7722: Oh Mama, BP And Ogilvy Suck.

Jim Edwards at BNET reported on a bp commercial featuring a soccer match between café owners and Black mamas. The spot was created by Ogilvy Johannesburg, demonstrating that the advertising industry has no business practicing in Africa.

7721: The Art Of Authentic Indian Art.

Native American art is federally recognized for authenticity. The Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins would probably not pass standards.

7720: PETA Perverts Prejudiced?

How come most PETA porn ads try to be tastefully artsy, but Nia Long is in a scummy subway train posing like a pole dancer?

7719: Gambling On Business Success.

Is it odd for the Native American Economic Summit to be held at a casino?

7718: Madison Avenue Heads To Africa…?

Advertising Age presented a lengthy piece titled, Adworld Explores Final Frontier: Africa, ‘Continent of Opportunity.’ Wow, can’t think of an industry more qualified to handle that cultural task. The story reported, “Until now, Western agency networks that have been on the continent have largely operated out of South Africa…” No surprise there.

7717: Who’s Your Diddy?

Weekend wrap-up with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Sean “Diddy” Combs provided a succinct answer when asked about giving his 16-year-old son a car worth $360,000 as a birthday present. He said, “I think it’s appropriate to give my kids whatever I want to give my kids. I feel the way I raise my children, I don’t have to explain to you or anyone else, ‘cause nobody knows the way I raise my children. So nobody knows the lessons that I’ve taught my children to understand, if they are mentally ready for that.” However, it sure puts a lot of pressure on the son to deliver a comparable Father’s Day gift.

• Lawyers for O.J. Simpson continue pursuing appeals to overturn his conviction, citing the jury’s racial makeup and the judge’s conduct as key issues. During oral arguments in Las Vegas on Friday, attorney Yale Galanter said, “Mr. Simpson really believed he was recovering his own property.” Simpson also really believed someone else killed his ex-wife.

7716: Playing The RFP Lottery.

The California State Lottery posted a Request for Proposal at AdAge.com. The chances of winning the account are slightly less than winning, well, the lottery.

7715: Minorities Deserve A Medal.

The U.S. Mint is seeking artists to create coins and medals. Bet they’ll get paid one silver dollar per hour.

7714: Brit Bias & Bigotry Bunk…?

From The Chicago Tribune…

An ‘anti-Brit’ eruption?
Let’s all be beastly to the Brits

After President Barack Obama suggested the firing of the CEO of BP and talked about his desire to get the facts “so I know whose ass to kick,” people in Britain detected a foul whiff of unwarranted animus toward them.

A member of the House of Lords denounced this “crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan, political presidential petulance.” The mayor of London objected to the “anti-British rhetoric.” Prime Minister David Cameron has come under attack for not hitting back at the president.

Oh, please. Obama words weren’t genteel, but they also weren’t anti-British. It’s not as if he vilified Tony Hayward as “a tea-swilling, monarch-worshipping soccer hooligan spawned by a defunct empire whose highest contribution to cuisine is something called “toad in the hole.”

No, the way we calibrate indignation, Obama was restrained. Imagine an America in which there really was an eruption of bitter anti-British fury in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. Imagine defiant gestures from Maine to Hawaii:

• Imagine NBC dropping coverage of Wimbledon in favor of the Nebraska State Tractor Pull Finals.

• American women boycotting Burberry and sending their plaid scarves and umbrellas to Louisiana to be used sopping up oil.

• Mounds of angrily signed petitions demanding that Posh Spice be deported.

• State legislatures moving ahead with legislation to ban English and make Spanish the official national language.

To hear the Brits’ tender gasps at Obama’s testy words, you’d think the BP spill had unleashed a rage that has simmered ever since the lobsterbacks torched the White House in the War of 1812. Truth is, most of today’s Americans are less perturbed about that infamous blow to Anglo-American relations than they are about the arrival of Simon Cowell.

The British think Obama has been too rough on them? They’re lucky he hasn’t dumped a shipload of Tang in the English Channel to give them a taste of their own medicine.

As Americans, we know we owe more than a few things to our British cousins, such as democracy and Monty Python. Jane Austen, too. We’re grateful.

