6849: Remembering The Past.

Uncle Ben offers economic advice and declares, “Remember, I’ve been through a couple of these recession things myself.” And remember, you’ve been a racial stereotype too.

6848: Going Nowhere Fast.

Bad business news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• FedEx saw 1Q profits plunge 55 percent, and predicts tough times ahead as fewer people send packages overnight. The truth is, overnight delivery simply isn’t fast enough for today’s demanding business wonks. FedEx is absolutely, positively fucked.

• Best Buy is seeing some worst sales, as 1Q profits dropped 15 percent. Wonder if Geek Squad has accounting skills.

• Eddie Bauer filed for bankruptcy. The outdoorsy apparel should come in handy when employees are thrown out into the streets.

6847: Direct Male.

Not sure the government would approve this economic stimulus package. The math is a little fuzzy too.

6846: More Sorry Acts.

Saying you’re sorry in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• What the hell is the matter with GOP morons? An executive assistant for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black emailed the “Historical Keepsake Photo” depicted above. Wonder if she sent it to GOP activist Rusty DePass.

• David Letterman said he was sincerely sorry to Governor Sarah Palin and her family for his recent offensive joke. Palin accepted the apology. But the GOP still holds a commanding lead in the offensive jokes category for the week.

6845: Minority Unity.

From The Los Angeles Times…

For Latinos and blacks, a call for unity, not hate

Without blacks’ sacrifice, Latinos would be 30 years behind in the fight for civil rights.

By Hector Tobar

Earlier this year, I attended one of those sedate conferences writers get invited to every so often. I talked for an hour or so very politely about books, until the audience rose up in rebellion and told me to stop.

I’d been invited by USC to be on a panel discussing the topic of blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles literature. But the mostly student audience didn’t want a writerly chat. They wanted to talk about the reality of a divided, angry city.

“There’s certain parts of Watts and Compton where blacks can’t go,” a young black man told us, rising up from his seat to describe Latino gang members’ slurs and threats.

A high school teacher rose to his feet, too, to talk about his Latino students’ ignorance of African American history and the intolerance he often hears from the Spanish-speaking immigrants around him.

It hurts me deeply to hear of these things. I suppose, like a lot of people, I’ve been in a sort of denial about what’s happening in my hometown.

Earlier this month, a few idiots with spray paint, and hate in their hearts, ran an African American family out of a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Duarte. It was the latest in a series of incidents in which suspected Latino gang members have committed crimes against black people.

These acts of intolerance are obviously the work of a tiny minority of delinquents. And yet they feed a larger malaise among African Americans. A lot of black people feel they’re being crowded out and disrespected by the growing plurality of Latinos around them.

I know that mostly our two peoples are working, living in peace and even starting families together. And yet the seeds of a deeper intolerance lie all around us, ready to sprout.

More often than we care to admit, our people segregate themselves from blacks in schools and churches.

And how many of us Latinos have been at family gatherings and heard some obnoxious old uncle drop a racist remark? Generally speaking, do we have the courage to stand up and tell the guy to shut up? No. We’re Latinos, and we don’t like to make an “escándalo” if we can avoid it.

Still, it is those who publicly and privately speak ill of African Americans whom I address today, because the “escándalo” can’t be put off any longer.

Listen up, raza. We’re walking in the footsteps of giants. Black people have bled and been beaten in the name of equality, and without their sacrifice, we’d be 30 years behind where we are today.

The long African American struggle for civil rights has blossomed into an oak tree of justice whose large canopy protects all of us, no matter our color. And these days there are more of us Latinos huddled under its branches, seeking shelter from discrimination, than any other group.

Let’s start with the basic fact of our citizenship. Like thousands of others Angelenos, I am the son of immigrants. I thus owe my citizenship to Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom in 1857, and to people like Frederick Douglass, who took up his cause.

Scott provoked the Supreme Court into one of the most shameful rulings in American history. Scott vs. Sandford declared that no one of African descent could be a U.S. citizen.

After the Civil War, the black struggle to erase Scott vs. Sandford from American jurisprudence led to the passage of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to those born in the United States. But these days, the children of Mexicans and Central Americans are its chief beneficiary.

Scott and Douglass lived a long time ago, it’s true. But they’re not the only people who helped pave the way for us.

