wasn’t cutesy and cutting edge enough, so some genius decided to ensure that the only person to carry the wallet would be, again, an [expletive.]”

Marta Calle, CB2’s President and Chief Merchant, apologized Tuesday for the offensive item, and said:

“We made a bad decision when we purchased this product … We apologize for the product and the insensitive language used in its description. We have pulled the product from our stores and our website. Please accept our apologies for this lapse in judgment.”

By Wednesday, the “Lucky Beggar Wallet” was no longer for sale — and advocates for the homeless say that a record 43,000 New Yorkers alone are currently residing in shelters, not counting the many still on the streets.

10820: Roachism...?

Does this campaign display a bug bias by comparing roaches to urbanites and single welfare moms?

From Ads of the World.

10820: Oh, Canada!

Threatening sexual predators with sexual violence in a semi-comedic style seems stupid.

From Ads of the World.

10819: U.K. = K.K.K.…?

Campaign reported the latest IPA Agency Census figures showed U.K. advertising agencies are hiring more than ever, bringing staffing numbers to the highest level in over 50 years. Gee, considering the recent Jonathan Akwue essay spotlighting the industry’s exclusivity—as well as the 2011 IPA Survey showing 90 percent of workers at member agencies are White—the dearth of diversity must be exploding at a record-breaking clip. Thank God, Queen and Country that equality champion Sir John Hegarty is there to promote change. Then again, he might not be there at all.

Why are adland staff levels booming?

The IPA has found that, despite the economic climate, agency numbers have spiked.

By John Tylee

If the latest IPA Agency Census figures are a true guide to the advertising industry’s future fortunes, it is a wonder that a few choruses of Happy Days Are Here Again are not ringing out from boardrooms across the country.

In a finding that seems to defy all logic, the census suggests that the figure of 20,491 people working in almost 300 IPA member agencies as of 1 September 2012 is not only above pre-recession levels but the highest in more than half a century.

Taken at face value, the finding runs counter to all the anecdotal evidence suggesting agency bosses are not letting staffing costs run ahead of revenue.

And it was little more than a month ago that the IPA’s Bellwether Report revealed that marketing spend has been revised downwards for a second successive quarter amid declining client confidence.

Perhaps the source of the apparent disconnect is to be found in adland’s age profile. The IPA survey reports that 45.1 per cent of those working in agencies are 30 or under and that the average age of a media agency staffer is 31. Just 5.5 per cent of agency employees are over 50.

Some suggest this may reflect the growing influence of digital, a discipline dominated by twentysomethings. “Digital agencies need a lot of very young people,” Mary Budd, a former IPA employment affairs advisor, says. “Not many of them are highly paid.”

Another theory is that agencies are taking on high numbers of young people because they are relatively low-maintenance. A typical graduate trainee at a top-20 agency is paid around £20,000 a year, rising to between £25,000 and £37,000 after training.

A number of other factors may also be fuelling numbers. They include high numbers of agency start-ups and new agency categories.

Roger Ingham is the IPA’s research consultant who collated the figures. He suggests much may be down to agency groups ending their recruitment freezes, resulting in more graduate trainees being hired, mainstream agencies staffing up for digital and more jobs emerging as media agencies start hiring creatives.

At the same time, numbers are being boosted by more part-time roles as agencies do more to accommodate working mothers and agency freelancers seek greater financial security by opting for full-time roles.

However, the overriding reason for the rise may be that the industry has to adapt to match the demands being made on it. Agency chiefs are said to be stripping out layers of middle management because clients are refusing to pay for it.

“Agencies don’t invest in middle-level people as they once did,” Belinda Kent-Lemon, an outplacement and talent management specialist who works with many of the leading UK agencies, observes. “It’s either at the top or bottom.”

Nigel Jones, the Publicis Groupe UK chief executive, says: “Agencies used to be structured like pyramids. Now they are more like hourglasses. Clients don’t like deep layers of middle management, so that’s where the cuts are being made.”

But Nick Grime, a partner at the headhunter LIZH, fears this is short-term expediency that may lead to long-term problems if there is no middle management through which succession management can evolve.

