11148: Sergio Garcia’s Fuzzy Remark.

From The New York Daily News…

Sergio Garcia makes fried chicken joke about Tiger Woods, quickly apologizes

Garcia steps over the line and cracks racially charged joke about the world’s greatest golfer referencing fried chicken.

By Hank Gola / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

It was another bogey for Sergio Garcia in his feud with Tiger Woods Tuesday night and this time, El Nino may have hit one out of bounds by making a racially insensitive remark as he tried to joke about their relationship.

Garcia was onstage at the European Tour’s gala awards dinner at Wentworth in England, where The Golf Channel’s Steve Sands playfully asked him if he planned to host his rival for dinner one night at next month’s U.S. Open.

“We will have him round every night,” Garcia said. “We will serve fried chicken.”

Garcia later issued an apology through the European Tour office.

“I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players’ Awards dinner,” his statement read. “I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.”

The incident revived memories of Fuzzy Zoeller’s botched attempt at humor under the oak tree at Augusta National as Woods was on his way to winning the 1997 Masters. “You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken (at the Champions Dinner) next year. Got it?” he asked.

Zoeller even turned back one more time as he was walking away to add, “Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.”

Zoeller also apologized at the time and asked that he be forgiven as a “jokester.” After all, Woods had been quoted off the record in a national magazine telling off-color jokes with a racial twist. But Zoeller paid the price. He never again seemed quite the funny man. His sponsorships, including a deal with K-Mart, dried up, and his relationship with the budding star was irrevocably damaged.

That won’t be a problem between Garcia and Woods, whose disdain for each other has never been more obvious since a flare-up during The Players Championship at Sawgrass two weeks ago. Garcia said Woods carelessly created a disturbance in the gallery while Garcia was hitting a shot. The two traded barbs about the incident.

On Monday, Woods was holding a press conference at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., and was asked if he thought about reaching out to Garcia with an olive branch. His answer was succinct and made to break up the room: “No.”

Garcia answered back earlier Tuesday at his pre-tournament press conference at Wentworth.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said of Tiger’s one-word answer. “That’s what he’s like. He called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you guys that’s true in 15 years. I know what he’s like. You guys are finding out.”

That’s when Garcia was asked if he would consider calling Woods to smooth things over. “First of all, I don’t have his number,” he said. “And secondly, I did nothing wrong and don’t have anything to say to him. And he wouldn’t pick up the phone anyway. But that’s OK. I don’t need him as a friend. I don’t need him in my life to be happy and that’s fine. It’s as simple as that. Like I have always said, I try to be as truthful as possible. Tiger doesn’t make a difference to my life. And I know that I don’t make a difference to his life.”

Had he left it at that, Garcia may have earned points for his candor as opposed to the secretive Woods. It just took one more question at the wrong time to get him into trouble again.

11147: Chrysler CEO Slurs, Wins Award.

News sources reported Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne apologized for using an Italian-American slur during the North American International Auto Show last January. Gee, this guy should be working for General Motors.

Chrysler CEO apologizes for Italian-American slur

By Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press

UPDATE: 6:30 ET with comments from head of Italian-American organization and excerpts from Marchionne letter of apology.

Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has apologized to the Italian-American One Voice Coalition for using a term offensive to Italian-Americans during an interview during the North American International Auto Show last January in Detroit.

During a roundtable discussion with reporters, Marchionne was discussing a new Alfa Romeo car to be sold in the U.S. when he said, “with all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine.”

Marchionne’s use of the term was intended to convey that a Fiat-designed engine would be better than an American engine for this particular model. The term, however, is offensive to Italian Americans and others, and Marchionne apologized in a letter dated May 15.

The Italian-American One Voice Coalition, which exists to fight bias and ethnic slurs against Americans of Italian descent, sought an apology from Marchionne for several months.

“We jumped on it immediately,” said Manny Alfano, founder and president of the coalition.

Marchionne’s letter acknowledges that his remark was unacceptable and apologized to “anyone who may have been offended.”

“Having had to live through a period of integration into another country a number of years ago, I am keenly aware of the negative implications of stereotyping and the significant efforts required to undo its effects,” Marchionne wrote about his move as teenager from Italk to Toronto with his family. “I am proud of my Italian heritage, and nothing I have said should be interpreted as an attempt at minimizing its value. I extend my apologies to anyone who may have been offended by my remark.”

The term is said to be short for “without papers,” according to the Urban Dictionary, and was used as a derogatory reference to Italian immigrants who came to the U.S. in droves largely from Southern Italy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

“I am very happy that we got the apology. I think that is the best we could do at this point in time,” Alfano said.

In 2011, Marchionne apologized for using the term “shyster” to describe the high-interest rates on the loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments that funded Chrysler’s turnaround.

Marchionne is to be honored Friday by the Sons of Italy Foundation, a separate organization from the Italian-American One Voice Coalition. A Chrysler spokeswoman said the timing of Marchionne’s apology is unrelated to the Sons of Italy event.

11146: IPG Discrimination Suit Update.

Advertising Age revealed the discrimination case against IPG is going to trial. An IPG statement included, “Diversity and inclusion have been long-term priorities for IPG and we’ve made significant strides in this area in recent years. This is especially true at our corporate office. That’s why we are very gratified that the judge has agreed to dismiss the majority of [plaintiff Joy Noel’s] claims. We continue to believe her one remaining claim is equally ‘devoid of facts,’ as the court itself stated in its initial finding, and look forward to demonstrating this at trial.” Wow. Let’s dissect that poppycock. “Diversity and inclusion have been long-term priorities for IPG” really means the holding company and its agencies have completely failed to erase the exclusivity for a loooooong time—at least 60 years. Plus, “long-term priority” should not be mistaken for top priority. Or even top-ten priority. As the defendant in the upcoming case, IPG will not have to prove they’ve “made significant strides in this area in recent years.” Otherwise, they’d have to admit the area they meant is human resources, reception, administrative assistance, security, janitorial or the mailroom. “This is especially true at our corporate office.” And especially false at the C-suite offices. IPG is undoubtedly “very gratified that the judge has agreed to dismiss the majority of [plaintiff Joy Noel’s] claims”—although losing $50 million would have looked good versus the company’s $59.2 million first-quarter net loss. Plus, using the phrase “devoid of facts” is pretty bold when your agencies are virtually devoid of Blacks. IPG better hope outgoing Draftfcb President and CEO Laurence Boschetto isn’t called to the stand to report on his progress in eliminating the term “diversity and inclusion” by 2014. After all, they’ve been long-term priorities for the parent corporation.

Discrimination Claim Against Interpublic Heads to Trial

Most of Plaintiff’s Claims Tossed, but Jury Will Decide if She Wasn’t Promoted Because of Skin Color

By Rupal Parekh

Various claims filed in April 2012 as part of a race discrimination lawsuit against Interpublic Group of Cos. have been tossed out by a New York district judge. However, one claim made by Trinidadian employee Joy C. Noel—that Interpublic failed to promote due to her skin color—has been permitted to proceed to trial.

The trial begins on June 3, according to court documents.