If you’re Latino and have had the pleasure of voting for someone with a Spanish surname, if you live in an integrated neighborhood, you have the dead and battered of 1960s Birmingham and Selma, Ala., to thank for it. Their martyrs are our martyrs too, because their sacrifice made the civil and voting rights we now enjoy possible.

Every Latino civil rights leader knows this. It’s why Cesar Chavez treasured the telegram he received from Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, just a month before King was killed.

“As brothers in the fight for equality, I extend the hand of fellowship and goodwill … to you and your members,” King wrote. “Our separate struggles are really one—a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for humanity.”

There’s history and then there’s present-day reality. There, too, our debts are clear.

Many of the new Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles and surrounding cities have been established in historically black communities.

There was no organized black resistance to the “browning” of South-Central Los Angeles or Compton. Yes there were isolated crimes against Latino people in those places, but the more common, everyday truth was that African Americans accepted the arrival of strangers into their neighborhoods.

I saw this firsthand in 1992, when I lived in South-Central on assignment, with my Times colleague Charisse Jones to profile a community in transition from black to brown. We met African Americans who had learned a few words of Spanish and who remembered how whites tried to keep them out of the neighborhood in the 1950s.

“I was once in the same boat they are,” a 70-year-old black resident said of his Latino neighbors. “I don’t mistreat them because I didn’t want to be mistreated.”

I benefited from African American hospitality even before I was born. Which brings me to what may be the real reason I’ve written this column.

If anyone out there knows a black man named Booker Wade who lived in Hollywood in the early 1960s, let me know. He was a neighbor of my mother and father, newly arrived Guatemalan immigrants.

They spoke a language he didn’t understand, but when my mother went into labor, he drove her to the hospital.

I’ve never met Mr. Wade, who was my godfather. But I owe him about a thousand thank-yous.

And maybe in a way all of us in Latino L.A. have black godparents we need to make the effort to acknowledge.

6844: Sotomayor Explains The Girl’s Club.

From The New York Times…

Sotomayor Defends Ties to Association

By Charlie Savage and David D. Kirkpatrick

WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Monday defended her membership in an all-female networking club, telling senators preparing for her Supreme Court confirmation hearing that the group did not discriminate in an inappropriate way.

Judge Sotomayor made the remarks in a cover letter for 10 documents the White House submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The papers supplement a trove of documents and videos, along with a response to a questionnaire, that she turned over earlier this month.

Her remarks indicate that some senators have taken an interest in her membership in the group, Belizean Grove, which she mentioned in the questionnaire response.

“I am a member of the Belizean Grove, a private organization of female professionals from the profit, nonprofit and social sectors,” Judge Sotomayor wrote. “The organization does not invidiously discriminate on the basis of sex. Men are involved in its activities — they participate in trips, host events and speak at functions — but to the best of my knowledge, a man has never asked to be considered for membership.”

She added: “It is also my understanding that all interested individuals are duly considered by the membership committee. For these reasons, I do not believe that my membership in the Belizean Grove violates the Code of Judicial Conduct.”

The code says judges should avoid giving the appearance of “impropriety” by holding “membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin.” An organization is said to “discriminate invidiously if it arbitrarily excludes from membership” on the basis of such factors “persons who would otherwise be admitted to membership,” it says.

According to the Belizean Grove’s Web site, the group is a “constellation of influential women” who are building “long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.” It was founded as a counterpart to the all-male Bohemian Grove, a legendary club of elite politicians, businessmen and other leaders.

The group’s roughly 115 “grovers,” as members call themselves, include ambassadors and top executives of Goldman Sachs, Victoria’s Secret and Harley-Davidson. They meet each year for an annual retreat in Belize or another Central American destination, as well as occasionally in New York and other cities for outings described as “a balance of fun, substantive programs and bonding.” The group’s Web site does not appear to mention any roles for men.

6843: The Old Realities Of New Realities.

Wanted to briefly comment on the panel discussion featured in a previous post. The New Realities of Hiring & Inclusion presented a handful of executives discussing diversity in advertising at the 4As 2009 Leadership Conference. Overall, it was an engaging and provocative step towards keeping the topic on the industry’s radar.

It would be great for future panels to star more active advertising agency figures, especially from the creative, account and media disciplines. Hearing personal stories firsthand would be enlightening and inspiring.

