6093: R&D Recruitment & Diversity.

Wonder if you need a microscope to find minorities in this field.

6092: GLBTidbits.

Weekend bits in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Chicago will vote on November 19 to create the city’s first high school for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. If successful, the place is bound to stage some fabulous high school musicals. Just kidding.

• Apple pledged $100,000 to defeat California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure designed to ban gay marriage. Next, the company will announce the engagement of the Mac and PC advertising characters.

6091: Minus Marketing y Medios y Multiculturalism.

In addition to saying hasta la vista to Marketing y Medios, Nielsen Media recently bid adios to former Marketing y Medios senior editor Della DeLaFuente and senior editor John Consoli—which essentially translates to no más Hispanic marketing expertise.

Not sure how these moves demonstrate the “new content development strategy to gather, report and analyze news and information from an increasingly diverse and complex marketplace.”

In the meantime, look forward to mucho fútbol y flamingos.

6090: Beautiful. And Smart Too.

If you’re stylish with long, flowing hair—and you can solve complex mathematical equations—you’ve got a career with Accenture.

6089: Gains And Losses.

Ups and downs with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis suspended sales of its anti-obesity drug after health officials stated the drug posed too many risks. Or maybe Sanofi-Aventis saw McDonald’s continuously escalating profits and decided, “Aw, fuck it.”

• Xerox announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs. The affected employees can expect to receive termination paperwork as soon as someone unjams the Xerox machines and gets the damned things to work.

• The New York Times announced 3Q profits dropped 51 percent. Ironically, it was not exclusively reported in The New York Times.

• Samsung reported 3Q profits dropped 44 percent. “Overall, our third-quarter earnings were impacted by the worsening market conditions resulting from the slowdown in the global economy,” said Samsung’s executive vice president. “Moreover, our DRAM, NAND and LCD businesses all faced steep price declines led by persistent oversupply in the industry.” Hey, you can never have too many DRAMs, NANDs and LCDs.

6088: Women Wanted. Decent Art Directors Too.

State Farm agent or Valpak franchisee? The benefits—and the layouts—are virtually identical.

6087: Polish Joke.

Can someone please translate/explain this Polish ad?

6086: Hop Sing In The House.

Singing along with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Metromedia Restaurant Group, which owns the Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouse brands, filed for bankruptcy with the restaurants. Guess Hop Sing will be looking for a new job soon.

• Speaking of Hip Hop singers (OK, it’s not the smoothest segue), 50 Cent reached a settlement with his ex-girlfriend over visitation rights for their 11-year-old kid. The son will spend one weekend per month with Fiddy, plus a month in the summer and half of his spring and winter breaks. No word on who gets to keep the fire-gutted house.

• Allstate reported a 3Q loss of $923 million, citing hurricane-related losses and the continuing financial crisis. Would the financial crisis be categorized as a man-made disaster?

• AT&T reported 3Q earnings rose 5.5 percent, probably thanks to subsidized iPhone sales. There’s nothing like riding Steve Jobs’ coattails to profits—it’s the only network you need.

• Chrysler announced plans to cut 1,825 jobs, while GM is cutting employee benefits. Gee, if these two auto companies do merge, will anyone want to work there?

6085: A Passion For Patronizing.

A passion for my family and a passion for my work!

Find your passion and you’ve found your profession.

Perhaps you’ll find potential employees here.

6084: Vice Makes Nice Profits.

Profits and propositions in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Philip Morris reported 3Q profits puffed up 20.6 percent. Mickey D’s reported 3Q profits super-sized 11 percent. Now, if these corporations were to introduce the McMarlboro Cigarette Sandwich, they would probably rule the Earth.

• Wachovia reported 3Q losses at $24 billion. Shareholders will soon be eating at McDonald’s and bumming cigarettes from their peers.

• San Francisco is considering decriminalizing prostitution. Proposition K goes before voters next month, and the measure would prohibit local cops from investigating, arresting or prosecuting people for selling sex not involving minors. If successful, look for Wachovia to offer new banking services.

6083: Sweet And Sour Asian Dishes.

To hawk the Asian Collection from Corelle, the advertiser uses Asians. Very subtle—like smashing a plate over one’s head. And what’s with the stormy relationship? Based on the woman’s ring finger, the couple isn’t even engaged.

6082: You Say Flamingo. I Say Flamenco.

