Google celebrates International Women’s Day—despite its dismal lack of diversity in race, ethnicity and gender. Meanwhile, adland salutes the day as well—although someone needs to tell the Mad Men and Mad Women that International Women’s Day is not White Women’s Day.
Campaign published more tips for White women seeking to succeed in advertising. PHD Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Frances Ralston-Good presented words of wisdom that were clichéd, contrived and common knowledge. Ralston-Good encouraged women to work outside of their comfort zone—but it’s a safe bet she doesn’t mean actively advocating for the true global issue of diversity versus simply whining about additional opportunities for White women.
Frances Ralston-Good: advice for young women starting their career
By Frances Ralston-Good
Frances Ralston-Good, the chief strategy and innovation officer at PHD, explains that young women should work outside of their comfort zone and make time for themselves.
First and most important is to recognise that you are in a “we” situation not an “I” situation. The quicker you acknowledge this, the more successful you will become.
Obviously what you do matters but what you do is always in relation to others. In each and every moment and in every interaction you are establishing what you are known for, and you are also being changed and moulded by your interaction.
It is in this myriad of small moments that you will decide what is worth keeping and what is worth changing in your habits, your attitude and your approach to a working life.
The second piece of advice I would give would be to print off the following paraphrased quote from the ever wise Jeremy Bullmore, using font size 28 or more, and stick it to your wall: “Decide if you want to be something, or do something.”
Without doubt this is one of the very best pieces of advice I have ever given, because without focusing on doing something, committing and making a tangible contribution, I can safely say you are unlikely to ever be a something.
The third piece of advice is to be brave and walk away from your comfort zone, stepping away from the obvious path even in small ways can stepchange your career.
Simply gaining a new perspective and, very often, new skills will always give you an advantage. We are living through rapidly changing times and the new models in our business mean new opportunities.
The final piece of advice I have is make time for yourself and relationships beyond the workplace. Every career and every life has frequent ups and downs, moments of elation and low times too. You will need your friends, you will need your loved ones, be kind to them and to yourself and good luck.
Ralston-Good is also the co-chair of WACL’s Gather leadership event.
The theme of International Women’s Day 2015 is “Make It Happen”. Throughout this week Campaign is running pieces about how leading women in the industry have “made it”.
Campaign spotlighted Omniwomen UK Training Day, a soiree for 170 rising starlets throughout the Omnicom network. Really?! Why would White women need additional support to succeed in adland?
The most outrageous statement came from Omnicom Group Executive Vice President Janet Riccio: “This is not solely a women’s issue, but rather a strategic business imperative. Companies that have diverse, inclusive management teams and boards financially outperform those that don’t. The best investment we can make is our own human capital.” Preach, White woman, preach!
If Omnicom—led by Pioneer of Diversity John Wren—were to hold a Omniminorities UK Training Day, could the holding company even identify 17 non-White staffers? Somebody get Omnicom Chief Diversity Officer Tiffany R. Warren on it pronto.
MP Jo Swinson ‘furious’ at the way the media covers pregnant women
By Kate Magee
The minister for women and equalities, Jo Swinson, said at an Omnicom event yesterday that the way the media portrays pregnant women makes her “furious”.
She was asked how she felt about the way the media covered her pregnancy two years ago, and also about the stories questioning the ability of the pregnant MP Rachel Reeves to do her job. “I’m furious,” she said. “How in 2015 are we still having a discussion about whether pregnant women can do their jobs properly?”
Swinson was speaking at the first Omniwomen UK training day for 170 rising female stars across Omnicom’s companies and ahead of Sunday’s International Women’s Day.
Swinson said she suffered more from ageism than sexism at the start of her political career. She was 25 years old when first elected and nicknamed the “baby of the house”. “I always hated it,” she said, because it was such “an infantalising title”.
She added: “I had the dual issue of being a woman and being young. I think I experienced ageism more than sexism. I used to get mistaken for a researcher all the time because people looked at me and didn’t see an MP.”