“We saw what happened as a result of the last recession when few planners were trained,” he says.

“Now it’s creatives and account handlers who could get lost in the middle.”

10818: Expert Sexpert.

This campaign for Hivejobs is okay…

…until it depicts potential sexual harassment in the workplace.

From Ads of the World.

10817: Honda Revving Review.

Advertising Age reported Honda is putting its $700 million U.S. account in review after 26 years with RPA. However, multicultural assignments—handled by Muse Communications and Orci—will not be affected. So there will be no Corporate Cultural Collusion for now. But wait and see if that changes should a new agency network emerge victorious. It also begs the question, if RPA is profiting with $700 million of business, what are Muse and Orci getting paid? It would be astonishing if both agencies combined collected $70 million from Honda. Hell, $7 million would be hard to imagine. One thing is certain: the amount is probably closer to $7.00 than $700 million.

Honda Throws $700 Million Creative, Media Account Into Review

Agency of 26 Years RPA to Defend Business as Opportunity Knocks for Rivals

By Alexandra Bruell

A huge auto-account shakeup is under way as American Honda Motor Co. throws its $700 million U.S. creative and media accounts into review for both its Honda and Acura brands, Ad Age has learned.

For 26 years, the automaker has worked with RPA on creative and U.S. media buying and planning, and the agency will participate in the review process. Honda told Ad Age the review is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013 and noted that it does not include multicultural assignments, which are handled by Muse Communications and Orci. Roth & Associates is supporting the reviews.

“Both the Honda and Acura brands are rolling out incredibly strong new products. In the face of a changing media landscape and a hyper-competitive marketplace, our challenge is to create dynamic marketing campaigns that connect and engage consumers with our products and our brands,” said Michael Accavitti, VP-national marketing operations, in a statement. “The review we have initiated will lead to a strong, long-term strategic plan for our brands.”

When he joined Honda last year, Mr. Accavitti told Automotive News there was no need to put RPA’s business up for review, saying an agency review would be, “completely unproductive and unnecessary.” He said, “RPA is an extension of the Honda family.”

As recently as August, he praised RPA’s Super Bowl work to Automotive News and said, “I am not a fan of airing differences with agencies in the press. If I have an issue with ad agency, I will call them.”

He added: “RPA has very capable individuals. We just needed to have a common understanding of what the objectives were, and they’ve been able to come up with good creative. Continuous improvement is the name of the game.”

RPA, whose roster is dominated by Honda—its website lists only a few other clients, including Intuit, La-Z-Boy and Farmer’s Insurance—referred calls for comment to the client.

Though potentially crushing news for RPA, the Honda review could mean opportunity knocking for media and creative shops to pitch the biggest auto review since GM reviewed its multibillion-dollar business last year.

According to the Ad Age DataCenter, the Honda brand spent $513.5 million on U.S. measured media in 2011, a 2.9% increase from 2010, while Acura spent $193 million, a 1.9% increase from 2010. Total U.S. marketing spending was $1.14 billion. Globally, the company reported ad expenses of $2.46 billion in the year ended March 2011. It was an improvement compared with the $2.12 billion it spent in 2010, but still less than the $3.01 billion it spent in 2009.

RPA is closely associated with the account, which it received in 1986 from Needham Harper after the “Big Bang” merger with Omnicom’s DDB (Volkswagen’s agency at the time) as part of a rollup with BBDO (then an agency for Chrysler).

Honda’s review comes on the heels of the automakers’ best ever November in terms of U.S. sales, according to Auto News.

American Honda sales this year are up 24% through November, although those numbers are skewed due to last year’s tsunami in Japan sharply crimping Honda’s inventories. The automaker just posted the best November U.S. sales in its history. The Honda and Acura brands should combine to finish the year selling around 1.4 million units in the U.S.

But Honda has grander volume aspirations. Honda Motor CEO Takanobu Ito wants Honda’s North American sales to increase to 2 million in the near term from 1.7 million units presently. Former American Honda sales boss Dick Colliver had a similar goal for the U.S. sales arm in the early 2000s, and never came close—sales peaked at 1.55 million units in 2007 before the recession took down the industry.