It would also be nice to integrate the proceedings. Creating an inclusive culture demands giving everyone a role in the revolution. Latinos, Asian Americans, LGBT and others should be represented at such roundtables.

More importantly, White people must participate too. They should not be relegated to audience status, as it only perpetuates the propensity for delegating diversity.

In fact, someone should organize a panel comprised entirely of Whites, and let them share their specific tactics to eliminate exclusivity. The truth is, minority executives will best motivate minorities. But White executives will best motivate their peers. Of course, this requires identifying White executives making a difference.

Finally, during the Q&A section, an audience member spoke about diversity and confessed, “We suck at it.” He then asked the panel to forget politeness and deliver advice and instruction. Here’s where the panel dropped the ball. The response should have been something like the following:

You’re right—you do suck at it. Why? And why are you comfortable openly admitting it?

We’re at the 4As 2009 Leadership Conference, which implies most of you are leaders. It’s 2009, people. Where have you been for the past 40+ years on this issue?

This is not a new problem. Yet you’re content to settle for old solutions that have consistently proven unsuccessful. You’re asking us for input? We don’t have hiring authority. You do. Why the hell aren’t you coming up with answers?

It’s unacceptable to sheepishly say, “We suck at it,” as if your self-deprecating comment absolves your abject ignorance and failure. “We’ve got to do better.” “There’s a lot more we can do.” “We’ve got miles and miles to go before we sleep.” Repeating these types of statements over and over makes you look disingenuous—and pathetic.

If you were unable to crack a client’s problem for four decades, would you still be in business? Wouldn’t your ineffective bumbling warrant immediate termination?

This event is symbolic of your chronic behavior. You sit on the sidelines and watch. You recognize the dilemma and do nothing. You express heartfelt concern, yet your actions indicate you really don’t give a shit.

Before you can embrace New Realities, you must abandon Old Realities.

6842: Wow! Study The Copy Carefully!

Here’s another ad for the Wow! Collection. But check out the copy. You can reduce your cholesterol with a diet featuring two 1-1/2 cup servings of Cheerios® cereal daily. You’re supposed to eat the shit for breakfast and dinner?

6841: Riot Squad Ramblings.

Los Angeles revelers more violent than Iranian protesters?

6840: Dead Men Walking.

Sorry statements in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• GOP activist Rusty DePass has made his own life a living hell, as he’ll likely face a storm of criticism for his racist remark involving First Lady Michelle Obama. The moron commented on a Facebook report about the escaped gorilla at a South Carolina zoo by writing, “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors—probably harmless.” DePass apologized, of course, and even compounded the problems by insisting he was referring to a statement made by the First Lady. “The comment was hers, not mine,” explained Depass, saying Obama recently remarked that humans descended from apes. Not sure what DePass descended from.

• Activists are organizing to protest the sexual harassment women routinely face while riding public transportation in Chicago. Riders have been surveyed, indicating incidents of harassment are frequent. “A lot of people don’t realize that when they’re getting catcalled or someone touches them in the wrong way, that’s harassment,” said one activist. “They think that’s just part of their day.” However, no one thinks Rusty DePass is cool.

• Captain America is not dead after all. After getting killed two years ago, the iconic comic book hero is being resurrected in a series titled, “Captain America Reborn.” His first mission will involve kicking the ass of Rusty DePass.

6839: Automaker Reinvents, But Will Admakers?

Wanted to briefly revisit the recent story featuring ex-General Motors VP-marketing and advertising Mike Jackson, as it connects to other MultiCultClassics perspectives and posts on the automaker.

Jackson criticized the automaker for having a “PowerPoint Culture” that crushed “all passion and creativity” in nearly every area. Plus, he questioned GM’s ability to truly evolve.

One has to seriously wonder about the advertising agencies that have serviced GM throughout the decades. It’s no secret that BDAs are quick to appease and even mirror clients. And everyone knows the typical shop is also addicted to PowerPoint—it’s an account person’s crack.

General Motors has been put on notice. The corporation must demonstrate extraordinary changes as part of the deal for bailout funds. Marketing budgets have already been slated for slashing. Product lines are being cut too. The contrived new commercial talks about a reinvention, where GM will be leaner, greener, faster and smarter.