When Ms. Noel filed suit in Manhattan federal court last spring, she sought a whopping $50 million in damages. She claimed that in her many years working for the company, Interpublic fostered an environment where discrimination based on race and color is condoned. She alleged that she was passed over for promotions because Caucasian and light-skinned Hispanics are treated more favorably than African-Americans or other dark-skinned employees. Ms. Noel has been at Interpublic since 1993 and is still an employee there.

Also named in the original suit were several high-ranking executives, including Interpublic Chairman-CEO Michael Roth. His name was later removed from the suit.

Interpublic in a statement told Ad Age it is pleased that most of the claims have been thrown out and it expects her remaining claim will be too. “Diversity and inclusion have been long-term priorities for IPG and we’ve made significant strides in this area in recent years,” the company said. “This is especially true at our corporate office. That’s why we are very gratified that the judge has agreed to dismiss the majority of Ms. Noel’s claims. We continue to believe her one remaining claim is equally ‘devoid of facts,’ as the court itself stated in its initial finding, and look forward to demonstrating this at trial.”

But unless something changes in the proceedings in the next couple of weeks, District Judge Harold Baer Jr. has ruled that it’s up to a jury whether Ms. Noel was really passed over for a job unfairly.

Said Mr. Baer in an opinion issued on the matter: “Prior experience interacting with Board members is hardly a ‘basic skill’ necessary to perform these administrative tasks. By contrast, Plaintiff has worked at IPG in an administrative capacity for over 20 years and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting. This experience demonstrates that Plaintiff was at least minimally qualified for the promotion to Executive Assistant.” He added: “The true significance of this ‘Board experience’ is thus a credibility issue that only a jury may decide.”

11145: Archie Comics Show Pride.

From The New York Post…

Archie Comics pokes fun at One Million Moms protest, openly gay character to kiss boyfriend in series first

From ASSOCIATED PRESS

It’s just a quick kiss, but it’s a long step forward for Archie Comics’ only openly gay character Kevin Keller.

The Riverdale teen finds his life turned upside down after locking lips with his boyfriend, Devon, in Pop Tate’s diner, drawing the ire of at least one disapproving Riverdale mom.

The woman “gets very offended and kind of pitches a bit of a fit,” said Dan Parent, who writes and draws the issue, “Kevin Keller” No. 10 that is released Aug. 7.

“Kevin is kind of used to that, but Veronica records the whole thing and of course uploads it to the Riverdale equivalent of YouTube and that starts a bit of a debate,” said Parent.

For Archie Comics it’s a bit of art imitating life. Parent said he wrote the story after efforts to remove a comic magazine showing Keller getting married drew at complaints. One Million Moms, a project of The American Family Association, asked Toys R Us not to display “Life With Archie” No. 16 near its checkout aisles. Toys R Us did not, and the issue went on to sell out its print run.

Parent called the new story a “playful poke” at the protest.

Keller debuted in “Veronica” No. 202 in September 2010. It resulted in Archie Comics’ first-ever second printing. It was quickly followed by a four-issue miniseries and the current monthly title.

Publisher and co-CEO Jon Goldwater said the fact that any kiss is being shown in the pages of an Archie Comics book is a step in and of itself.

“There aren’t that many on-panel kisses in the pages of Archie, but you often see the lipstick on Archie’s face afterward,” he said.

Goldwater said Keller’s character has let the company weave in contemporary issues to its imaginary world.

“We certainly pride ourselves on being contemporary, but that’s not the reason why we’re showing ‘The Kiss.’ Just like when Kevin first told Jughead he was gay, it was in the natural course of conversation,” said Goldwater. “We are creating this in the same way. It’s just part of the story.”

11144: Stereotypical Mad Men Episode.

The latest installment of AMC series Mad Men Season 6 continued to introduce more Black stereotypes. Dawn Chambers made a handful of cameo appearances, executing subservient secretarial duties. But the new stereotype came in the form of a sassy, heavy Black woman. “Grandma Ida” claimed to be Don Draper’s mama, made a reference to fried chicken and wound up robbing the apartment. So that covers the Black felon category.

11143: Advertisers Won’t Heart This Ad.

The agency that produced this ad—RAF Communicação in Brazil—can probably look forward to never landing a fast food, snack food, soft drink, cigarette or liquor account.

From Ads of the World.

11142: Uni-Ball Takes Hit To Balls.

At NewsOne, Kirsten West Savali criticized the South African Uni-Ball spot perpetuating stereotypes. Uni-Ball connected with West Savali via Twitter to assure her the spot was being pulled—and of course, the U.S. company was clueless that the commercial had even been created. West Savali isn’t buying it.

11141: Ronald Is Watching.

The New York Times article on the adverse health conditions immigrants face in the U.S. was accompanied by a banner ad from Mickey D’s.

11140: Immigrating To U.S. Not Healthy.

From The New York Times…

The Health Toll of Immigration

By Sabrina Tavernise

BROWNSVILLE, Tex. — Becoming an American can be bad for your health.

A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.

The pattern goes against any notion that moving to America improves every aspect of life. It also demonstrates that at least in terms of health, worries about assimilation for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants are mistaken. In fact, it is happening all too quickly.

“There’s something about life in the United States that is not conducive to good health across generations,” said Robert A. Hummer, a social demographer at the University of Texas at Austin.

For Hispanics, now the nation’s largest immigrant group, the foreign-born live about three years longer than their American-born counterparts, several studies have found.

Why does life in the United States — despite its sophisticated health care system and high per capita wages — lead to worse health? New research is showing that the immigrant advantage wears off with the adoption of American behaviors — smoking, drinking, high-calorie diets and sedentary lifestyles.

Here in Brownsville, a worn border city studded with fast-food restaurants, immigrants say that happens slowly, almost imperceptibly. In America, foods like ham and bread that are not supposed to be sweet are. And children lose their taste for traditional Mexican foods like cactus and beans.

For the recently arrived, the quantity and accessibility of food speaks to the boundless promise of the United States. Esther Angeles remembers being amazed at the size of hamburgers — as big as dinner plates — when she first came to the United States from Mexico 15 years ago.

“I thought, this is really a country of opportunity,” she said. “Look at the size of the food!”

Fast-food fare not only tasted good, but was also a sign of success, a family treat that new earnings put in reach.

“The crispiness was delicious,” said Juan Muniz, 62, recalling his first visit to Church’s Chicken with his family in the late 1970s. “I was proud and excited to eat out. I’d tell them: ‘Let’s go eat. We can afford it now.’”

For others, supersize deals appealed.

“You work so hard, you want to use your money in a smart way,” said Aris Ramirez, a community health worker in Brownsville, explaining the thinking. “So when they hear ‘twice the fries for an extra 49 cents,’ people think, ‘That’s economical.’”

For Ms. Angeles, the excitement of big food eventually wore off, and the frantic pace of the modern American workplace took over. She found herself eating hamburgers more because they were convenient and she was busy in her 78-hour-a-week job as a housekeeper. What is more, she lost control over her daughter’s diet because, as a single mother, she was rarely with her at mealtimes.