Contributing: Mark Rechtin, Automotive News,

10816: Signs That You Suck.

These ADDY ads wouldn’t nab an ADDY.

From Ads of the World.

10815: Mozambique Mystique.

Not too sure about this campaign for Mozambique Fashion Week from DDB. The exotic/primitive elements seem a bit heavy-handed given the contemporary spirit of the actual event. Maybe an ARISE vibe would have been more appropriate? Will defer to the African culture experts visiting this blog.

From Ads of the World.

10814: Big Tobacco, Big Liars.

From The Associated Press…

Tobacco Companies Are Told to Correct Lies About Smoking

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they had lied about the dangers of smoking and that disclose smoking’s health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 people a day.

The judge, Gladys Kessler of United States District Court for the District of Columbia, previously said she wanted the industry to pay for corrective statements in various types of advertisements. But Tuesday’s ruling is the first time she laid out what the statements will say.

Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court has concluded that the defendant tobacco companies “deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking.” The corrective statements are part of a case the government brought in 1999.

Judge Kessler ruled in that case in 2006 that the nation’s largest cigarette makers had concealed the dangers of smoking for decades, and said she wanted the industry to pay for “corrective statements” in various types of ads.

The Justice Department proposed corrective statements, which Judge Kessler used as the basis for some of the ones she ordered Tuesday.

Tobacco companies had urged Judge Kessler to reject the government’s proposed industry-financed corrective statements; the companies called them “forced public confessions.” Judge Kessler wrote that all of the corrective statements were based on specific findings of fact made by the court.

“This court made a number of explicit findings that the tobacco companies perpetuated fraud and deceived the public regarding the addictiveness of cigarettes and nicotine,” she said.

10813: Miami Spice.

From Advertising Age…

City Spotlight: Miami, Adland’s Gateway to Latin America

Navigating a City Where Multiculturalism Is a Way of Life in Business and Beyond

By Laurel Wentz

Miami is a city very close to the United States, quips Luis Miguel Messianu, president and chief creative officer of Omnicom Group’s Alma, one of the many U.S. Hispanic ad agencies that dominate Miami’s ad scene.

Its agencies are run by Cuban-Americans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, major marketers often base their Latin America headquarters here, and it’s a production hub for Spanish-language media.

In Miami, people float easily between English and rapid-fire Spanish, and, increasingly, Portuguese. Visitors from Latin America fill the malls and restaurants and snap up luxury condos in a city always heavily dependent on the real estate market.

“For me, Miami is the northernmost city in Latin America,” said Cynthia McFarlane, who is both president of Saatchi & Saatchi’s Latin America network and CEO of the agency’s U.S. Hispanic shop Conill. “It’s like living in Latin America, but with security and infrastructure.”

Miami is the fourth-largest Hispanic market in the U.S.—after Los Angeles, New York and Houston—with 2,118,200 people of Hispanic origin. Although they represent only 4.1% of the total U.S. Hispanic population, they account for 48.4% of Miami’s population, according to Ad Age’s Hispanic Fact Pack.

AGENCIES

Ten of the 50 biggest U.S. Hispanic agencies are in Miami. Coral Gables was the Madison Avenue of Miami, and is still home to Hispanic shops including Accentmarketing and Zubi, which co-owns a new six-floor building in the Gables and is seeking tenants, preferably in creative services, for the lower five floors. Alma, Creative on Demand, Marca Hispanic and Miami’s best-known agency, CP&B, which still has about 35% of its staffers in Miami, are all in adjacent Coconut Grove.

The ever-trendier midtown Design District is home to Concept Cafe and La Comunidad, as well as Nobox Marketing, which chose Miami as the base for its growing international social-marketing-focused agency.

Some U.S. networks, such as Interpublic Group of Cos.’ McCann and WPP’s Ogilvy, have mainly service offices in Miami for their Latin American clients. Others, like BBDO, have no Miami presence. WPP Group combines Y&R and its U.S. Hispanic agency, Bravo, in a single Miami agency, located near Saatchi/Conill in the downtown Brickell area on tiny Brickell Key island. That office, where most staffers work for both Y&R and Bravo, has grown from 26 people in 2006 to 130.