What about the advertising agencies? There’s been little indication in the past years that BDAs are capable of operating lean, green, fast or smart. Yet the dinosaurs are begging to remain GM AORs, and many will likely retain their status.

Why?

Let’s be completely honest. Advertising agencies share responsibility for the auto industry’s demise. The campaigns churned out were as uninspired and unoriginal as the vehicles on the assembly lines. The Madison Avenue business model is as broken as anything in Detroit.

MultiCultClassics has offered recommendations again and again and again. It’s time to consider shops that know how to be leaner, greener, faster and smarter—and reject the fatter, Whiter, slower and dumber car wrecks.

6838: Gray Hair Affects Gray Matter.

Here’s a promotion that exploits the anxieties and paranoia associated with modern-day job hunting. Monster.com and Just For Men team up to teach guys to deal with ageism. Why, simply troll the Web listings and color your graying hair—you’re on your way.

BTW, has anyone ever actually landed a job through Monster.com? Seems like a pretty outdated method for seeking employment.

6837: Racy, Racing And Racism.

Sex and slurs in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• A Calvin Klein billboard is sparking controversy in New York’s SoHo area. The image appears to show a teenage girl in a threesome, and many think it’s going too far. “It shows a lack of respect for our society, especially for young people,” said the Rev. Don Wildmon. “It’s a sad thing in America when the only thing they want is money and they’ll keep using sex to get it.” No comments yet from Sarah Palin and David Letterman.

• Bryan Berry, the crew chief of NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan, was indefinitely suspended for using racial slurs against Black driver Marc Davis. The comments took place after a collision involving Gaughan and Davis, and BlackVoices.com indicated Gaughan was suspended too. NASCAR constantly fights the perception that it’s a racist sport with a predominately White audience. It would be ironic, although not surprising, if NASCAR sought image advice from Madison Avenue.

6836: Indian Health Care Pales In Comparison.

From The New York Times…

Promises, Promises: Indian Health Care’s Victims

By The Associated Press

Crow Agency, Mont. (AP) -- Ta’Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.

When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed.

Ta’Shon’s pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic about 10 more times over several months before her lung collapsed and she was airlifted to a children’s hospital in Denver. There she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, confirming the suspicions of family members.

A few weeks later, a charity sent the whole family to Disney World so Ta’Shon could see Cinderella’s Castle, her biggest dream. She never got to see the castle, though. She died in her hotel bed soon after the family arrived in Florida.

“Maybe it would have been treatable,” says her great-aunt, Ada White, as she stoically recounts the last few months of Ta’Shon’s short life. Stephanie Little Light cries as she recalls how she once forced her daughter to walk when she was in pain because the doctors told her it was all in the little girl’s head.

Ta’Shon’s story is not unique in the Indian Health Service system, which serves almost 2 million American Indians in 35 states.

On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is “don’t get sick after June,” when the federal dollars run out. It’s a sick joke, and a sad one, because it’s sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.

Wealthier tribes can supplement the federal health service budget with their own money. But poorer tribes, often those on the most remote reservations, far away from city hospitals, are stuck with grossly substandard care. The agency itself describes a “rationed health care system.”

The sad fact is an old fact, too.

The U.S. has an obligation, based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the government, to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations. But that promise has not been kept. About one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data from the health service.

In Washington, a few lawmakers have tried to bring attention to the broken system as Congress attempts to improve health care for millions of other Americans. But tightening budgets and the relatively small size of the American Indian population have worked against them.

“It is heartbreaking to imagine that our leaders in Washington do not care, so I must believe that they do not know,” Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said in his annual state of Indian nations’ address in February.

Read the full story here.

6835: My Hot Dog’s Bigger Than Yours.

The Hot Dog Wars rage on, with all competitors claiming best taste. Now Ball Park says independent professional chefs prefer their hot dogs. Um, why are professional chefs judging hot dogs?


Meanwhile, Hebrew National is slaughtering calves cows for the premium cuts.

6834: Money Problems.

Identity issues in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Make the logo smaller. AIG removed its logo from employee badges and corporate charge cards after workers were being harassed. Management went so far as to issue a memo stating, “Due to a growing sense of public attention fueled by increased media scrutiny,” workers should avoid sporting AIG-branded gear, travel in pairs during the evening and be suspicious of strangers lurking near AIG offices. Employees are also encouraged to remove all mentions of AIG from their résumés.