Swinson told a story about canvassing for support at people’s front doors when she was 23 and trying to get elected. On one occasion, she did it without wearing make-up and people’s first reaction was to remark how young she was. So she made sure she wore make-up the next time.
She also spent her early twenties trying to look like she was in her thirties: “I always wore a suit. I didn’t want people to question whether I could do the job.”
It took Swinson a long time to realise that she had to ask to become a minister. “I thought I’d do a good job and then I’d get promoted,” she said. “It took me a while to realise I had to go and make the case.”
People often make fun of ideas they are threatened by, Swinson added.
At a recent debate on care, Swinson was discussing the role of men in society and, at one point, said that boys should be able to play a nurturing role and that it was OK for them to play with dolls. According to Swinson, The Sun took that quote out of context to say she thought all boys should play with dolls.
“People deliberately ridicule an idea to trivialise the issue. People feel threatened by it,” she said.
But Swinson added: “Gender equality doesn’t happen by accident, we have to make it happen. We need to get an equal distribution of power, then all the other issues can be dealt with as well.”
The Omniwomen day focused on a range of themes that had been identified as important for Omnicom’s female staff including gender codes, confidence, resilience, leadership and motherhood. The event was launched in the US a year ago.
As Cilla Snowball, the group chairman and group chief executive of Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO, said in her introduction: “This is not about men-bashing. It’s a positive starting point — we’re all in this together.”
The day included an all-male panel of agency leaders discussing their views on agenda. PHD’s chief executive, Daren Rubins, said that before his current agency, he had worked at a range of companies where there was an “aggressive, masculine culture” for male bosses.
But since joining PHD, where he has had female superiors, the working culture has been far more open, warm and collaborative, encouraging self-awareness. Rubins believes that differentiates PHD as a business.
Ije Nwokorie, the global chief executive of Wolff Olins, said: “We need to redefine leadership and change our icons. We need to move away from the Steve Jobs/Alex Ferguson approach. A leader’s role is to equip more people to succeed.”
He suggested that big roles be split so more people can lead different parts of a business rather than the expectation for one person to do everything in a traditional pyramid hierarchy. That way, people wouldn’t get promoted away from what they are good at — and enjoy — doing.
Nwokorie also said there was a danger of making it entirely an individual’s responsibility to succeed, including when it comes to matters such as pay rises: “We have to get the principles right. We should be making sure we reward people on how well they do their jobs so they don’t have to ask.”
He added that companies needed to create a culture where people felt empowered to call out any sexism they saw in their jobs.
Rapp’s UK chief executive, Marco Scognamiglio, said that, to be a leader, people needed confidence and self-belief because it is a tough, often lonely, gig. “You have to be really passionate about what you do so your energy can carry you through,” he added.
In stressing the importance of diversity in leadership, Omnicom Group’s executive vice-president, Janet Riccio, said: “This is not solely a women’s issue, but rather a strategic business imperative.
“Companies that have diverse, inclusive management teams and boards financially outperform those that don’t. The best investment we can make is our own human capital.”
Advertising Age reported Alex Bogusky is launching a new White advertising agency—Fearless—with a socially-conscious angle. It’s not the first time the former Crispin Porter + Bogusky honcho has dabbled in such do-gooder pursuits. Yet will Bogusky ever consider focusing his advocate spirit towards addressing the dearth of diversity in his own industry? In the end, change will only occur when Whites become thoroughly involved in the process. To tackle the issue, leaders like Bogusky don’t need cultural competence; rather, they need complete fearlessness.
Bogusky’s Back—This Time With a Socially Conscious Agency
By Maureen Morrison
Alex Bogusky is teaming with Fusion, the cable-TV joint venture between Walt Disney Co. and Univision, to start a “social impact” agency called Fearless. Former CP&B execs Dagny Scott and Leslie Freeman are also joining.
The shop will focus on helping “socially-minded corporations, foundations and non-profits develop 360 degree campaigns while providing the added value of a built-in millennial audience through Fusion’s television, social and digital platforms,” according to a press release.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr. Bogusky has used the word “fearless” before:
Bogusky has used the name Fearless in other ventures and said the name has generated a strong reaction to it in the past.