Robert O. Valdez, a professor of family and community medicine and economics at the University of New Mexico, said, “All the things we tell people to do from a clinical perspective today — a lot of fiber and less meat — were exactly the lifestyle habits that immigrants were normally keeping.”

Read the full story here.

11139: Advertising Pays—For White Guys.

Business Insider published its annual “The 37 Richest People In Advertising, Ranked By Income.” Like last year’s list, while the group includes one woman and a handful of guys from Spain, the overwhelming majority of advertising’s top breadwinners are White men. It’s tough to join the financial elite when you’re starting with crumbs. The only Black person who might make the cut is Uncle Ben.

11138: Madison Avenue Takes Its Time Too.

On May 6, Advertising Age reported Procter & Gamble would lengthen the time the advertiser pays its advertising agencies to 75 days. Now the trade publication says Mondelez will extend its payment terms to 120 days. Of course, advertising agency executives are crying foul, whining that the monetary mandates are unfair and even unethical. As if fairness and ethics are embedded in the DNA of a typical adperson. Most BDAs draw out payments to freelancers and vendors too—and the shops will likely stretch things out further in response to the new processes from P&G and Mondelez. Besides, 120 days is less than the blink of an eye compared to how Madison Avenue has taken its sweet time delivering on diversity.

11137: Uncle Smithsonian’s Cabin.

From The New York Times…

Haunting Relic of History, Slave Cabin Gets a Museum Home in Washington

By Robbie Brown

EDISTO ISLAND, S.C. — The floors creaked. The walls swayed in a strong breeze. Rot and termites had destroyed parts of the rickety structure built before the Civil War.

But when curators from the Smithsonian’s new African-American history museum in Washington visited this marshy island last year, they found exactly what they were looking for: an antebellum slave cabin that captured the stark life of plantation workers before emancipation.

Edisto Island is home to two of the nation’s oldest slave cabins, dating to the 1850s — vestiges of what was once an entire village for field workers at the Point of Pines Plantation. Black families lived in the wood-sided, two-room houses, without electricity or heating, until the 1980s.

Now, the better-preserved of the two cabins is getting a new home in the nation’s capital. The Smithsonian Institution is dismantling it, plank by plank, and moving it to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open on the National Mall in late 2015.

It will be among the featured artifacts, beside Harriet Tubman’s shawl, Nat Turner’s Bible, a Tuskegee Airmen fighter plane and Emmett Till’s coffin. Lonnie Bunch, the museum’s director, called it “a true jewel in the crown of our collection.”

“Slavery is the last great unmentionable in public discourse,” he said. “But this cabin gives an opportunity to come face to face with the reality of slavery. It humanizes slavery.”

For years, local historians had struggled to save the pinewood building. After the last residents moved out, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Three years ago, the plantation’s owners donated the cabin, but not the land, to the Edisto Historical Preservation Society.

The society raised $40,000 to clear away vines and install diagonal beams to stabilize the tilting 16-foot-by-20-foot structure. But it could not find enough money to safely move the cabin to a new location.

“Honestly, we were about to give up,” said Gretchen Smith, the society’s director.

The Smithsonian called just in time. The museum, with a budget of $500 million, had scoured the country for the right cabin. Its curator, Nancy Bercaw, said Edisto Island’s was perfect: it needed a new home, and because blacks had lived in it long after slavery, the museum can display it in an exhibit encompassing the postwar period called “Slavery and Freedom.”

“The sea island history is so rich and multigenerational,” Ms. Bercaw said. “This history has been tucked away. It hasn’t always been safe to pull out these stories.”

Last Monday, work crews from a preservation company called Museum Resources Inc. stripped off parts and labeled them. Modern additions like the tin roof and metal nails will be replaced. The rest will be transported to a restoration facility in Virginia before being rebuilt inside the museum.

The crews made several discoveries while taking apart the cabin. Newspapers had been stuffed inside the walls for insulation. Windows and door frames were painted with a faint blue paint, which historians say slaves from the Caribbean believed kept demons away.

The exact age of the cabin is unknown, although historians believe that it was probably built off-site and assembled at the plantation. Toni Carpenter, the founder of Lowcountry Africana, a group that documents black history in the South, said an 1851 map of the plantation showed the cabin at its present site. And, she said, an 1854 plantation inventory showed that 75 people were enslaved there.

One of the last residents who remembers life inside is Junior Meggett, 80, a retired groundskeeper, who grew up in the 1940s in an identical cabin and whose aunt and uncle owned the one given to the Smithsonian.

Winter nights were so cold that everyone huddled around the stone fireplace on cots, he said. Summers were so mosquito-infested that the fire burned constantly as insect repellent.

“It’s a tough place to live,” he said. “But we didn’t have any choice. It was just where you lived.”

The new museum is the Smithsonian’s first since the National Museum of the American Indian opened in 2004. It will span black history and culture from the African slave trade through the first black presidency.

Ms. Smith, from the historical society, said it was bittersweet to see the cabin leave the island after more than 160 years. She hopes to raise enough money to restore the second cabin and keep it on Edisto. But while South Carolina is losing this artifact, she said, “now millions of others can see it.”

11136: Into Zoe Saldana’s Darkness.

From Allure June 2013

11135: Vicks Mix.

Vicks depicts an interracial couple via Publicis in Singapore.

From Ads of the World.

11134: Adweek Hearts Latinos.

Adweek reported on the growing importance of marketing to Latinos—including displaying a lengthy infographic. Of course, the trade journal’s ex-publisher saw fit to cut Marketing y Medios back in 2006.

Nearly Half of Second-Gen Hispanics Feel Like Ads Don’t Target Them

Ethnicity influences brand decisions

By Lucia Moses

By now, it’s obvious that targeting Hispanics in the U.S. means more than just translating an ad into Spanish and casting ethnic stereotypes as spokespeople. For one thing, the first and second generations differ in their acculturation levels, which affects their content and advertising preferences, according to a report from Yahoo/Mindshare, Ethnicity in the Digital Age: Marketing to Hispanics. First-gen Hispanics are much more likely than the second and third gen to look for news content that speaks to their ethnicity and try brands that target them ethnically. But Hispanics of all generations care a great deal about whether the news media puts their ethnic group in a good or bad light and uses obvious stereotypes in ads.

11133: WWII Romance Battles Bias.

From The New York Times…

A Black Nurse, a German Soldier and an Unlikely WWII Romance

By Alexis Clark

The nurse and the soldier may never have met – and eventually married – had it not been for the American government’s mistreatment of black women during World War II.

Elinor Elizabeth Powell was an African-American military nurse. Frederick Albert was a German prisoner of war. Their paths crossed in Arizona in 1944. It was a time when the Army was resisting enlisting black nurses and the relatively small number allowed entry tended to be assigned to the least desirable duties.

“They decided they were going to use African-Americans but in very small numbers and in segregated locations,” said Charissa Threat, a history professor at Northeastern University who teaches race and gender studies.