MARKETERS

None of Ad Age’s 100 Leading National Advertisers are based in Florida since Burger King, ranked No. 97 last year, dropped off the list this year, although the world’s two biggest cruise line operators, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corp., are based in Miami.

But Miami is a haven for Latin American headquarters for major marketers, providing easy access to both corporate headquarters elsewhere in the U.S. and destinations all over Latin America. Mondelez (formerly Kraft), FedEx, Visa, MasterCard, Sony and others have regional HQs here, many in the Blue Lagoon area near the airport.

There are also regional marketers such as Publix, a Florida-based supermarket chain that has most of its stores in the state, including half a dozen Hispanic-designated Publix Sabor grocers in the Miami area.

MEDIA

USA Network’s “Burn Notice” is filmed in Miami. Spanish-language media giant Univision has a big presence, and about 600 Telemundo employees—one-third of the staff at the Comcast-owned Spanish-language network—are scattered around Miami, including President Emilio Romano. In the past year, Telemundo’s Miami-based TV production has grown by about 50%.

Terra, a global digital-media company, has its U.S. corporate headquarters in Miami. And McClatchy Co.’s Miami Herald is based here, along with its Spanish-language daily, El Nuevo Herald, which is almost twice as big as the No. 2 Hispanic newspaper, Chicago-based Hoy.

CHALLENGES

In the past decade, Miami has been buffeted by the dot-com bust, the real-estate industry collapse, and multiple storms. But this is a city that bounces back, and the once-provincial town now offers an international, multilingual, technology-savvy workforce.

And while it’s outside the major ad and entertainmnet hubs of New York and Los Angeles, it’s not exactly hard to recruit to an oceanfront city that’s warmer, sunnier and more affordable than many chillier metropolises, enjoying what La Comunidad founder Jose Molla calls “a great balance of work and play. It takes me 10 minutes to get from a meeting to paddle-boarding in the bay with dolphins,” he said.

OPPORTUNITIES

The well-regarded Miami Ad School is expanding the local talent pool, and creatives relish the growing local arts scene, fed by the sprawling annual Art Basel Miami Beach art show in early December.

It’s not Silicon Valley, but the city fosters a startup mentality, as an entrepreneurial mindset meets investors and venture capitalists based in Miami or Latin America.

And as the tipping point approaches when non-Hispanic whites will be the minority in many urban areas, places such as Miami and Los Angeles are already there and figuring out the new Latin-influenced America and its consumers.

“The new general market is multicultural and the new multicultural is the general market,” said Eric Hoyt, Bravo Group’s president-COO.

10812: Hacking Headline.

Adweek published a story on the latest GNAA effort titled, “Four Brands Hurt By Racist Tumblr Hack.” Um, as opposed to the countless brands hurt by culturally clueless White advertising agency hacks?

10811: Heineken Heaves Hispanics.

Advertising Age reported Heineken is shifting its Latino creative advertising duties from The Vidal Partnership to Wieden + Kennedy. To clarify, TVP is a Latino agency and W+K is a White agency. Now, it’s not unprecedented for the minorities to lose their crumbs to the White guys—in fact, it’s becoming a common crime. Culprits like General Motors and Burger King immediately come to mind. There are also the White shops that prop up Latino wings to commandeer the overall marketing budget. Think of The Richards Group and its minority unit, Richards/Lerma, who teamed up to create racist talking vaginas for Summer’s Eve. Incidentally, TVP lost its Home Depot business to The Richards Group and Richards/Lerma in 2010. It seems as if for every Walmart promising to increase its multicultural marketing, there are a dozen brands engaging in Shifty Segregation® or complete abandonment of their minority partners. Heineken VP-marketing Colin Westcott-Pitt provided the following excuse for his company’s move:

“There’s a shift in what consumers are interested in what they believe in and value in life. It trumps where they happen to be from or what their ethnic group is. [Wieden & Kennedy] displayed that they can effectively understand the target consumer for Heineken—demographic elements and behavioral and psychographic elements as well. … We have a great relationship with them from a global and local perspective. To be able to consolidate all creative needs into one agency at that level of quality was very important to us.”

