15573: Mental Health Awareness Mindlessness.

Shitty scam ads #CannotReplaceTalent

 

15572: Jon Gruden’s Next Play…?

 

15571: Happy Belated Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

 

Whoops! Add one more moccasin to the mix…

15570: Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

 

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

15569: Waxing Poetic For Nigeria Independence Day.

 

The explanation for this Nigerian campaign reads as follows:

 

Loving Nigeria is a hard, thankless job. To celebrate our 61st Independence Day, we urged Nigerians to try to spread some goodness. Else our sacrifices and those of our founding fathers might be in vain.

 

15568: Oh Me Oh My, Mia.

 

From The Washington Post…

 

Opinion: My Native American father drew the Land O’Lakes maiden. She was never a stereotype.

 

Opinion by Robert DesJarlait

 

Robert DesJarlait is an artist and writer. He is from the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation in northern Minnesota.

 

She was never a stereotype.

 

That was my thought earlier this month when I heard that “Mia,” as the Land O’Lakes Native American maiden was known, had been taken off the butter box. She was gone, vanished, missing. I knew Mia had devolved into a stereotype in many people’s minds. But it was the stereotype some saw that bothered me.

 

North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Buffalo (D), for instance, told the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., that the Land O’Lakes image of Mia went “hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls … by depicting Native women as sex objects.” Others similarly welcomed the company’s removal of the “butter maiden” as long overdue.

 

How did Mia go from being a demure Native American woman on a lakeshore to a sex object tied to the trafficking of native women?

 

I know the meaning of stereotypes. I participated in protests against mascots and logos using American Indian images in the early 1990s, including outside the Metrodome in Minneapolis when Washington’s team played the Buffalo Bills in the 1992 Super Bowl. In 1993, I wrote a booklet for the Anoka-Hennepin Indian Education Program about these stereotypes.

 

Mia was originally created for Land O’Lakes packaging in 1928. In 1939, she was redesigned as a native maiden kneeling in a farm field holding a butter box. In 1954, my father, Patrick DesJarlait, redesigned the image again.

 

My father had been interested in art since boyhood, when he drew images related to his Ojibwe culture. After leaving Pipestone boarding school in Minnesota in 1942, he joined the Navy and was assigned to San Diego, where he worked alongside animation artists from MGM and Walt Disney producing brochures and films for the war effort. In 1946, he established himself as one of the first modernists in American Indian fine art.

 

After I was born in 1946, my family moved from Red Lake, Minn., to Minneapolis, where my father broke racial barriers by establishing himself as an American Indian commercial artist in an art world dominated by white executives and artists. In addition to the Mia redesign, his many projects included creating the Hamm’s Beer bear. By often working with Native American imagery, he maintained a connection to his identity.

 

I was 8 years old when I met Mia. My father often brought his work home, and Mia was one of many commercial-art images I saw him work on in his studio.

 

With the redesign, my father made Mia’s Native American connections more specific. He changed the beadwork designs on her dress by adding floral motifs that are common in Ojibwe art. He added two points of wooded shoreline to the lake that had often been depicted in the image’s background. It was a place any Red Lake tribal citizen would recognize as the Narrows, where Lower Red Lake and Upper Red Lake meet.

 

In my education booklet, “Rethinking Stereotypes,” I noted that communicating misinformation is an underlying function of stereotypes, including through visual images. One way that these images convey misinformation is in a passive, subliminal way that uses inaccurate depictions of tribal symbols, motifs, clothing and historical references. The other kind of stereotypical, misinforming imagery is more overt, with physical features caricatured and customs demeaned. “Through dominant language and art,” I wrote, “stereotypic imagery allows one to see, and believe, in an invented image, an invented race, based on generalizations.”

 

I provided a number of examples. Mia wasn’t one of them. Not because she was part of my father’s legacy as a commercial artist and I didn’t want to offend him. Mia simply didn’t fit the parameters of a stereotype. Maybe that’s why many Native American women on social media have made it clear that they didn’t agree with those who viewed her as a romanticized and/or sexually objectified stereotype. Instead, Mia seems to have stirred a sense of remembrance and place, one that they found reassuring about their existence as Native American women.

 

I don’t know why Land O’Lakes dropped Mia. In 2018, the company changed the image by cropping it to a head shot. That adjustment didn’t seem like a bow to culturally correct pressure. Perhaps her disappearance this year is about nothing more than chief executive Beth Ford’s explanation that Land O’Lakes is focusing on the company’s heritage as a farmer-owned cooperative founded in 1921. But questions remain.