Ms. Powell was born in 1921 in Milton, Mass., and in, 1944, after completing basic training at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., she was sent, as some other black nurses were, to tend to German prisoners of war in Florence, Ariz.

“I know the story of how they met,” said Chris Albert, 59, the youngest son of Elinor and Frederick Albert. “It was in the officers’ mess hall, and my father was working in the kitchen. He kind of boldly made his way straight for my mother and said: ‘You should know my name. I’m the man who’s going to marry you.’”

Frederick Karl Albert was born in 1925 in Oppeln, Germany. “He volunteered for the paratroops to impress his father, who served in WWI,” Mr. Albert said. “His father was an engineer and not really interested in his children. My dad ended up getting captured in Italy.”

He joined many other German prisoners who were detained in camps across the United States. With millions of American men away in combat or basic training, P.O.W.’s became a solution to the labor shortage. “Under the Geneva Convention, enlisted criminals of war could work for the detaining power,” said Matthias Reiss, a professor at the University of Exeter, in England, who has researched the history of German P.O.W.’s. “So the idea was, bring them over to America and let them do the unskilled work.”

In the camp in Arizona, Frederick Albert worked in the kitchen, where he prepared special meals for Elinor. A romance between the two blossomed but not without consequences. “My dad was severely beaten by a group of officers when they found out about my mom,” Mr. Albert said, referring to American soldiers.

At Camp Florence, as well as other camps, the environment for black nurses could be particularly humiliating. The nurses were forced to eat in separate dining halls, apart from white officers on the base.

“My mother mentioned that she was in a bar or some place that had food or drink and they refused to serve her,” said Stephen Albert, 66, Elinor and Frederick’s oldest son.

The discrimination blacks encountered was not lost on the German P.O.W.’s.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a German soldier who was held captive in America who didn’t speak about African-Americans,” Professor Reiss said. “They were quite aware there was a major discrimination problem and that the Americans weren’t really allowed to occupy the moral high ground on that matter.”

By war’s end, about 500 black nurses had served in World War II. All German P.O.W.’s, including Frederick Albert, were eventually sent to Germany.

The American military officially ended segregation after WWII, but for the Alberts, the issue of race would resurface throughout their lives. Their unlikely romance resulted in Stephen’s birth in December 1946. After Frederick was able to return to the United States, he and Elinor married on June 26, 1947, in Manhattan.

“I would say the first 10 years for my parents were a struggle to find some kind of economic security and a safe haven for an interracial family,” said Chris Albert, who plays the trumpet with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

“They moved to Boston and my father worked several jobs,’’ he said. “At some point, he decided it was best if they moved to Göttingen, Germany, where his parents lived. He could work for his father’s cement manufacturing business.”

But Kristina Brandner, 70, a niece of Frederick Albert, said life in Germany was difficult. “Göttingen is a small town,’’ she said. “My grandmother never had contact with black people so it was strange and uncomfortable for her with Elinor. Kids used to ask me how come there was a black woman living with us, and why is your cousin another color. Sometimes, I saw Elinor in the kitchen crying.”

In less than two years, Frederick, Elinor, Stephen and Chris, who was an infant, returned to the United States.

“We came back and moved to Morton, Pa. And then they went through the school issue,” Mr. Albert said.

That issue was the rejection of Stephen’s attempt to enroll at a local public school after being told that the school was not open to black children.

“My mother pitched a fit,” Mr. Albert said, who still has a copy of the letter Elinor wrote to the school superintendent and a local branch of the N.A.A.C.P.

In 1959, Mr. and Ms. Albert settled in Village Creek, an interracial neighborhood in Norwalk, Conn., where Elinor became an avid gardener and Frederick became a vice president at Pepperidge Farm.

“We always had great music at home,” said Mr. Albert, who resides in his childhood house in Norwalk. “My dad had this affinity for New Orleans jazz. I think it was a much larger representation for him. That lack of warmth he felt growing up, he found it in jazz and when he saw my mother.”

Mr. Albert’s father died in 2001, and his mother in 2005.

“I now ask myself how come I never questioned my dad about Hitler or what he thought about the Nazi movement,” said Mr. Albert, who will perform along with his band mates at the Blue Note Jazz Club in the West Village this month.

“My mother didn’t talk about it either,’’ he said. “They didn’t bring up the past. But what I do know about my parents, their story is a remarkable one.”

11132: Jim Edwards’ Bermuda Shorts.

At Business Insider, Jim Edwards continues his ongoing reporting and online scuffling involving GlobalHue and the Bermuda Tourism account. Now the ex-Premier of Bermuda is questioning Edwards via an email exchange with racist references. Additionally, Edwards has been offered an all-expenses-paid trip to extend the debate. Don’t expect any updates to be filed from a Bermuda beach.

11131: TBWA & GQ Have Low IQ.

TBWA in Brazil created a campaign for GQ—and displayed its low IQ in terms of cultural cluelessness.

From Ads of the World.

11130: TBWA Busted For Cluelessness.

Business Insider spotlights a culturally clueless Uni-Ball commercial from TBWA Worldwide in South Africa.

11129: Mad Men & Bank Of America.

Besides the obligatory Black moving person and background extras, the latest episode of AMC series Mad Men Season 6 featured zero people of color. However, a Bank of America commercial aired during the broadcast, presenting the stereotypical Black music artists.

11128: Fiat Takes The Low Road.

Not sure about the thinking behind this Fiat campaign via Leo Burnett in Spain.

Miss Universe contestants and whip cream makes sense.

Getting Gizmo wet and feeding him at night makes sense.

But combining a guy with an afro and a guy with shears just seems culturally clueless.

From Ads of the World.

11127: Mother’s Day Ad Stinks.

Can never tell if stuff on Ads of the World is legit, but this Mother’s Day message from Febreze stinks.

11126: Supreme Lack Of Diversity.

From The Huffington Post…

Supreme Court Saw Only One African-American Lawyer In Last 75 Hours Of Arguments

By Mark Sherman

WASHINGTON—In roughly 75 hours of arguments at the Supreme Court since October, only one African-American lawyer appeared before the justices, and for just over 11 minutes.

The numbers were marginally better for Hispanic lawyers. Four of them argued for a total of 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Women were better represented, accounting for just over 17 percent of the arguments before the justices.

In an era when three women, a Hispanic and an African-American sit on the court and white men constitute a bare majority of the nine justices, the court is more diverse than the lawyers who argue before it.

The arguments that took place from October to April were presented overwhelmingly by white men. Women and minority lawyers whose clients’ cases were heard by the court were far more likely to represent governments or be part of public-interest law firms than in private practice, where paychecks are much larger.

The numbers generally reflect the largely white and male upper reaches of the biggest and richest private law firms, where there have been small gains by women and minorities in the past 20 years. A recent survey by the Association for Legal Career Professionals found that more than 93 percent of partners in law firms are white and nearly 80 percent are men.

The statistics from the court term, though, also reveal a lack of African-American and Hispanic lawyers in the elite Justice Department unit that represents the federal government at the Supreme Court.

The top supervisory positions in the Office of the Solicitor General all are held by men, though there are six women in the office who argued high court cases this term.