Since Mr. Bogusky left his namesake agency CP&B in 2010, he’s been involved in a number of projects. He also renounced advertising at one point. Last year, Mr. Bogusky launched startup accelerator Boomtown in the hopes of identifying and supporting new internet, mobile and software firms that operate primarily in the media, marketing and ad tech industries.
Billboard honoring KKK founder on display near Selma bridge on anniversary of historic march
By Rich Schapiro
WelKKKome to Selma!
Within sight of the bridge where President Obama will commemorate the 1965 Bloody Sunday march is a billboard set up by a group dedicated to honoring Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The sign, set up in recent days, invites visitors to see “Selma’s War Between The States Historic Sites.” But it also features a picture of the Confederate flag and an image of Forrest, who was also a Confederate general.
Beside Forrest’s picture is a quote adopted by his men: “Keep the skeer on ‘em.”
In a bizarre twist, the other side of the billboard — a straight shot and about a half-mile east of the Edmund Pettus Bridge — contains a welcome message to President Obama.
“Selmapostherald.com Welcomes President Barack Obama and you to Selma,” it reads.
The Forrest billboard irked several Selma residents and visitors in town to celebrate the events that inspired the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
“It should be taken down,” said Flossie Menifee, 67, who grew up in Selma. “The Ku Klux Klan, the hatred, the prejudice, I think it’s always going to be in Selma.”
Kirsten Muller, of San Francisco, said she was “shocked” by the sight of the billboard.
“It feels threatening because we think of Forrest as the founder of the KKK and that reminds us of the violence,” said Muller, 59, co-founder of international human rights organization Global Exchange.
The head of the group behind the controversial billboard scoffed at the suggestion that some might find it offensive.
“That billboard was put there with positive intent to ask people who come to Selma to explore and enjoy our 19th century history,” said Patricia Goodwin, head of the group Friends of Forrest Inc.
“Does it say anything in the Constitution where a certain faction of people cannot be offended?” she added. “I’m offended by all these people walking around with their pants hanging around their knees.”
Goodwin said she chose the location because it was highly visible to visitors. She insisted that it has nothing to do with the KKK or Forrest’s role in its founding.
Hundreds of protesters seeking to march to Montgomery were beaten with police whips and billy clubs atop the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7 — a day now known as Bloody Sunday.
Two weeks later, hundreds of protesters reached Montgomery after marching for five days from Selma.
President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination at the polls, on Aug. 6, 1965.
Bloody Sunday commemoration commences in Selma
By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
SELMA, Ala. — They have come from coast to coast to commemorate a solemn moment in civil rights history, but also to renew their commitment to a fight that many say isn’t finished.
Tens of thousands of Americans are gathering here on Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when marchers attempting to walk from Selma to Montgomery to demand an end to discriminatory polling practices were viciously attacked by police.
It took two more attempts for marchers—led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams—to successfully complete their roughly 50-mile trip to Montgomery. But their determination — and the searing images of the violence during that first march — shook the nation’s collective conscience and helped usher in the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Luci Baines Johnson, the younger daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, recalled to USA TODAY being by her father’s side the day he signed the voting act into law.
“This marks a sacred moment in our history,” said Johnson, who traveled to Selma to take part in commemoration. “There were so many heroes that led to this day, the ones whose names we know but also those who were fighting in the shadows and whose names weren’t recorded in the history books.”
Participants began arriving Thursday for a five-day commemoration that will reach its apex today when President Obama will speak from the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the marchers were bloodied by state troopers and sheriff’s posse armed with tear gas and clubs.
Obama previously took part in the annual commemoration in 2007, when he was serving in the Senate. The nation’s first African-American president has tied his own rise in politics to those who marched in Selma 50 years ago. In addition to Obama, former President George W. Bush and dozens of federal lawmakers are in Selma to pay tribute to the foot soldiers of the voting rights movement.