Of course, Westcott-Pitt did not elaborate on the mythical shift, although the statement bears similarities to the cross-cultural mumbo jumbo spouted by executive liars including Mark LaNeve, Mike Kappitt and Susan Docherty. Oh, and ADCOLOR® Award Winner Dan Wieden went from declaring, “Now that’s fucked up” to fucking the Latino agency. It’s just a typical—and stereotypical—day in the advertising industry.

Heineken Agency Shift to Affect PR, Hispanic and Creative Roster

Heineken, Amstel PR Moves to Edelman While Hispanic Is Consolidated at Wieden & Kennedy

By Alexandra Bruell, EJ Schultz

Heineken USA has shifted brand PR duties for its Heineken and Amstel brands to Edelman from Publicis Groupe’s MSLGroup, while consolidating Hispanic advertising with Wieden & Kennedy, which already handles general-market creative duties for the brand.

The importer has also picked Zambezi as the creative agency for Strongbow, a hard-cider brand from the U.K. for which it will assume U.S. distribution rights beginning in January. Strongbow, one of the largest cider brands in the U.S., is owned by Heineken USA’s global parent company, Heineken NV, but had been distributed in the states by Vermont Cider Co.

The move follows Edelman’s win over the summer of Dos Equis and corporate PR. Now, in addition to the new Heineken and Amstel brand accounts, Edelman will also assume Hispanic PR duties for the Heineken brand. The marketer cited Edelman’s creativity on the Dos Equis account, on which it has worked for six months.

We had a fairly complex agency structure,” said Colin Westcott-Pitt, VP-marketing for Heineken. “For us, it’s really about forming deeper, stronger relationships with a number of partners.”

An MSLGroup spokesman said, “MSL New York is very proud of our work across the six-year partnership on Heineken, Heineken Light and Amstel Light. We wish the Heineken portfolio of brands continued success as they move forward in the marketplace.”

This move comes on the heels of the resignation of former MSLGroup North American President Jim Tsokanos. Renee Wilson succeeded Mr. Tsokanos in September.

Hispanic creative and PR duties for brand Heineken had been handled by Vidal Partnership. The importer is moving the work—above-the-line Hispanic, including Spanish language and Hispanic creative—from a niche agency to a more general market agency such as Wieden & Kennedy to account for a shift from demographic targeting to psychographic targeting, according to Mr. Westcott-Pitt.

“There’s a shift in what consumers are interested in what they believe in and value in life. It trumps where they happen to be from or what their ethnic group is,” he said. “[Wieden & Kennedy] displayed that they can effectively understand the target consumer for Heineken—demographic elements and behavioral and psychographic elements as well.”

“We have a great relationship with them from a global and local perspective,” Mr. Westcott-Pitt added. “To be able to consolidate all creative needs into one agency at that level of quality was very important to us.”

The Strongbow assignment is a significant win for Zambezi, a small shop based in Venice Beach, Calif. Cider is one of the fastest-growing segments in the alcohol category. Heineken USA is expected to pour significant resources behind Strongbow, naming it one of its top three priorities for 2013, behind its Heineken and Dos Equis brands. The importer said it plans to differentiate Strongbow from other ciders on the market.

“Zambezi’s responsibilities will include strategic and creative development to support further brand growth in the U.S.,” said Matt Kahn, VP-marketing for Heineken USA portfolio brands.

Heineken USA spent $126 million on measured media in 2011 across its brands, which include Heineken and Heineken Light, Dos Equis, Amstel, Tecate and Newcastle, according to Kantar Media.

10810: Translating The Rebranding.

From The New York Times…

A Spate of Rebranding for Spanish-Language TV

By Tanzina Vega

It’s a race to be the best of the second best. On Monday, Univision, the dominant Spanish-language network in the United States, will announce a new name and look for its second-largest network, TeleFutura. The move is a direct shot at Telemundo, a rival for second place among domestic Spanish-speaking viewers.