 

Mia’s vanishing has prompted a social media meme: “They Got Rid of The Indian and Kept the Land.” That isn’t too far from the truth. Mia, the stereotype that wasn’t, leaves behind a landscape voided of identity and history. For those of us who are American Indian, it’s a history that is all too familiar.

 

15567: WTFrogs.

 

Looks like the Budweiser frogs…oh, never mind.

 

15566: ANA Clannish Rally For Masters…?

 

Advertising Age reported on the annual ANA Masters of Marketing soiree, where COVID-19 likely inspired a drop in attendance from 3,000 in 2019 to 500 this year.

 

Most amusing—in an outrageously hypocritical way—is an image from the event (depicted above) showing ANA CEO Bob Liodice presenting the trade organization’s ethnicity figures. The numbers have not changed in the last three years. Hell, it’s a safe bet the numbers have not progressed much in the last three decades.

 

The “Masters” are still predominately White.

15565: Menos Migas Por Amigas Y Amigos.

 

Gee, what a coincidence. Just as MultiCultClassics noted the lack of enthusiasm for Latinxs in Adland—especially during National Hispanic Heritage Month—Advertising Age published a lengthy report spotlighting Latinx industry executives. The first three paragraphs communicate all one needs to know:

 

Latinos accounted for more than half of the United States’ population growth and the demographic now makes up nearly 19% of the country’s total population, according to data from the U.S. 2020 Census released last month. However, only 6% of the marketing industry’s investment is spent on the Hispanic community, according to the Hispanic Marketing Council.

 

But while the amount marketers spend on the demographic hasn’t evolved much, what has changed is how they spend it.

 

“I started [in the multicultural advertising industry] in the mid-‘90s and back then when you were pitching to clients, you were bringing your census numbers and you were showing your indices versus the general market,” said Sandra Alfaro, executive VP and managing partner of culture-first agency 305 Worldwide. “Today, it’s not about convincing them that they have to. The conversation has shifted to ‘How do we do it most effectively? How do we do it responsibly? How do we measure it?’”

 

To translate, Latinx agencies must be far more effective and efficient with waaaay less resources and money than their gringo counterparts.

 

¡Ay, crumb-a!

15564: In Adland, National Hispanic Heritage Month Historically Meh…

 

National Hispanic Heritage Month seems to highlight the marginalization of Latinxs in Adland. Indeed, it appears that the group has assumed the lowest position on the proverbial cultural totem pole—even under Native Americans, who at least received recognition with the erasure of sports mascots and Mia, the Land O’Lakes princess.

 

In recent times, other groups have been pseudo-saluted with plenty of patronizing propaganda. Advertisers and White advertising agencies gush with pride for the LGBTQ community. Asian Americans have been shown love with anti-hate campaigns, while anti-racist rhetoric has reverberated for Blacks—along with the departure of iconic stereotypes. Mental health is gaining greater share of mind. Condemning ageism is getting old. And of course, White women continue to lead the way with victimized vigor.

 

¿Dónde está some respect for Latinxs? Campaign spotlighted a handful of Latinx executives, while other trade journals published standard demographic data and minority perspectives. Yet there aren’t enough stock-photo-filled advertisements, telenovela parodies or marketing messages featuring mariachi bands to create a clichéd and contrived Clio collection.

 

¡Ay, caramba!

15563: Scholarships, Internships, Mentorships—And Full Of Ships.

 

Advertising Age reported on the latest heat shield from Procter & Gamble and Grey—Huenited—created to foster diversity by reaching out to minority high school and college students with scholarships, internships and mentoring. Wow. How original. Totally breakthrough bullshit, er, thinking from White enterprises angling for ADCOLOR^® trophies. The initiative smacks of classic delegating diversity maneuvers too. As P&G and Grey both admit to having “more work to do” in the area of diversity themselves, there’s blatant hypocrisy on display as well.

 

Procter & Gamble And Grey Back Group To Foster Diversity In Cincinnati Creative Community

 

Huenited will draw in other marketers and agencies to provide scholarships, internships, mentorship and awareness about creative careers

 

By Jack Neff

 

Procter & Gamble Co. is joining Grey Midwest and other Cincinnati-based creative agencies to launch Huenited, a non-profit group that aims to increase diversity in the city’s marketing and creative community by reaching out to high school and college students through scholarships, internships, mentoring and advocacy.