We may even forget that BP originally stood for British Petroleum, once the company has paid for all the damage it caused.

7713: ‘Ask A Mexican’ Says Thank A Custodian.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Columnist urges UCLA grads to thank campus workers

By Larry Gordon

Gustavo Arellano, the writer of the satiric “¡Ask a Mexican!” column in the OC Weekly, delivered a commencement speech Friday night to UCLA’s College of Letters and Science and took note of two groups that did not want him there.

Labor unions had asked Arellano and other University of California graduation speakers to drop out of the ceremonies in solidarity with workers’ protests against UC.

Arellano instead urged the 4,500 graduates to thank the custodians and cafeteria workers for their hard work and “to raise Cain with those responsible for slashing the funds and budgets that imperil our beautiful campus and its faithful employees,” according to an advance text.

Arellano, who earned a master’s in Latin American studies at UCLA in 2003, also mentioned critics who said he was not enough of a celebrity to merit the honor. “I only regret that the Facebook group created against me didn’t have more members than the one students created last year against James Franco,” he said jokingly.

Franco, the film actor who also is a UCLA alumnus, dropped out as speaker last year, saying work obligations had kept him abroad, but some students suspected that he did not want to face similar protests against his selection.

In his speech, Arellano praised former UCLA basketball Coach John Wooden, who died last week at age 99, describing the coach as a model of fortitude in tough times. Arellano said that Wooden, then a young man, had lost his life savings in the banking collapse of the Great Depression but was undeterred.

“Yes, Class of 2010, Coach Wooden was a college graduate nervous about the future. And I am sure he’d be the first to say that if an Indiana farm boy could make his life a masterpiece and better us all in the process, so can you.”

The graduation ceremony included a special tribute to Wooden, featuring a procession of athletes and other students carrying flags.

7712: Playing The Race Greeting Card.

From DailyBreeze.com…

Local NAACP branch: Hallmark greeting card is thinly veiled racism

By Sandy Mazza Staff Writer

[A] Hallmark greeting card either delivers some quirky, fiery graduation wishes or it conveys a racist attack against black women.

The Carson-Torrance branch of the NAACP claims the musical card — featuring cartoon dogs Hoops and Yoyo — is a low blow at African-Americans.

On Tuesday, the Carson City Council will vote on a resolution to encourage Hallmark Cards Inc. to quickly remove the card wherever it is sold.

Local black leaders claim that it is a thinly veiled racist message. The main point of contention is the use of the phrase “black holes,” which some believe actually says “black whores” or “black hos.”

“It’s passive intent aggressively stated in a way that makes African-Americans feel insulted,” said Olivia Verrett, president of the Carson-Torrance branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The card is saying that “I (as a black woman) am below class, and feel as though I can run the universe, but I’m not going to run the universe because I have to watch my back,” Verrett said.

The card came to the attention of the Los Angeles and Carson-Torrance NAACP chapters recently, after the Chicago chapter notified them about it, she said.

The card says: “You’re graduating? Well then, it’s time to let the world know what’s coming. … But not only the world, noooo! We’re talking the entire solar system! The world is yours grad!”

High-pitched voices in the card’s automated recording jokingly threaten the world and universe: “You better watch out ‘cause this graduate here’s kicking rear and takin’ names (laughter). This graduate’s gonna run the world, run the universe, and run everything after that, whatever that is. And you black holes — you’re so ominous (laughter). Congratulations! And you planets — watch your back!”

Steve Doyal, spokesman for Hallmark Cards Inc., said the company does not believe the card is racist. But because of complaints from the NAACP, it has already destroyed its inventory of the card, which has been in circulation for three years. Hallmark has also alerted its stores and franchises to remove the card from shelves, and offered to reimburse franchise locations for the expense, Doyal said.

“We believe that the intent of the card was clear,” Doyal said. “It’s solar system-universe based. When it was pointed out to us that some people did not hear what we intended to do, we removed it from the marketplace. I don’t think there’s anything more we can do. We’ve demonstrated positive intent and hope people recognize that.”

But Verrett and others said Hallmark should issue a formal apology to African-Americans. They also said they found the card in Hallmark stores in Redondo Beach and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula as recently as last week.

Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes, who is an NAACP member, said she will probably vote in support of the resolution on Tuesday.

“I’m insulted in the first place because we, as black women, cannot be victimized if, in fact, it says ‘ho,”’ she said. “I think Hallmark owes an apology. If there’s an inkling of a doubt, it should be dealt with. People are outraged.”

7711: Another AAF A-Hole.

Advertising Age presented another fluff piece spotlighting one more AAF A-hole. Now the organization “wants to be the public face” of the industry. Brainstorming includes launching a reality TV series. Whose version of reality has yet to be determined. AAF President James Datri hopes to feature the “bright, young, diverse, talented kids that represent the very best of advertising and its future.” Which should contrast nicely with the dull, old, White, mediocre adults who represent the very worst majority of Madison Avenue and its past and present. Datri’s résumé includes lobbyist, lawyer and ad wonk—making him a perfect example of the field’s honest-to-goodness, true, authentic, unfiltered reality.

AAF Wants to Put Public Face on Advertising Industry
Exploring Reality TV Show, Bricks-and-Mortar Hall of Fame

By Rance Crain

ORLANDO -- The American Advertising Federation wants to be the public face of advertising and among its initiatives to accomplish this goal is exploring a reality TV show to showcase young ad people.

James Datri, president of AAF, believes advertising suffers because it doesn’t have a public face (unlike doctors or lawyers) and if the industry doesn’t present such a face others will “fill in for us.” And whether it’s consumer decisions or public policy and regulation, it’s a lot easier to legislate against the industry without a public persona, Mr. Datri said.

Mr. Datri is presenting his vision for the advertising industry Friday morning at AAF’s national conference here.

As part of this vision, the AAF this week announced its institute for advertising ethics in cooperation with the University of Missouri. The institute’s charge is to come up with key principles of advertising ethics, and the University of Missouri will research links between advertising and ethics and brand values. AAF will present awards to companies judged to be most ethical at next year’s national conference.

Mr. Datri said AAF is also starting an online hub for members to seek answers to questions they have about careers and ad practices.

Engage the public
Stage two, Mr. Datri said, is to engage the public by showcasing the “bright, young, diverse, talented kids that represent the very best of advertising and its future.”

In this regard, the AAF is in “very serious concrete talks” with a producer willing to commit major resources to a reality TV show based on how young ad students put together ad campaigns for the National Student Advertising Competition. (This year’s NSAC for State Farm Insurance was won by Chapman University in Orange, Cal.) Several networks, Mr. Datri said, have shown interest in the project. Ad Age first reported on that project in May 2009.

To make the public face of advertising more visible AAF also wants to give the Advertising Hall of Fame a brick-and-mortar presence in New York City.

Shot at change
Mr. Datri’s career encompasses jobs and professions that are low in the respect quotient—lobbyist, lawyer and now advertising. But he thinks advertising has a good shot at a change for the better.

“I think we’re at a time when public trust and belief in industry and government is at a real low point. This is a chance for us to not just be a leader of the advertising industry but a leader amongst industries. We want to play a broader role, and we can accomplish this. I know we can achieve it, I know we can make a difference,” Mr. Datri said.

Also announced at the event: The American Advertising Federation and Security Point Media are collaborating on an ad contest to assure tourists that Florida is open for business. Security Point is donating ad messages on the bottom of security bins in airports across the country for the winning entries of a contest to publicize that oil gushing in the Gulf of Mexico isn’t affecting vacations in Florida. Creator of the first place poster gets $1,000. Second place is $750 and third receives $500. Security Point has bins in 22 airports and expects to add ten more by the end of the year. Microsoft, Sun, Honda, Zappos and Schwab are among Security’s major advertisers.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the nature of the talks regarding the reality TV show and report the AAF-Security Point collaboration.

7710: FEMA Is All Wet.

Like a flooded home, this FEMA ad packs quite a stench. Besides, FEMA hardly has a reputation for professionally responding after floods.

7709: Coleman Covered.