The new name for the network will be UniMás. The network will offer new content and a consumer marketing campaign aimed at a younger, male Latino demographic. The rebranding of TeleFutura is also the latest effort from Univision to connect all of its properties under the Univision brand. The moves will be announced at an industry event in New York City on Monday, and the revamped network will make its debut on Jan. 7.

“We have been focused on making TeleFutura the undisputed No. 2 Spanish-language network in the U.S. behind Univision,” César Conde, the president of Univision Networks, said in an interview. “This new brand positioning is going to really identify and connect UniMás with the main mother ship brand of Univision.”

The rebranding of TeleFutura is just one of many Spanish-language television changes this year.

Many of the efforts may appear to be geared toward consumers, but they are also an attempt by the networks to attract dollars from advertisers wanting to cater to the growing Hispanic marketplace.

“Media companies are being forced to change because audience behavior is changing pretty radically,” said Karl Heiselman, the chief executive at Wolff Olins, the advertising agency that worked with Univision on a redesigh of its tulip logo, unveiled in October. “The Hispanic market is not the old stereotype of the past at all. It’s incredibly young and tech savvy.”

The Univision parent company presented a refreshed three-dimensional version of the green, blue, red and purple tulip logo, along with a new tag line “The Hispanic Heartbeat of America.”

“There was a huge opportunity for Univision to tell a more relevant contemporary story, not only to their audience but to a new audience and to their advertisers,” said Jordan Crane, a creative director at Wolff Olins. “When it was first done, the world was more flat. Now we have so many different platforms that this identity has to live on.”

In November, Univision announced a new logo for its Galavisión unit to celebrate that network’s 33rd anniversary. The new logo included a line underneath clearly identifying Galavisión as “A Univision Network” and connecting it further to the parent company. The new logo was designed by PMcD Design and featured an orange “G” and the tagline in gray.

At Advertising Week this fall, Telemundo announced a major rebranding effort of its own, including a new fire-red “T” logo that replaced its 11-year old blue “T” logo. The network, owned by NBCUniversal, will start the campaign this month with marketing initiatives including commercials featuring network personalities. The ads will run on networks like A&E, Bravo, CNBC, Lifetime and MTV. The network’s morning show, “Un Nuevo Dia,” will be live from Times Square on Dec. 10.

“It is the year of the brands in the Hispanic space,” said Jacqueline Hernández, the chief operating officer for Telemundo. “When you’re doing a brand refresh, your goal is to keep, maintain and attract.”

The new campaign, created by the DixonBaxi Creative Agency, features bold hues of yellow, purple, blue and red and centers on the Spanish word “te,” the informal pronoun for “you,” with phrases like “Te sorprende” and “Te informa” (It surprises you. It informs you).

But despite all of UniVision’s branding efforts, content is still king. And while Univision attracts a significant portion of domestic Spanish-language television viewers, TeleFutura will have some catching up to do if it expects to compete with Telemundo. According to data from Nielsen, from Sept. 24 through Nov. 25, Univision averaged 3.7 million viewers in prime time, Telemundo had 1.2 million viewers and TeleFutura had 710,000.

Univision hopes to counter that momentum by striking content partnerships that hit close to Telemundo’s turf, including a multiyear agreement with the Colombian production company Caracol Televisión, which at the end of this year will cease to offer Telemundo first right of refusal on content.

Univision will also benefit from a new agreement with RTI Colombia, which distributes content through the Univision partner Televisa. Telemundo owns a 40 percent share in RTI, but new shows including “Quien Eres Tú” (Who are you?), from RTI, and “Made in Cartagena,” from Caracol, will make their debut on UniMás. A third dramatic series, a boxing-themed show called “Cloroformo” from Televisa, is also part of the new production slate.

While the network is setting its sights on edgier, alternative content, many of the shows will still feature the essential ingredient in many Spanish-language series: romance.

10809: Alleged Award-Winning Hypocrisy.