 

Most diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the marketing industry have been company-specific, national and focused on one part of the business — i.e. agencies or marketers. Huenited takes a different tack with a cross-industry effort in one city. Huenited, also initially led by executives from marketing and branding shops Katalyst Group and Hyperquake, aims to expose students to creative career options, plus offer mentorship, scholarships and internships to bring them into the industry.

 

“You can’t choose to pursue a career that you don’t know exists,” said Procter & Gamble Co. Design VP Tysonn Betts, who’s president of Huenited. “So the more we can expose students and their parents to the viability of creative careers the more likely we can get students to pursue them.”

 

The ad industry’s focus on diversity issues spiked last year in the wake of racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder. But discussions that led to Huenited actually started a year earlier following a discussion Betts was part of at Brandemonium, a Cincinnati marketing conference.

 

Jamie Grady, treasurer of Huenited and senior VP of finance and operations for WPP’s Grey Midwest, approached Betts and Sean Rugless, president of Katalyst and now VP of Huenited, after the two were part of a Brandemonium forum on diversity in the creative community. Those discussions led to Huenited being founded this year. The group will be formally introduced in a presentation this week at an all-virtual version of Brandemonium.

 

“The idea was born of creating a collective, bringing together all of the marketing and advertising agencies in town and as many of the big clients we have that purchase these services,” Grady said. “If we can pull together all our energy, intelligence and money, we might actually be able to make some significant change in the industry within the city.”

 

Huenited begins as the city of Cincinnati became “majority minority” for the first time in the 2020 census. Data show 48% of the population identifies as white and 52% as non-white. In the city, 41% of residents are Black, 5% Hispanic, 3% Asian, Pacific Islander or Native American and 6% cited two or more ethnic groups. In the metro region, the population is 77% white; 12% Black; 4% Hispanic; 5% Asian, Pacific Islander or Native American; and 6% reporting two or more ethnicities. Nationwide, 60% of the population was white in the 2020 census; 13% Black; 19% Hispanic; 7% Asian, Pacific Islander or Native American; and 3% two or more races.

 

There’s been no citywide study on diversity and inclusion in Cincinnati’s creative industry, but Grady said it could definitely be better. “There are quite a few agencies that don’t have a single Black person,” he said. “Some have one. Even Grey, while we’ve made some amazing strides over the last two years, we’re still below the percentage makeup of the demographic we’re trying to speak to.”

 

A pitch deck for Huenited breaks down sponsorship commitments into four tiers, ranging from $5,000 and 50 hours annually in time commitment for small businesses up to 49 employees up to $50,000 plus 500 hours from the biggest companies with 500-plus employees. Grady said initial reception has been positive from other branding and marketing agencies and big local marketers, such as Kroger Co. P&G’s involvement as a charter supporter will play a big role in helping draw others, he said.

 

P&G last year reported progress on diversity in hiring and management over the past five years but showed needs for improvement, particularly with Black and Hispanic employees and managers, whose proportions remained below that for the U.S. population as a whole.

 

New York University marketing professor and industry pundit Scott Galloway, speaking at P&G’s Signal 2021 virtual event in July, challenged the company to drop requirements for college degrees if it wants to make strides in diversity hiring.

 

“We need more on-ramps into the greatest wealth creator to build the middle class in history, and that is U.S. corporation,” Galloway said. “What P&G needs to do [is] take 10, 20, 40, 50% of their entry-level jobs and decide that they don't necessarily require a traditional four-year bachelor of arts. Because when you say at P&G, or Apple or Tesla we are only going to hire college grads, what you've said is, ‘We want to hire less Black people. We want to hire less Latino people. We want to hire, less, single mothers.’”

 

“Certainly that conversation is not a new one and is maturing a bit now as we figure things out,” P&G’s Betts said. “As we’ve continued to recruit at P&G and tried to understand how to meet our own goals in terms of diversity, we understand that we have to do something different to get a different result. There are lots of folks in the industry who are practicing as creatives who may not have a college degree as a creative.”