The office serves as a pipeline to the big firms that dominate the argument calendar at the court. Lawyers in the office make several arguments a term and acquire the experience and ease of standing before the justices that make them attractive to private firms.

The first woman on the court, Sandra Day O’Connor, touched on the importance of diversity at the court in a tribute to the first African-American justice, Thurgood Marshall. O’Connor said Marshall “imparted not only his legal acumen but also his life experiences, constantly pushing and prodding us to respond not only to the persuasiveness of legal argument but also to the power of moral truth.”

The justices also benefit from seeing lawyers who don’t all look and sound the same, said Alan Jenkins, an African-American former Justice Department lawyer who argued four cases at the Supreme Court. “It’s especially true of people who appear before the Supreme Court because the court, as an institution, is intentionally set apart from the day-to-day life of the nation,” said Jenkins, executive director of the not-for-profit The Opportunity Agenda in New York.

The only minority group that could be said to be overrepresented was lawyers of Asian heritage. Seven men — three in private practice, Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan and two others at the Justice Department and a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union — made 17 arguments to the court. There has never been an Asian-American justice.

In cases before the Supreme Court, there are at least two and sometimes more parties who are granted time to argue their positions. In the current term, the justices heard 193 separate presentations.

When Debo Adegbile stepped to the lectern in defense of a landmark voting rights law in February, he was the first — and as it turned out, the only — African-American to make a high court argument this term.

Adegbile until recently worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the famed public-interest law firm that mounted generations of civil rights challenges, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case that outlawed official segregation in public schools.

Before he became a justice, Marshall was the organization’s top lawyer and argued several high court cases.

Adegbile represented six African-American residents of Shelby county, Ala., which is challenging a key provision of federal voting rights law. Following Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.’s more legalistic presentation, Adegbile pointed to recent examples of intentional voting discrimination in the South to highlight the ongoing need for the measure.

“This statute is in part about our march through history to keep promises that our Constitution says for too long were unmet,” he said.

Voting rights was the second of two high-profile cases about race at the court this term.

In the first, three white men made the arguments when the justices considered the fate of the University of Texas program that takes account of race in admissions.

Civil rights cases have historically given minority lawyers the greatest chance to argue before the court, but those cases have been in decline for some time at the Supreme Court.

“The more problematic question is, why is civil rights litigation one of the few pathways available to African-American litigators when clearly they have distinguished themselves?” Jenkins said.

Women in the legal profession have faced a similar problem, but lately have had more opportunities.

Lisa Blatt of the Arnold and Porter law firm in Washington has written that over the years most women arguing at the court have been public-interest lawyers, public defenders or government attorneys. “Translation: women are doing the same work but for less pay,” she wrote in the Green Bag, a legal journal.

This term, Blatt made three arguments, the only woman in private practice to make more than one. There were 10 men in private practice with multiple arguments.

“This is a problem of today but not tomorrow,” Blatt said, referring to the many women who are gaining experience representing the government at the court. She said some of them will enter private practice, as she did after many years in the Justice Department.

11125: Profiling Victims…?

From USA TODAY…

Missed opportunities, or a job well done in Cleveland kidnapping?

By Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY

Some argue that the missing girls in Cleveland’s horrifying kidnapping were not aggressively sought, but police strongly deny the claim as unfair

CLEVELAND—Judy Martin recites the names of missing people in Cleveland like a well memorized poem. She knows names, dates, last known whereabouts, and details about dozens of cases dating back to 1997.

Martin, who founded Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, also says she knows how race and economic status play a role in how police treat cases, including those of three women held captive for years here in an impoverished Cleveland neighborhood.

She, along with experts, believe cases involving people of color, low-income residents, and working class victims don’t get the same law enforcement resources as others. Officials from the Cleveland Police Department, however, say they did all they could find Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight and regularly look into missing persons cases without any biases.

“When it’s somebody of color or someone from in a poorer area, we don’t see to get the response that other areas of the country get,” said Martin whose nonprofit regularly works with families of victims. “It needs to stop. When a person goes missing, it shouldn’t matter whether they’re white, black, hispanic, Asian, purple, green or blue.”

Knight, Berry, and DeJesus were abducted in separate incidents almost a decade ago by Ariel Castro, police said. Castro, who now faces kidnapping and rape charges, kept the three women hostage until Monday when Berry escaped and alerted police.

In the years after Berry and DeJesus went missing, Martin, whose son was murdered in 1994, became an advocate for the women’s families holding rallies and vigils every week and later every year. At each event, she and the families tried to keep the public aware of the cases while Martin says police brushed off the cases as teenagers who just took off.

It’s a claim the police fiercely deny.

Police say they and FBI investigators devoted extraordinary resources, at times fueled by personal anguish, to pursue every lead in the case.

“The Cleveland Police Department doesn’t care someone’s economic or social status,” Police Commander Keith Sulzer said Friday afternoon. “We don’t care what status you’re from, everybody gets the same treatment.”

He’s insulted that somebody would suggest their services would vary based on race or money—especially in the cases of Berry, DeJesus, and Knight.

For a decade, officers searched hundreds of streets, investigated vacant homes, and followed any information they thought might lead to the women, Sulzer said.

Thursday night at a community nearby the Seymour Avenue home of Ariel Castro, where the women were found, Sulzer told residents that more than 2,900 people were missing in the city of Cleveland and that families of those missing need actively work with officers to keep the cases going.

“If you have a missing person, you need to be on us at all times,” he said, adding that if families feel like officers aren’t doing enough they should contact the department.

Still, Martin maintains that police often assume cases involving people of color and lower income victims involve a person walking away without criminal involvement. She wants protocols that would make it mandatory that officers file a report each time someone says their family member or friend is missing regardless of the person’s past, economic status, or race.

A similar question arose in 2009 when the bodies of 11 murdered women were found in the Cleveland home of a serial killer. Anthony Sowell specialized in luring poor, drug addicts into his Imperial Avenue home, raping and strangling them.

During Sowell’s trial, relatives of some of his early victims said police didn’t take missing-person reports seriously, and one victim who survived an attack said police didn’t believe her when she reported the assault. Sowell was released from jail without charges after the woman’s report and went on to kill several others.

Journalist and urban planning specialist Angie Schmitt, co-founder of Rust Wire, blogged last month that although the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran “sympathetic” and extensive profiles of the Sowell victims, the paper “never raises the bigger issue. What made these women such easy targets was being black, being women and being from the highly-segregated and desperately poor east side of Cleveland.

“This is a story about racism and inequality and sexism and poverty as much, if not more, than it is about drugs and individual lives going astray,” Schmitt wrote. “Nobody was going to tear up the city looking for a few black women from the east side with sketchy pasts.”

Read the full story here.

11124: The Perils Of Pretty White Women.

From CNN…

We’re obsessed when it’s white women in trouble

By Lisa Bloom, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Our country is obsessed with the perils of attractive young white women, as this week’s trio of high profile crime stories about Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and the Cleveland kidnapping victims demonstrates. We don’t see breathless coverage of the disproportionately large number of African-American men tried for crimes in our system. We see almost no coverage of missing boys, or missing children of color, or crimes against nonwhites.