Agency Spy posted a Blind Item about an HR director who allegedly accidentally sent an agency-wide email including an attachment listing each staffer’s salary. Tipsters claimed the figures showed female workers being paid significantly less than male counterparts, as well as a bunch of inconsistent pay standards. Now, it’s no big secret that incomes can vary widely at shops—even for equal positions—as a variety of subjective criteria factor into employment agreements. Then again, a clear pattern of discriminatory pay levels could inspire legitimate legal actions. To make matters worse, the post comments identified the agency as JWT Atlanta, sponsor and coordinator of the Bill Sharp Award for diversity in the industry. So if it’s true that the shop has a biased payroll, the place deserves an award for hypocrisy—but don’t expect them to display it in the company trophy case.

10808: More Political Conservatives In Adland.

Advertising Age published a perspective from Strategic Media Consultant and Glass House Strategy Principal Vinny Minchillo, who helped create advertising for the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan presidential campaign. Add the recent Adweek interview with Jim Ferguson and it looks as if Carl Warner is dead wrong to believe there’s a dearth of political conservatives in the advertising industry. Minchillo boasted that he reinvented political advertising for the Romney-Ryan run. Funny, it came off like typical Republican bullshit. Regardless, as even Minchillo acknowledged, his candidate’s loss makes it all sorta moot. Although perhaps he proved that strong advertising will only make a lousy product fail faster.

10807: Seeking Binders Of Women.

From The Chicago Tribune…

A woman’s place is in the House

Where are those binders full of women when you need them? The Republican Party could sure use a few.

This week, Republicans in the U.S. House approved a slate of 19 committee chairmen chosen by a GOP steering committee. White males, every one.

They’re all fine statesmen, we’re sure. All eminently qualified. But come on. We thought one lesson of the 2012 election was that Republicans could stand to work a little harder at that whole diversity thing.

The House power lineup is especially glaring because the number of female members will be at all-time highs in both chambers of the 113th Congress: 81 women in the House, 20 in the Senate.

Over in the Senate, the sisterhood has been feeling downright giddy about those numbers.

Two weeks ago, during a new-member orientation, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tweeted about “our first-ever in U.S. history traffic jam in women senators’ restroom. #somerecordsmustbebroken.” She later explained that there were five senators in there, and only two stalls.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., tweeted about a “power meeting” with newly elected Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer in the same setting. “Gonna need a bigger bathroom,” McCaskill quipped.

The problem for Republicans in both chambers is that most of the women are Democrats. Roughly 90 percent of the House Republican caucus is white male. Most of the GOP women lack seniority, a big factor in committee leadership calculus. The 113th House actually will have fewer Republican women than the 112th.

House Speaker John Boehner is being lobbied hard to appoint women to chair two remaining committees: the Ethics Committee and the Committee on House Administration. Those are lesser assignments, not subject to a steering committee vote, and there currently are no GOP women on either committee.

Democrats don’t seem to have so much trouble finding qualified women: Recall that when they held the House, a woman was speaker. At least five Democratic women are expected to be named ranking committee members in the House; those are the members who, if their party was in power, would likely be the chairs. Women are expected to chair as many as seven committees in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

That happened in part because Democrats made it their business to recruit strong female candidates. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says women were central to the party’s strategy to hold on to its majority in that chamber.

Note to Republicans: It’s on you to diversify your ranks. A little less emphasis on seniority — can you say “good old boy”? — could help get things moving. But it’s hard to find women for your leadership team when there are so few of them in Congress to begin with.

Ever wonder why Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” remark in the second presidential debate rubbed so many women the wrong way?

His point was that as governor of Massachusetts, he had gone the extra mile to find qualified women to serve in his Cabinet after noting that all the candidates were men. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women,” he said.

The problem is that after decades in business, Romney didn’t already have his own list of capable female candidates. Neither does Boehner, apparently. He needs to get cracking on that.

Fun fact: One of Boehner’s first actions as speaker was to order a new women’s bathroom built steps from the House floor. Before that, female representatives had to exit the chamber and hike through Statuary Hall to get to the restroom — a 10-minute round trip — while men barely had to leave their seats. “Love the new ladies room off the floor of the House,” tweeted Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md. “Three cheers to @SpeakerBoehner.”

Parliamentarian John Sullivan, whose office was moved to make space for the new restroom, didn’t object. “I know one day the House will be half women,” he told a Politico reporter. If the Republicans know what’s good for them, they’ll get some more estrogen on their side of the aisle.