From The New York Daily News…

Globe Magazine publishes shocking deathbed photo of Gary Coleman

By Meena Hartenstein, Daily New Staff Writer

In yet another tragic twist in the saga of late former child star Gary Coleman, a shocking photo of the actor on his deathbed was released today on the cover of Globe Magazine with the splashy headline ‘IT WAS MURDER.’

As Coleman lies inert with eyes closed in the photo, bandaged and breathing from tubes, his ex-wife Shannon Price stands by his side looking directly into the camera. Price made headlines this week after rumors circulated that she had tried to profit by marketing other photos of Coleman.

Dion Mial, Coleman’s longtime friend, former manager and executor of a 1999 copy of his will, has accused Price of selling the deathbed photo to the Globe. He labeled it an “ongoing desperate attempt” to capitalize from the tragedy, reports CNN.

Price’s rep did not deny Mial’s accusation but did release a statement saying Price needed money because she had helped Mial pay for a lawyer.

American Media, the Globe’s parent company, admitted it did buy the photo, which is purported to be the last one ever taken of the ill-fated actor. Spokesperson Samantha Trenk, however, would not confirm what was paid for the image or who sold it, according to CNN.com.

Although Coleman and Price, 24, were legally divorced at the time of his death, it was confirmed by Utah Valley Regional Medical Center that Price did have legal consent from Coleman to make medical decisions on his behalf.

Price also told ABC’s Good Morning America Monday that the two were very much still together and in fact had planned to renew their vows.

7708: Mouse Type.

Chuck E. Cheese’s needs an everyday proofreader. Every day, in fact.

7707: Dumb Move, Toyota.

Oh, so now Toyota is bringing in the SMART Teams to address safety? Were the DUMB Teams responsible for the Prius?

7706: Marvin Isley (1956-2010).

Marvin Isley of The Isley Brothers dies at age 56 in Chicago

From The New York Daily News…

By Jim Farber, Daily News Music Writer

Marvin Isley, whose muscular bass lines propelled the hits of his classic sibling band The Isley Brothers, died Monday in Chicago at age 56.

The cause of death has not yet been announced, though Isley suffered from diabetes severe enough to have caused him to leave the band in 1997. Later, his condition led to the amputation of both legs.

Isley will be remembered for the resilience and power of his bass work, which, for one thing, formed a crucial hook in the undulating ‘70s hit “Fight The Power.” The bassist also played on the smash “Who’s That Lady,” as well as on prominent songs like “For The Love Of You” and “Harvest For The World.”

Isley, who grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, wasn’t old enough to join the first incarnation of the Isley Brothers, who have a history snaking back to the mid-’50s and who scored hits in the ‘60s like 1966’s “This Old Heart Of Mine” and the funky, 1969 track “It’s Your Thing.” By the late ‘60s, while still of high school age, Isley formed a trio with older brother Ernie and brother-in-law Chris Jasper. By the dawn of the ‘70s, those three pacted with the other Members of the group to create the classic “3+3” album, which went Top Ten in 1973.

In 1984, the Isleys fractured again. The original group continued to perform under their brand name while Marvin, Ernie, and Chris became Isley-Jasper-Isley. With that group, Marvin scored a No. 1 R&B single with “Caravan of Love.”

For the ‘90s, Marvin once again became an Isley Brother. But by ‘97s, his illness forced him to quit.

In 1992, he was inducted, along with the other key Isley Brothers, into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.

Two early members of the group have also died: O’Kelly Isley Jr. in 1996 at age 48 and Vernon Isley, who died back in 1955, at the age of just 13, after being hit by a car on his bicycle.

The group’s two best known members — singer Ron Isley and guitarist Ernie Isley — continue to perform under the group’s name.

7705: The Latest AAF BS.

Advertising Age reported on the creation of an Institute for Advertising Ethics. The goal of the organization will be to combat the negative perceptions the public has about the ad industry. As always, the morons behind this effort don’t seem to realize there’s a very easy way to appear more ethical: Be more ethical. Lead idiot Wally Snyder actually had the audacity to compare the IAE to other AAF pipe dreams like the Mosaic Awards and diversity initiatives. Um, pointing to the “success” of such things only confirms the dearth of ethics—as well as the dearth of ethnics.