The commemoration comes at another difficult period in race relations in America, following the recent high-profile killings by police of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., and Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
This week, the Justice Department issued a scathing report detailing institutional racism in the Ferguson Police Department, while clearing former police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting last summer of the unarmed 18-year-old Brown, whose killing galvanized nationwide protests. Brown’s family announced this week their intention to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Ferguson and Wilson.
“I feel a direct connection to what happened in Selma and wanted to be here,” said Gwenn Carr, the mother of Garner, who is taking part in the commemoration. “What happened back then, what’s happening today, it’s déjà vu.”
Over the past two days, at forums and gatherings at some of the same Selma churches that served as the nerve centers of the 1965 movement, civil rights leaders have been calling on Americans to pressure Congress over the passage of stringent voter ID rules and other new voting rules that have been passed in several states after the Supreme Court struck down a key provision in the landmark legislation nearly two years ago.
In what is known as the Shelby ruling, the high court ruled that the Voting Rights Act formula used to determine which parts of the country would need federal approval — known as pre-clearance — to change their voting procedures was outdated. The court instructed Congress to write a formula that was reflective of current conditions, but Congress has yet to act.
“The voting rights act is being dismantled,” said Kirsten Moller, who traveled to Selma from San Francisco to be part of the commemoration. “We need to protect it. It’s not a given. We need to be vigilant.”
Many participants came to Selma this weekend simply to be inspired.
“I felt I needed to come here to understand my history,” said Joshua Shuck, 22, of Queens, N.Y. “It feels like I’m also getting a chance to be a part of history.”
Advertising Age reported former MediaCom CEO Jon Mandel insisted media agency rebates and kickbacks are business-as-usual occurrences in the U.S. and beyond. Um, Mandel’s revelations are like the Ku Klux Klan announcing they hate Blacks. Media agencies deal with more kickbacks than a Bruce Lee film festival. Of course, GroupM Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman quickly countered by saying, “In the U.S., rebates or other forms of hidden revenue are not part of GroupM’s trading relationships with vendors. GroupM and its agencies have not sought nor received any rebates from U.S. media vendors or other parties with whom we do business on behalf of our clients. In other markets around the world, rebates are sometimes part of the buy-sell relationship between agency and vendor. GroupM returns those rebates to advertisers in compliance with and as required by our client contracts.” Gee, Norman must have run that statement through legal before delivering it—and he probably received a kickback for doing so. Norman would probably also insist GroupM is committed to diversity—and point to MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett as patronizing proof—despite the predominately White global leadership depicted above. On all levels and in all areas, media wonks are the leading hucksters of the industry.
Former Mediacom CEO Alleges Widespread U.S. Agency ‘Kickbacks’
At ANA Forum, Mandel Details Practices He Puts Among Reasons He Left Agency World
By Jack Neff
Media agency rebates and kickbacks, long thought to be something that happened overseas—or only in pockets of the U.S. market—are actually widespread, said former Mediacom CEO Jon Mandel, so much so that it caused him to leave the agency business. Mr. Mandel made his remarks in a blistering presentation to the Association of National Advertisers Media Leadership Conference on Thursday in Hollywood, Fla.
Mr. Mandel, who left Mediacom as CEO in 2006 and later served three years as CEO of the NielsenConnect unit, made his remarks as CEO of media consultancy Dogsled Enterprises. He’s also CEO of marketing-analytics firm PrecisionDemand and board member or advisor to ad-tech firms, including online targeting firm eXelate.
While Mr. Mandel hasn’t led a media agency for nearly a decade, he based his remarks largely on what he said were private not-for-attribution conversations with media executives. His presentation included an image of one heavily redacted document that he said showed a media agency agreeing with an unnamed media vendor to an industry-standard 2% commission, but as much as 9% in volume-based incentives.
Mr. Mandel worked with other consultants in studying the issue at the behest of an ANA Media Transparency Task Force made up of about 20 ANA members whom Group Exec-VP Bill Duggan declined to name. But he said they include several packaged-goods marketers as well as executives from retail, pharmaceutical, finance and other industries.