This week an African-American man in Mississippi, Willie Manning, was about to be executed, though he was denied access to DNA testing. Manning, convicted of murdering two college students in 1994, maintains his innocence and requested the scientific testing, which has exonerated many convicted murderers, including some on death row.

The Mississippi Supreme Court denied that request and ordered his execution. At the last moment, U.S. Justice Department letters tipped the balance in favor of a reprieve. Few media outlets considered the monumental constitutional issues, or even the dramatic ticking clock toward his execution, worthy of mention.

Isn’t the fact that we still execute Americans without giving them access to DNA testing a stunning, significant story? Yet it got next to no attention.

Instead, in the last week thousands of hours of attention have been devoted to every detail of just three crime stories.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Jodi Arias (whose father is Latino) was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder, after the jury unanimously found that she intentionally and with premeditation killed her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The trial was covered live on HLN and followed closely on social media and other television networks. The next phase of the trial is scheduled to begin May 15.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Berry reportedly screamed for help, a neighbor came to her aid, and she, her 6-year-old daughter, and two women, Gina DeJesus (who is Latina) and Michelle Knight were freed after a decade of captivity. Ariel Castro was charged today with kidnapping and rape.

Amanda Knox, the American college student who was convicted, then acquitted of the murder of her roommate in Italy, has given tearful interviews in connection with her book tour, as an Italian court has reversed again and held that she should stand trial again for the charges.

Each of these cases includes salacious allegations and high-stakes outcomes. The Cleveland victims were reportedly raped and beaten countless times over the years. Amanda Knox is accused of killing her roommate as part of a drug-fueled sex game. Jodi Arias posed nude for photos and had sex with her victim just before she murdered him.

While each of these crime stories is worthy of news coverage—especially the Cleveland story, which involved serious questions of alleged law enforcement lapses—many others are equally worthy yet receive little or no attention, even as every detail of the high-profile stories is pored over and rehashed.

Missing children websites carry pictures of many African-American and Latino kids who have disappeared, and photos of little boys who have vanished. News outlets rarely feature their stories. Their families grieve their absence and yearn for media coverage that could help find their children and energize law enforcement.

And the biggest American crime story of all receives the least mention: that we now incarcerate more of our own people than any other country on earth, or in human history, and that minority males are disproportionately policed, arrested and convicted, and sentenced to harsher sentences. African-American juveniles are six times as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for identical crimes.

In Washington, three out of every four black men can expect some time behind bars in their lifetimes. In Baltimore and Chicago, the majority of young black men are currently under the control of the criminal justice system. In sheer numbers, more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved at the time of the Civil War. Our disastrous war on drugs has devastated inner-city communities, and led to large numbers of African-Americans being legally barred from voting, jury duty, public housing, food stamps, student loans, and many other civic rights and benefits, often for life.

We cannot fix these problems if we are unaware of them. We cannot get a groundswell for reform if we are distracted by titillating outlier stories.

The media choose which stories to make high profile, driven by public interest in those stories. We cannot call ourselves a nation of equals until we pay equal attention to all those in our criminal justice system whose stories merit our attention, regardless of their race or gender.

11123: New Campaign Is Old Dog.

TBWA in Barcelona, Spain, presents “the new wave of soft drinks” with an old idea from TBWA\Chiat\Day.

From Ads of the World.

11122: Redskins Owner Shows True Colors.

From USA TODAY…

Daniel Snyder says Redskins will never change name

By Erik Brady, USA TODAY Sports

Daniel Snyder is owner of the Washington pro football team he grew up adoring. Would he ever consider changing the team name that many American Indians and others believe is a racial slur?

“We will never change the name of the team,” Snyder told USA TODAY Sports this week. “As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.”

What if his football team loses an ongoing federal trademark lawsuit? Would he consider changing it then?

“We’ll never change the name,” he said. “It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”

Snyder does not often speak to the media about the case. He talked to USA TODAY Sports very briefly about it Tuesday afternoon, following a longer interview with him and his wife Tanya about her selection as mother of the year by the American Cancer Society.

Later Thursday, USA TODAY Sports will publish a story about Amanda Blackhorse, who is Navajo and the named plaintiff in the trademark suit. She said if she ever had the chance, she’d ask Snyder if he would dare to call her a redskin to her face.

“I think the best way is to just not comment on that type of stuff,” Snyder said. “I don’t know her.”

11121: Wendy’s—Now That’s Not Better.

The Associated Press reported Wendy’s 1Q net income dropped 83 percent versus last year’s figures. Guess the awful advertising featuring the real Wendy and the annoying redhead isn’t doing the trick. Bring back Dave Thomas—zombies and the living dead are really popular these days.

Wendy’s first-quarter net income down 83 percent compared to last year

From The Associated Press

DUBLIN, Ohio — Wendy’s first-quarter net income fell 83 percent from year-ago results that included a big gain on the sale of an investment.

But the fast-food chain operator’s adjusted earnings matched Wall Street’s expectations. Wendy’s also boosted its full-year earnings forecast, citing a refinancing benefit.

Wendy’s has been working to position itself on the high-end of the fast-food sector by emphasizing the relative quality of its menu. The push comes as more people head to chains like Chipotle and Panera, which offer food perceived to be of better quality for slightly more money.

To transform its image, Wendy’s is also investing heavily in remodeling its restaurants to have a modern, inviting look. For example, the new layouts include cozier seating areas, flat screen TVs and fireplaces. The Dublin, Ohio, company said Wednesday that it had opened 86 new and remodeled restaurants as of April 30. It still expects to remodel half of its company-run restaurants by 2015’s end. Wendy’s has more than 6,500 franchise and company-run restaurants in the U.S. and 27 countries and U.S. territories worldwide.

But Wendy’s is undertaking an image makeover at a tough time for the restaurant industry, with competition growing and people being careful about where they spend their money. McDonald’s and Burger King, for example, have been aggressively touting their deals to increase sales.

For the period ended March 31, Wendy’s earned $2.1 million, or a penny per share. That’s down from $12.4 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.

The year-ago period included an $18 million, or 5 cents per share, gain on the sale of an investment.

Excluding certain items, earnings in the latest quarter came to 3 cents per share.

Revenue rose 2 percent to $603.7 million versus a year ago but fell short of the $615 million forecast of analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue at company-run stores in North America rose 1 percent. The company said its results were impacted by bad weather during the period and shifts in the timing of the New Year and Easter holidays. At franchised stores, the metric edged up 0.6 percent.

This figure is a key gauge of a restaurant operator’s performance because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.

Wendy’s Co. now expects 2013 adjusted earnings of 20 cents to 22 cents per share, up from 18 cents to 20 cents per share. Wall Street predicts 19 cents per share.

Its shares fell 34 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $5.78 in morning trading Wednesday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $4.09 to $6.19.

11120: What’s In Your Toddler’s Wallet?

Why is Capital One showing a child taking “a sneak peek” at the right credit cards?