Adweek ran a story that presented the potential road ahead now that Nielsen Media has decided to completely erase Marketing y Medios. The title and subhead read:

Not Lost in Translation
As major brands will attest, the differences between general-market ads and their Hispanic versions are subtle, but critical

How subtle? Don’t mean to be critical, but here’s another excerpt:

At H&R Block, for example, a primary goal of the general market campaign was to wean consumers off tax software. But research revealed different barriers among Hispanics. One was the misperception that retail branch employees didn't speak Spanish, an idea countered by a pair of Spanish-speaking flamingo dancers in another TV spot.

Flamingo dancers? Well, flamingos are certainly graceful, but can’t recall seeing any capable of dancing—except in Fantasia 2000.

Could Adweek possibly have meant flamenco dancers? Granted, the difference is subtle, but critical. ¿Comprende?

Sombrero tip to Laura Martinez for birdwatching.

6081: Human Networking Lacks Humanity.

On the human network, your office has a view of Africa, Europe and Asia. Which is corporate-speak meaning you’ll have wireless access in the worst cubicle in the joint.

6080: Falling Profits? Bank On It.

Late-breaking market reports in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Not to be outdone by other failing banks, National City reported 3Q losses at $5.15 billion and announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs. Looks like National City should have charged fees after all. Lots and lots of fees.

• Apple reported a 26 percent profit jump, spiked by iPhone sales. Ironically, the PC character is doing quite well financially.

• Yahoo! saw 3Q profits drop 64 percent, prompting the decision to cut 1,500 jobs. First, Washington Mutual had to stifle its Whoo hoo! Now, there’s uncomfortable silence from Yahoo! Quick, somebody check on Yoo-hoo!

6079: The Death Of Dolemite Dude.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Rudy Ray Moore dies at 81; comedian and filmmaker influenced rap and hip-hop

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart

Rudy Ray Moore, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Rap” who influenced generations of rappers and comedians with his rhyming style, braggadocio and profanity-laced routines, has died. He was 81.

Moore, whose low-budget films were panned by critics in the 1970s but became cult classics decades later, died Sunday night in Toledo, Ohio, of complications from diabetes, his brother Gerald told the Associated Press.

Though he was little known to mainstream audiences, Moore had a significant effect on comedians and hip-hop artists.

“People think of black comedy and think of Eddie Murphy,” rap artist Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew told the Miami Herald in 1997. “They don’t realize [Moore] was the first, the biggest underground comedian of them all. I listened to him and patterned myself after him.”

And in the liner notes to the 2006 release of the soundtrack to Moore’s 1975 motion picture “Dolemite,” hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg said:

“Without Rudy Ray Moore, there would be no Snoop Dogg, and that’s for real.”

When it came to his own sense of his accomplishments, Moore was never burdened by immodesty.

“These guys Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac claim they’re the Kings of Comedy,” Moore told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2003. “They may be funny, but they ain’t no kings. That title is reserved for Rudy Ray Moore and Redd Foxx.”

The heyday of his fame was in the 1970s, with the release of “Dolemite” followed by “The Human Tornado,” “Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil’s Son-in-Law” and “Money Hustler.”

The way Moore told it, his introduction to Dolemite came from an old wino named Rico, who frequented a record shop Moore managed in Los Angeles. Rico told foul-mouthed stories about Dolemite, a tough-talking, super-bad brother, whose exploits had customers at the record shop falling down with laughter.

One day Moore recorded Rico telling his stories. Later Moore assumed the role of Dolemite, a character who became the cornerstone of his decades-long career as a raunchy comedian, filmmaker and blues singer.

“What you call dirty words,” he often said, “I call ghetto expression.”

But long before “Dolemite” debuted on theater screens, Moore had found fame -- and fans -- through stand-up routines and a series of sexually explicit comedy albums.

Not only were the album contents raunchy, the album covers featured women and Moore nude and were too racy for display. So store clerks kept the albums under the counter. Without airplay or big-studio promotion, the so-called party records were underground hits.

“I put records in my car and traveled and walked across the U.S. I walked to the ghetto communities and told people to take the record home and let their friends hear it. And before I left the city, my record would be a hit. This is how it started for me,” he told the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 2001.

Although contemporaries such as Foxx and Richard Pryor found success with a broader audience, Moore’s stardom was bounded by the geography of race and class: He was a hit largely in economically disadvantaged African American communities.

According to his website, Moore was born in Fort Smith, Ark., on March 17, 1927.

In his youth Moore worked as a dancer and fortune teller and he entertained while serving in the U.S. Army. But his big break came with the recording of his Dolemite routine:

Dolemite is my name

And rappin and tappin

That’s my game

I’m young and free

And just as bad as I wanna

be.