• Walletpop believes its wallet is being lifted by Mickey D’s, criticizing the fast feeder over the price of Chicken McNuggets. Apparently, the more McNuggets you buy, the higher the price per McNugget—versus the typical cost-per-unit reduction most customers expect to receive. Actually, the price you pay for eating lots of McNuggets involves some really nasty bowel movements.

• Six Flags is filing for bankruptcy. Hey, the amusement park has been creatively bankrupt for a long time.

6833: Scrutinizing Sotomayor.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Is Judge Sotomayor playing race card?

Like a stopped clock that is accurate twice a day, Rush Limbaugh is sometimes actually funny.

After Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor tripped and broke her ankle Monday, Limbaugh said, “I hope she can find a wise Latina doctor to set that ankle, as opposed to an average white doctor, because the wise Latina doctor has much richer experience with broken ankles.”

Oh, come on. That is funny.

Or at least reasonably clever, Sotomayor having said in 2001, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

I have defended Sotomayor for making that statement, while the White House has not. “I’m sure she would have restated it,” President Barack Obama said shortly after the storm broke over Sotomayor’s remarks.

Sotomayor has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, assuring senators that what she meant to say was that “there is only one law” and she would follow that law “ultimately and completely.”

But you can see why Democrats are nervous. Roland Burris, a political hack, muscled his way into the Senate by nakedly playing the race card, and now everybody is jumpy about any comments that seem to indicate one race should be favored over another. (Unless it is white people being favored, in which case there is rarely a controversy.)

Burris, whose main claim to fame was that in 16 years of holding public office in Illinois he had not been indicted even once, was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who a few weeks earlier had been led away in handcuffs, accused of trying to sell that Senate seat.

Initially, the White House and the Senate’s Democratic leadership wanted to delay Burris’ appointment until Blagojevich was impeached so the new, untainted governor of Illinois could fill the seat.

But Team Burris quickly moved into action. Rep. Bobby Rush dared the Senate to deny a black man the seat that had been held by Barack Obama.

“There are no African Americans in the Senate, and I don’t think that anyone, any U.S. senator who is sitting right now, would want to go on record to deny one African American from being seated in the U.S. Senate,” he said.

After Burris stood outside the Senate in the rain after being rebuffed from taking his seat on Jan. 6, Rush went on “Hardball With Chris Matthews” and said: “It reminded me of the dogs being sicced on children in Birmingham.”

With that, opposition to the quick seating of Burris collapsed.

After going back to Illinois and swearing under oath that he had never tried to buy the Senate seat from Blagojevich, Burris returned to Washington and was sworn in as the junior senator from Illinois.

All has not gone well, however. Two weeks ago, the transcript of a secretly recorded phone call between Burris and the brother of Blagojevich was released in federal court. In the phone call, Burris offers to write a check to the Rod Blagojevich campaign and says, “I’m very much interested in, in trying to replace Obama, OK.”

The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into all of this, but some senators are now nervous and angry. They folded in the face of the race card when it came to Burris, but now some are aflame over what they see as Sonia Sotomayor’s playing of the same card.

“We need to know, for example, whether she’s going to be a justice for all of us or just a justice for a few of us,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee, said on “Meet the Press” with David Gregory that while he would not use the word “racist” to describe Sotomayor, “I think that she is a person who believes that her background can influence her decision. That’s what troubles me.”

The Democrats are sticking with Sotomayor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote an op-ed piece recently in the Miami Herald that began: “Some slivers of my past: a dust storm. A one-room schoolhouse. The teacher who gave me boxing gloves.”

Reid writes that all those things shaped his life, just as Sotomayor’s life “as a Latina” shaped hers. He says that as he talked to Sotomayor recently, he saw a “reflection of myself and of the fabric of this country.”

“She is the quintessential American story. How is this a detriment to the highest court in the land?”

A good question. And, as her nomination hearings begin July 13, one that is sure to be asked repeatedly.

6832: Throwing Down The Hammer.

From Adweek.com…

A&E’s ‘Hammer Pants Dance’ = Viral Gold

By Mike Shields

NEW YORK A&E has a viral sensation on its hands thanks to the gold pants and retro dance moves of rapper MC Hammer.