11119: Greeting Bigotry.

From The New York Daily News…

Muslim terrorist doll on birthday card angers Council on American-Islamic Relations: ‘blatant bigotry’

The card, released by a company called Noble Works, contains phrases such as ‘She’ll blow your brains out!’

By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A New Jersey greeting card maker’s motto may be “Dare to laugh,” but don’t tell that to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Noble Works, the company that released a birthday card that features a digitally altered version of an hijab-wearing Muslim doll along with several incendiary phrases, finds itself under fire from the council.

“I see blatant bigotry,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told WGN.

The card’s cover, which says “Pull string for message, if you dare!” uses a photo of “Aamina, the Muslim Doll,” a children’s toy that teaches Arabic phrases and greetings when a string is pulled.

Further text meant to portray the doll as a suicide bomber reads, “She’ll blow your brains out!” and “She’ll love you to death!” Inside, the card contains the punchline “Hope your birthday is a blowout!”

Rehab says that reducing the children’s toy to a terrorist promotes harmful stereotypes of Muslims.

“It basically correlates Muslims and terrorism,” Rehab told WGN. “There’s nothing about that doll, other than that she’s a Muslim, that caused the makers of the card to think it was funny to put blurbs on the box of the doll to say, ‘Let me blow you up!’”

As Noble Works states on its website, all of its cards are printed on demand. In Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, the card of the Muslim doll was noticed at a stationery store called He Who Eats Mud, where it reportedly sold out.

“I can only imagine folks and friends who receive or read our cards, can help but wonder as to whether laughing is the appropriate thing to do,” Noble Works’ owner, Ron Kanfi, said on the company’s website. “But as our motto goes: “F--- ‘em if they can’t take a joke!”

Rehab counters that he can take a joke but that this one just wasn’t funny.

“I would urge him to make fun of us, but do it intelligently. Humor ought to have even a minimal amount of intelligence,” Rehab said. “But when it lacks all intelligence, and is the same kind of message you get out of a white supremacist group, it’s not so funny.”

11118: Mad Men Resumes Exclusivity.

After feigning interest in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. last week, AMC series Mad Men Season 6 went back to ignoring non-White people—with the exception of Pete Campbell running into his father-in-law at a whorehouse. The next day, Campbell called his father-in-law’s date “the biggest, Blackest prostitute you’ve ever seen.” Campbell later told his wife and referred to the woman as “a 200-lb. Negro prostitute.” Looks like Mad Men will ultimately cover every stereotypical Black role imaginable.

11117: Jesse Jackson Goes To The Mtn Dew.

Target Market News reported Jesse Jackson requested a powwow with PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi to discuss the company’s advertising policies following the Mtn Dew debacle starring an arguably racist and misogynistic goat. Jackson should also probe PepsiCo’s advertising agency policies that promote exclusivity and Corporate Cultural Collusion.

Rev. Jesse Jackson wants to talk with PepsiCo about ad policies

Target Market News has learned that the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson has requested a meeting with PepsiCo executives following a public outcry over a commercial for the company’s Mountain Dew brand.

The commercial, criticized as “racist,” depicted five black men and a goat in a police line up. The spot was developed by music producer Tyler the Creator and was, he said, intended to be humorous. One African-American social critic labeled the ad “the most racist commercial in history.”

Rev. Jackson, who heads the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, on Thursday, May 2, sent a letter to PepsiCo chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi requesting a meeting to discuss all issues related to the development and distribution of the advertisement.

It is believed that Pepsi and its brands currently do not have an African-American ad agency of record under assignment. According to The Buying Power of Black America report, PepsiCo spent $12.6 million on advertising in measured Black media outlets. In that same year Black households spent a total of $4.3 billion on non-alcoholic beverages.

11116: Delayed WTF 22—mcgarrybowen Mess.

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

Advertising Age reported mcgarrybowen is now a McGarry-free shop, as Chief Digital Officer John McGarry III—the son of agency founder John McGarry, Jr.—left the place. The elder McGarry abandoned his day-to-day duties about a year ago. Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Gordon Bowen gushed over the departing digital drone’s contributions and accomplishments. But honestly, can anyone identify a single, decent digital project to ever come out of mcgarrybowen? Rumors from Chicago indicate that when Bud Light pulled its business after about six months, one major reason was mcgarrybowen’s complete failure to deliver digital solutions. Guess nepotism can only take you so far.

:::

John McGarry’s Son Exits McGarryBowen

Dentsu-Owned Shop Hires Doug Livingston as New Chief Digital Officer

By Rupal Parekh

John McGarry III—the son of McGarryBowen founder and veteran adman John McGarry—is departing the Dentsu-owned agency where he founded the digital practice.

He’s being succeeded by Doug Livingston, who most recently served as EVP-director of digital integration at WPP’s Grey.

It’s not immediately clear what future plans for Mr. McGarry, better known as J3, would hold; he couldn’t immediately comment on the matter.

J3 joined McGarryBowen to lead digital in 2007, five years after the shop opened its doors. Mr. McGarry’s departure comes a month after the announcement that co-founder Stewart Owen is retiring from the agency, and comes one year after his father left day-to-day agency operations.

“John has worked with us since the beginning and officially joined our agency six years ago,” McGarryBowen Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Gordon Bowen said in statement. “He grew the practice from two to over 300 amazing global practitioners across digital, social, mobile, branded entertainment and labs who are pushing the boundaries to help our clients succeed in exciting and innovative ways. The entire McGarryBowen family thanks him for his contributions, his leadership and friendship.”

Mr. Livingston job will be a bit different in that he’ll have a lot more worldwide responsibility. The New York-based agency is becoming increasingly global as Japanese giant Dentsu looks to expand the McGarryBowen network. The agency has offices in Chicago, London and Shanghai and is continuing to expand. Mr. Livingston will serve as a member of the agency’s management committee and will report to Mr. Bowen.

“Delivering innovative and integrated digital solutions is incredibly important to our clients and to our continued growth together,” said Mr. Bowen in the statement. “Doug’s digital experience, global expertise and proven ability to expand and win business all make him a perfect fit to lead our growing global digital offering.”

Mr. Livingston starts in the role later this month. He’ll work on a roster of clients that includes Kraft, Disney, United, Crayola, Marriott, Pfizer, Verizon and Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

11115: M&C Saatchi’s Brutal Bullshit.

Brutal Simplicity of Thought allegedly presents the creative philosophy of M&C Saatchi—defining the way the company works and the work it produces. According to the self-hype, the book “outlines some of the ideas we feel best represent our philosophy.” The content on pages 36-37 asks, “How do you wage war without violence?” The answer is a salute to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Does Saatchi & Saatchi really believe the spirit of MLK represents the agency’s philosophy? You wouldn’t know it by examining the organization’s lack of diversity. The brutal and simple truth is that advertising agencies love to praise MLK, but completely fail to embrace his philosophy.

11114: Fly Girls Are White Girls.

Jim Edwards at Business Insider noted the Fly Girls promotion from Urban Outfitters featured all White models. Perhaps the chain should rename itself Suburban Outfitters.