By the time Dolemite appeared on film, he was the ultimate ghetto hero: a bad dude, profane, skilled at kung-fu, dressed to kill and hell-bent on protecting the community from evil menaces. He was a pimp with a kung-fu-fighting clique of prostitutes and he was known for his sexual prowess.

For all the stereotypical images, Moore bristled at the term blaxploitation.

“When I was a boy and went to the movies, I watched Roy Rogers and Tim Holt and those singing cowboys killing Indians, but they never called those movies ‘Indian exploitation’ -- and I never heard ‘The Godfather’ called ‘I-talian exploitation,’” he told a reporter for the Cleveland Scene in 2002.

Late in life, Moore saw his work win fans far beyond his African American audience. There is a “Dolemite” website and chat room that boasts a cross-cultural collection of young fans. Such interest won him mainstream work in an advertisement for Altoid Mints and a commercial for Levi's jeans.

Though Moore built a career on talking dirty, he was very religious. He took pride in taking his mother to the National Baptist Convention each year and often spoke in church at various functions. He rationalized his role as a performer.

“I wasn’t saying dirty words just to say them,” he told the Miami Herald in 1997. “It was a form of art, sketches in which I developed ghetto characters who cursed. I don’t want to be referred to as a dirty old man, rather a ghetto expressionist.”

6078: Zo long, Zima. Viva Viagra.

Newz in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• MillerCoors stopped producing Zima malt liquor beverage on October 10. The probable reason behind the move: Zima zucked.

• Pfizer reported 3Q profits tripled, due primarily because a huge charge depressed the previous year’s results. You should see your doctors for profits lasting more than four hours.

6077: Stereotypical Exhibition.

If you’re in Chicago between now and January 18, 2009, catch the exhibition at Spertus Museum—Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others. Here’s the official hype:

Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others explores the ways images and objects that depict stereotypes are seen, perceived, and classified. Stereotypes and clichés are an integral part of our perception, shaping our image of ourselves and others as well as our sense of belonging to a distinct group or nation apart from others. Through their simplification, these characterizations may help us to overcome our fear of the unknown, but at the same time, serve as a breeding ground for racist ideologies.

Twisted Into Recognition is a multimedia exhibition that juxtaposes historical objects, items from material culture, and contemporary art and film to demonstrate the persistence of stereotypes (whether intentional or supposed) and how they have been subverted for commentary today. This exhibition was organized by the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Jewish Museum Vienna.

Twisted Into Recognition is a cornucopia of cultural clichés, presented in a contemporary and provocative style. The exhibition features a series of mini-galleries covering a range of stereotypes.

On the 10th floor of the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, the show opens with 49 Jewish Noses by Dennis Kardon, a collection of nasal sculptures hanging upon the gallery wall. Accompanying Kardon’s work are other sculptures by Rudolf Beling, Gerd Bauer and Rudi Sopper.

The next installation spotlights Black Venus and Aunt Jemima, with a filmed performance of Josephine Baker, a related painting by Hassan Musa and an Aunt Jemima syrup dispenser from the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.

From Jesus Christ to Michael Jackson to Harakiri School Girls, the exhibition covers a lot of cultural ground in a variety of media. There’s even a reference to Bill Bernbach’s iconic “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s real Jewish Rye” advertising campaign. If you can’t experience it all live, try ordering the catalog from Spertus Shop. It’s a $40 hardcover and the text is in German, but the high-quality plates display everything just fine.

6076: Women’s Work.

In the advertising world, businesswomen are either florists or fashion designers.

6075: Marketing y Medios y Adios.

Hispanic Market Weekly confirmed the news from Laura Martinez that Nielsen Media is completely eliminating Marketing y Medios. In roughly four years, Marketing y Medios has gone from monthly publication to monthly insert to weekly email to memory, as the website is also being dismantled. While it’s a dream come true for the Minuteman Project, the rest of us can look forward to quarterly Nielsen revelations like, “Latinos Love Fútbol!” Of course, there will be no reduction in Latino-related coverage spanking rival Arbitron and its controversial PPM. And as always, Nielsen didn’t even wait for the office cleaning lady to sweep up the piñata debris from the company’s Hispanic Heritage Month party before saying adios. If you need an expression to accurately describe this sad scenario, you’ll find plenty in Martinez’s book.

6074: Time To Reinvent The Wheel.

Petra Group sure goes to extremes, from depicting a kid cuddling a bunny to Armageddon and back to a happy, harmonious world. Maybe the ads should have included the children in a fight to the death with the Michelin Man.