Ad Industry Battles Back Against Bad Rep, Forms Ethics Institute

AAF Partnership With University of Missouri Led by Wally Snyder Draws Marketing Heavyhitters to Its Board

By Jack Neff

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It’s no secret that consumers don’t exactly think highly of the advertising industry—especially when it comes to ethics. So the American Advertising Foundation is teaming up with the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute this week to launch an Institute for Advertising Ethics.

In a 2007 Gallup/USA Today Poll, advertising practitioners ranked third from last among professions in public perception of honesty and ethics, just ahead of lobbyists and car salesmen and below congressmen, state officeholders and business executives.

The institute, to be formally announced at the AAF national conference June 11 in Orlando, will research what matters most to consumers regarding advertising ethics, and will develop a set of principles for marketers and agencies to follow.

The AAF is providing seed money, office space and staffing to help launch and run the institute, which the group’s former president, Wally Snyder, will head as executive director. An advisory board of current and former industry leaders includes former Procter & Gamble Co. Global Marketing Officer Bob Wehling, who said he began pushing to create the institute in 2008 in response to the Gallup poll.

“I’ve been concerned about this issue my whole life,” Mr. Wehling said. “I’ve seen so many people shade the truth. This is my profession, and I feel like it’s being desecrated by so many people.”

University of Missouri research, led by Mr. Snyder as an adjunct professor, indicates honest advertising is the single biggest factor in corporate reputation, ranking ahead of sustainability and corporate-social-responsibility programs.

Yet about a third of consumers don’t feel advertising is ethical, Mr. Snyder said.

“So there’s an opportunity here to really enhance the ethics,” he said. “And as companies do that, they’re going to really get a better response.”

What people think
Missouri’s research, if anything, is more forgiving than Gallup’s, which found only 6% of people gave advertising practitioners high or very high marks for ethics, compared to 42% who gave them low or very low marks.

“How are we ever going to have a positive relationship with our consumers and recruit the best and brightest people into the profession in the future if people think we’re charlatans?” Mr. Wehling said.

When he accepted his entry into the AAF Hall of Achievement in 2008, about five months after the poll came out, Mr. Wehling called on attendees to take up the charge to improve the industry’s image. He said the effort got immediate support from Mr. Snyder and some others now on the new institute’s board of advisers, such as Omnicom Group Vice Chairman Tim Love and William Price, founder of Cincinnati media agency Empower Media Marketing, a Missouri alum.

The institute’s first order of business is conducting research on what matters to consumers regarding advertising ethics, including in emerging areas such as behavioral targeting and online privacy, said Margaret Duffy, associate professor of strategic communications at Missouri, who will lead a research effort that will also include in-depth interviews with industry practitioners and CEOs.

New program
The institute’s board of advisers also will establish a program the first year to recognize advertisers who demonstrate high ethical standards.

In year two, the institute will introduce a set of guiding principles for advertising ethics and begin discussions with industry players on how to apply them. Mr. Wehling said he would like to see everyone in the industry annually sign a pledge to adhere to ethical standards.

He compared the ethics drive to another effort he spearheaded in the 1990s via the Association of National Advertisers—the Family Friendly Programming Council—since redubbed the Alliance for Family Entertainment. Mr. Snyder compared the IAE to another AAF initiative, the Mosaic program to encourage progress on multicultural advertising and diversity.

While the ad industry has made progress on multicultural marketing since the AAF launched Mosaic, and many advertisers have substantially increased representation of ethnic minorities in their management ranks, general-market advertising agencies record is still so poor they face the prospect of a class-action diversity lawsuit.

Industry goal
Mr. Wehling said he hopes to “keep the issue in front of people until we see those polls say something different, which I think is going to be in my grandchildren’s lifetime, but certainly not mine.”

The goal isn’t just repairing the advertising industry’s image, but also leapfrogging some others, said AAF CEO James Datri.

“This is an opportunity not only for us to lead within the industry but, at a time of a lot of public mistrust of business in general, I think this is an opportunity for the advertising industry to be a leader among industries,” he said.