The network, as part of an extensive digital promotional effort for its upcoming reality series Hammertime, commissioned a group of 60 amateur dancers for a flash mob. The group entered a Los Angeles clothing store on Sunset Boulevard, collectively donned Hammer-inspired pairs of gold baggy pants, and performed the artist’s unique set of horizontal moves to the tune of his 1990 hit “U Can’t Touch This”—all before a group of somewhat startled shoppers.

The clip, Hammer Pants Dance, has generated over 900,000 views on YouTube in the past week, as well as another 200,000 or so on both MSN and Break.com. A&E plans to create a similar public dancing spectacle at New York’s Grand Central station as part of its Hammertime promotional push.

As part of that push, the network has rolled out Twittertime, a collection of MC Hammer’s Twitter entries, and watchhammertime.com, where fans can sign up to receive text messages and phone calls from the rapper, who once famously claimed that “I’m dope on the floor and magic on the mic.”

Hammertime premieres on A&E on June 14 at 10 p.m. EST.

6831: GM’s PowerPoint Culture Is Clueless.

Based on this Ad Age story, President Barack Obama isn’t the only Black man who thinks General Motors needs to make serious changes.

How GM Stifled ‘Passion and Creativity’ in Its Marketing Ranks
Former GM Exec Mike Jackson Blasts Automaker’s ‘PowerPoint Culture’

By Jean Halliday

DETROIT -- The former VP-marketing and advertising at General Motors Corp. believes its culture is “so bureaucratic it stifles all passion and creativity” with bloated processes, woeful inefficiencies and an approach to its agencies that is threatening rather than productive.

So says Mike Jackson, who left GM two years ago after seven years, pulling no punches in a recent guest column in Automotive News entitled “GM Must Overhaul Marketing.”

In an interview with Advertising Age elaborating on the column, Mr. Jackson, now a partner in digital agency SarkissianMason, New York, said the automaker’s U.S. operations have too many layers for approval of ads. Work on major launches begins with the divisional ad manager, and ads for crucial models must move all the way up to top management for approval. It wasn’t unusual, he said, for 15 or 20 people to present the work in meetings.

He dubbed GM as a “PowerPoint culture” and a “bureaucracy of meetings culture.” During his tenure at the automaker, Mr. Jackson said that “there were no meetings where people just sat down, had a discussion and made a decision.”

Mr. Jackson also was critical of GM for putting engineers and finance people with no marketing training in key marketing positions. That means the agency teams often presented their work to executives with less experience and often no experience outside the auto industry, though he added that his former employer has lots of company in this arena across the auto industry.

Moreover, Mr. Jackson said GM doesn’t treat its ad agencies like partners but rather as vendors. If an agency doesn’t fall in line with the marketer’s demands, the client threatens to move the business. The roster creative agencies learn to fall in line and their priority, according to Mr. Jackson, is account retention, not necessarily what’s best for their client. The agencies present work they know will get approved, not cool, risky creative, he said. As a result, ho-hum work is perpetuated.

A GM spokeswoman declined to comment.

Mr. Jackson said his comments have nothing to do with sour grapes. He said he’s concerned that GM will return to its business-as-usual ways after a new GM emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “I just want GM to get better,” he said.

6830: Casual Friday.

Wardrobe malfunctions in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• A sports agent says he owns the suit that O.J. Simpson wore when he was acquitted of double murder. However, the agent won’t completely admit it’s the actual attire. “I’ve had [the suit] in my possession since the morning after the verdict,” said the man at the beginning of a recent interview. But later, he added, “When I told you that before, I wasn’t under oath.” Somebody please give Simpson a pistol and let him retrieve the outfit.

• Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer is probably telling Filene’s Basement, “You’re not going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.” The discount retailer put itself back on auction after initially declaring an affiliate of Men’s Wearhouse had won the bidding process. Next time, the place should just use eBay.

• American Airlines predicts fewer passengers, and is cutting 1,600 jobs. Travelers can rest assured that the reductions will not affect lost luggage figures, which will remain steady.

• Over 1,500 Chicago city employees will receive layoff notices today. The cuts will likely affect services like garbage collection, rodent control, tree trimming and streetlight repairs. Hey, if streetlights go out, at least citizens won’t notice the mess at night.