 

Grady notes that one way Huenited will help address the education issue is by providing full scholarships for creative education in the city, which has, among other things, what Betts described as strong creative programs at magnet high schools, the top U.S. public design school at the University of Cincinnati, and other strong offerings nearby, including at the University of Northern Kentucky. Internship and mentorship opportunities from member companies will also play a role, Grady said.

15562: Not Feeling It, Fleet.

 

It would have been better if the copywriter who shat out this Fleet commercial experienced writer’s block…

 

 

15561: Latino Media Needs Mucho Mas Crumbs…

 

Digiday published an interview with Canela Media Founder and CEO Isabel Rafferty—presumably to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month—who says spending with Latino media is moving in a positive direction, “but the reality is the dollars are not where they need to be.” Perhaps Rafferty should take inspiration from Byron Allen…?

 

‘The dollars are not where they need to be’: A minority, woman-owned media company isn’t begging for ad support, but still sees room for change

 

By Kimeko McCoy

 

More than a year after social justice calls put further pressure on brands to spend their money in meaningful ways, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are still a priority for many in adland. While they made DE&I pledges in 2020, this year was slated for action. It’s been notable among the biggest brands: in May, McDonald’s announced a plan to increase spend with diverse-owned media and in June, GroupM pledged to commit 2% of ad dollars to Black-owned media.

 

While many in the industry admit there’s more to be done, a newly launched minority and woman-owned digital media company, Canela Media, says it’s a step in the right direction as advertisers look to make good on their promises.

 

The New York City-based company has been around since 2019. But after last year, the company says more advertisers have looked to it in hopes to reach multicultural audiences. Earlier this year, Canela Media hosted its first-ever Upfront presentation and has recently acquired clients like McDonald’s, Lexus, Amazon, Verizon and Nissan. According to a Canela spokesperson, Hyundai and Target have already committed to brand partnerships in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

 

Digiday caught up with Canela Media founder and CEO Isabel Rafferty, to talk about being a young, Latinx-founded media company and why holding advertisers accountable to their diversity commitments matters.

 

This interview has been edited lightly for clarity.

 

After 2020, a slew of advertisers made diversity and inclusion pledges. How did that impact Canela Media?

 

Canela Media got the chance to be part of the two biggest forces happening in the market. One was the pandemic, where streaming grew rapidly. The other way is the social justice movement that has changed advertiser’s investments in multicultural communities forever. Our business boomed from having to beg advertisers to now being in a situation where we have all these brands that have never done multicultural work are saying how do we do it? Although it’s positive to see that change, there’s still not enough of an investment [compared] to the audience. When you start digging with some of these brands with huge press releases advertising multicultural [efforts], you start seeing the numbers. Percentages look amazing, but the reality is the dollars are not where they need to be.

 

Why do you think that’s the case?

 

The first thing that always got cut was advertising to minorities if you have budget cuts. But now, advertising to Latinos is not what they’re cutting. They’re not willing to.

 

Over the last year, how has that been remedied? How do you keep advertisers accountable?

 

When you dig into it, a lot of these companies say things because it looks good, but they’re not investing. Sometimes there are good intentions at the CMO level, but they don’t have the infrastructure below to make it happen. It gets lost and they go for whatever is easier, like putting money in Univision and calling it a day. It’s not being very authentic in their strategy. However, it’s going to take time. We’re going in a good direction.

 

As we see more advertisers and brands willing to have minorities and people like me at the table, that are willing to be outspoken and hold them accountable, that’s the only way to make change. You need to have minorities at the table having those conversations. We should not be an afterthought when they make those decisions. We need to be there ahead of structuring their campaigns.

 

What’s the importance of advertising with minority-owned media companies like Canela Media?

 

We’re built by Latinos for Latinos. To grow in the Latino community, authenticity is required. We can always tell when a brand is trying to reach us authentically. The expertise that we bring to the table on how to connect with us meaningfully and create content that resonates with those audiences (and subsets of it that’s not putting all Latinos in one bucket), that’s the difference.

 

You go to any other service and they’ll say, ‘Here’s a bucket full of Latinos. I don’t know who they are, but I can target them.’ No, let’s think about which audience, messaging, content and how we’re going to connect with them authentically with culturally relevant content. Working with a platform that is built by Latinos for Latinos, it doesn’t get more authentic than that.

15560: A Senior Moment From Amnesty International…?

 

Does this Amnesty International advertisement from Belgium—advocating for seniors’ rights—push stereotypes by symbolizing seniors as doddering cane carriers?