Besides Messrs. Snyder, Wehling, Love and Price and Ms. Duffy, other board members of the Institute include David Bell, chairman emeritus of Interpublic Group of Cos. and adviser to Pegasus Capital Advisors; Linda Eatherton, director of Ketchum’s global food and nutrition practice; and Tiffany Warren, chief diversity officer of Omnicom. Mr. Datri joins Dean Mills, dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, among ex-officio board members.

7704: For Hacks, The Sky’s The Limit.

These types of ads have always been patronizing to the point of insulting.

Kids are full of potential.
And unlocking it starts with a great sandwich.

Right. Your kid is one Lunchables away from realizing her destiny.

7703: Like Deepwater Horizon, BP Ads Blow.

From nationwide news sources…

Apologetic BP ads get criticism, not sympathy

From The Associated Press

MIAMI — An apologetic advertising campaign by BP for causing the biggest oil spill in U.S. history has earned the company more criticism than sympathy as the pollution spreads across the Gulf Coast from Louisiana into Alabama and Florida.

The new radio, TV, online and print ads feature BP CEO Tony Hayward pledging to fix the damage caused by a gusher of crude oil unleashed by an April 20 drilling rig explosion that killed 11 people. He says the company will honor claims and “do everything we can so this never happens again.”

The ads, which began appearing last week have been criticized by President Barack Obama, who said the money should be spent on cleanup efforts and ol compensating fishermen and small business owners who’ve lost their jobs because of the spill, and to help residents and visitors of the Gulf Coast, where some beaches have been blackened by the oil and others remain threatened.

“Their best advertising is if they get this cap (in place) and they get everything cleaned up. All you’ve got to do is do your job and that’s going to be plenty of good advertising,” said Grover Robinson IV, chairman of the Escambia County Commission in the Florida Palhandle. He was referring to BP’s efforts to place a cap over the gushing pipe to capture some of the flow of oil.

BP PLC spokesman Robert Wine said in an e-mail Saturday that “not a cent” has been diverted from the oil spill response to pay for the ad campaign. He said he didn’t know its cost.

“All available resources are being deployed and efforts continue at full strength,” he wrote. BP estimates that it will spend about $84 million through June to compensate for lost wages and profits caused by the spill. The company has promised to pay all legitimate claims and no claim has yet been rejected, Wine said.

Shortly after the one-minute television and online version of the ad begins, Hayward speaks to the camera, saying “The Gulf spill is a tragedy that never should have happened.”

Hayward then narrates over images of boom laid in clear water before uncontaminated marshes and healthy pelicans. Cleanup crews walk with trash bags on white sand beaches as he youts the oil giant’s response efforts: more than 2 million feet of boom, 30 planes and more than 1,300 boats deployed, along with thousands of workers at no cost to taxpayers.

The ad’s imagery clashes with disturbing news photographs published recently of pelicans coated in oil, some immobilized by the gunk, others struggling with crude dripping from their beaks and wings.

“To those affected and your families, I’m deeply sorry,” Hayward says in the ad.

As the ad fades out to show BP’s website and volunteer hot line, he says, “We will get this done. We will make this right.” In the Florida Panhandle, the ads have been received about as well as the sticky tar balls and rust-colored froth that began washing ashore Friday.

Picking up tar Saturday with her parents on Pensacola Beach, 13-year-old Annie Landrum of Birmingham, Ala., called Hayward’s apology a joke.

“It’s a lame attempt a month and half after the disaster. It’s too late,” she said.

On Sunday, Hayward told BBC television that he had the “absolute intention of seeing this through to the end.”

He said he believed the cap is likely to capture “the majority, probably the vast majority” of the oil gushing from the well. Hayward also told the BBC his company had been left devastated by the disaster, and conceded that safety standards must dramatically improve.

Public-relations experts said BP’s ad blitz seems premature and a little shallow. BP missed an opportunity to shift focus away from criticism of the company and toward BP’s strategy for cleaning up the spill, said Gene Grabowski, a senior vice president with Levick Strategic Communications.

“The one element they seem to be missing is laying out a plan for what they’re going to do. Usually in ads like these you apologize; he’s doing that in the ad. You talk about your resolve to fix the situation; that’s also included. But what’s missing is a concrete plan or vision for what they plan to do next,” he said.