11113: Dual-Zone Stereotypes.

From DDB in Barcelona, Spain—via Ads of the World.

11112: Pulling Offensive Ads A Trend…?

Bloomberg News and Advertising Age believe there is a recent trend involving marketers pulling ads that consumers deem offensive. The truth is, the trend is a long-running pattern rooted in ignorance, insensitivity and cultural cluelessness from advertisers and advertising agencies. It would be easy to place the blame squarely on agencies, where the lack of diversity leads to a surfeit of stupidity. But the client side of the equation features an equal amount of dummies making even dumber decisions when approving concepts. Is it a coincidence that the story below spotlighted Pepsi and General Motors? PepsiCo pushes exclusivity with its ties to Omnicom, while GM is just plain racist. The real trend has been going on for over 60 years.

Pattern Forming: Pepsi, GM Latest Marketers to Yank Ads Deemed Offensive By Consumers

Who is To Blame for the Lack of Oversight?

Marketers are yanking ads nearly as fast as they are making them.

PepsiCo on Wednesday was criticized for an online spot for Mountain Dew that some consumers charged was racist and misogynistic. The 60-second ad—which the beverage maker has since removed from the web and apologized for—was made by the rapper known as Tyler the Creator, depicted a white female asked by a police officer to pick out a perpetrator from a lineup of black men and a goat.

Meanwhile General Motors became the latest carmaker caught in an ad flap. The company, seeking to boost China sales 75% by 2015, apologized for a Chevrolet ad that included a song referring to “the land of Fu Manchu” where all of the girls sing “ching, ching, chop-suey,” which one Chinese newspaper called racist.

“Our intent was not to offend anyone and we’re deeply sorry if anyone was offended,” Ryndee Carney, a Detroit-based GM spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. “We’re reviewing our advertising approval processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Yet, it seems like this very thing is happening quite a lot these days. Big marketers are getting caught up in ad scandals and it there seems to be little accountability or oversight when the spots get pulled.

The English-language ad for the Chevrolet Trax sport-utility vehicle featured a 1920s motif and included music from Austrian performer and disc jockey Parov Stelar, she said. The South China Morning Post earlier reported on the ad, using the word “racist” in a headline.

GM wants to expand sales in China and plans to spend $11 billion through 2016 on new plants and products in the country. GM is targeting 5 million deliveries in China by 2015. Sales of GM and its Chinese joint ventures increased 11 percent to a record 2.84 million last year. The company already sells more vehicles in China than its home market.

The latest Chevy ad never appeared in China, Ms. Carney said. It began running in Canada on March 4 and was also available online through Chevrolet Europe websites, she said. GM pulled the ad and replaced it with a revised version that doesn’t include the lyrics and began airing in Canada on April 23, she said. The online version in Europe is being pulled down, she said. GM ceased the ads after receiving a complaint, she said.

This episode is one of several marketing blunders prompting public apologies by automakers this year that calls into question where the blame should lie given offensive ads are routinely making their way out into the world. After all, it amounts to a massive amount of time and money wasted—not to mention bad publicity. And it’s clear that what happens in one country, thanks to social media, no longer stays in one country. Negative press spreads like wildfire across time zones and languages.

Ford Motor Co. in March apologized for ads in India, including a version depicting former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with three tied-up and gagged young women. The ads weren’t requested by Ford or intended for paid publication, WPP’s JWT India unit said in March. The unit fired two employees.

Hyundai Motor Co., based in Seoul, and a dealer for GM’s Buick brand apologized for posting on Chinese social media while alluding to an outcry over the murder of a 2-month-old baby. Hyundai also apologized for a promotional video posted on Google Inc.’s YouTube depicting a man trying to kill himself in his vehicle.

—Bloomberg News with contributions from Advertising Age

11111: PepsiCo Pulls Racist Ad.

From The Huffington Post…

Tyler The Creator’s ‘Racist’ Mountain Dew Commercial Pulled By PepsiCo After Criticism

By Candice Choi

NEW YORK — PepsiCo is once again learning the risks of celebrity partnerships after an ad for Mountain Dew was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women.

The soda and snack food company said it immediately pulled the 60-second spot after learning that people found it offensive. The ad was part of a series developed by African-American rapper Tyler, The Creator, and depicted a battered white woman on crutches being urged to identify a suspect out of a lineup of black men.

A goat character known as Felicia is included in the lineup and makes threatening comments to the woman, such as “Ya better not snitch on a playa” and “Keep ya mouth shut.”

The woman eventually screams “I can’t do this, no no no!” and runs away. The word “do” is in apparent reference to the soft drink’s “Dew It” slogan.

Mountain Dew, known for its neon color and high caffeine content, is generally marketed to younger men and sometimes attempts to have edgier ads. But the controversy over its latest spot illustrates the fine line that companies must walk when trying to be hip.

In fact, Mountain Dew also was criticized recently because of its endorsement deal with Lil Wayne, whose rap lyrics compared a rough sex act to the tortuous death of Emmett Till, a black teen who was murdered in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Last month, Reebok also ended its relationship with Rick Ross after he rapped about giving a woman a drug to have his way with her.

Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing firm based in Atlanta, said companies that want the “street cred” of a celebrity may end up losing control of the message they want to convey.

If PepsiCo had created an ad for Mountain Dew, for example, she said it might not have been considered edgy or cool. But by handing over control to a celebrity, she said the company ran the risk of having an ad that wasn’t appropriate.

PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y., said it understood how the ad could be offensive.

11110: BlackAtlas Flight Cancelled.

From Target Market News…

BlackAtlas.com gets grounded by American Airlines in transformation plans

After three and a half years as one of the most popular travel Web sites among African-Americans, BlackAtlas.com has been shut down by American Airlines.

Visitors to BlackAtlas now receive a message that says “We’ve got a new flight Path.” The whole announcement reads: “You may have heard about the big changes taking place at American Airlines. Now, in an effort to bring you the latest news and information about this transformation, we invite you to explore our journey as we bring you a more modern, comfortable and connected travel experience. BlackAtlas.com will become a part of the larger American Airlines travel community, and we hope you continue to visit. Please update your bookmarks to aa.com. We’ll catch you in the air.”

When BlackAtlas was launched in 2009, it was a pioneering effort created by the airline in partnership with Burrell Communications. At the time it debuted, American Airlines said in a statement the site “combines the best features of a travel site with the power of social networking to create a dynamic online community for travelers to share experiences unique to the black community.”

Among the successes that BlackAtlas achieved was a 2010 Mosaic Award from the American Advertising Federation.

The closing of BlackAtlas comes, ironically, at a time when a number of major advertisers are pursuing efforts to capture more Black consumers through social media platforms. According to the latest edition of The Buying Power of Black America, Black households spent $2.25 billion in 2011 on airline tickets. That was an increase of 10% over the previous year.

While the site may be gone, a Facebook page, “Black Atlas Editor” is still operating, and a recent visitor posted this message: “We are sad to see that BlackAtlas.com is now gone.”

Efforts to reach American Airlines for comment before deadline were unsuccessful.