“I personally believe we’re living through the least transparent time for the media industry in our careers,” Mr. Duggan said.
Media agencies aren’t living up to their fiduciary duties to clients and “cross the line of acceptable conduct in a partnership,” Mr. Mandel said. “They are not transparent about their actions. They recommend or implement media that is off strategy or off target if it works for their financial gain.”
Rebates, “kickbacks,” and other incentives for agencies that are at least potentially adverse to client interests, are happening virtually everywhere in the U.S. media landscape, including TV, he said. Mr. Mandel said the practice has migrated from cash incentives to free inventory, which agencies may then deal back to clients in scatter buys or sell via “dark pools” that are either traded programmatically or liquidated in barter transactions.
“Have you ever wondered why fees to agencies have gone down and yet the declared profits to these agencies are up?” Mr. Mandel said. He said that advertising spending broadly has long stayed within a narrow band of 1% to 1.25% of gross domestic product globally. “So if agencies are growing at a higher-than-GDP basis, the money is coming from somewhere.”
Most of the rebates and other non-transparent dealings occur at the holding-company level, where it’s harder to track or audit, Mr. Mandel claims.
He added that he believes clients should ask why agency chief financial officers and merger-and-acquisition executives are getting involved in media buys or ad-tech deals. He said they should also question agencies taking equity stakes in vendors that could be adverse to client interests. Mr. Mandel recommended clients periodically check with ad-tech vendors who weren’t placed on the “recommended list” by their media agencies to get an idea of why they weren’t included.
Mr. Mandel’s outlook was considerably harsher than that of Procter & Gamble Co. Global Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, who spoke on the subject earlier in the day.
“We trust our agencies,” Mr. Pritchard said after hearing Mr. Mandel’s talk. “It’s not something we take for granted, because it’s a trust-but-verify approach. …What I don’t know is how broadscale the stories he’s talking about are. In my view, he’s got to produce some evidence.”
In an e-mail statement, Nancy Hill, CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said: “The 4A’s and the ANA are, and will continue to be, in deep, high-level discussions on this issue. But as of right now, we have not been shown any data or information that warrants such allegations. Our position is that the financial arrangements between agency and client are just that, between those parties and confidential.”
Artist/Writer/Recovering Adman Lowell Thompson has posted another installment of Brand New Race—check it out.
Campaign asked White advertising agency executives, “Should agencies axe unethical clients?” Um, can a typical White advertising agency even define unethical? Hell, agencies won’t axe unethical staffers. The debate was inspired by the refusal to pitch a payday loan company. Yet are payday loan companies less ethical than Big Tobacco, Big Booze or even Fast Feeders? Adpeople should look in the mirror before questioning the ethics of clients—as they’ll minimally see White faces that have been highly unethical in their discriminatory denial of diversity.
Should agencies axe unethical clients?
In taking the unusual step of announcing that it has declined to repitch for the Wonga account because of the payday loans company’s alleged unethical behaviour, Albion raises questions that the ad industry struggles to answer.
It isn’t that adland collectively does not want to behave in a principled way or represent clients with questionable business practices. The problem is that it has no clearly defined moral code. Whether or not an agency is acting ethically will always be hard to judge because what constitutes ethical behaviour defies easy definition.
Clearly, Wonga is in territory that many in advertising find discomforting. Indeed, at least one major agency is known to have turned down the chance to pitch for its account. The difficulty about preserving your ethical credentials is in knowing where to stop. “Will JWT be firing HSBC?” an agency boss asks. “I rather doubt it.” Another senior industry figure finds the issue equally perplexing. “Why stop at payday loan companies?” he enquires. “Should we refuse to advertise sweets because they fuel obesity? And the amount of betting advertising really makes me feel uncomfortable.”
Agency head
Ian Pearman, chief executive, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
“Every agency needs to make its own ethical choices and one man’s poison is another’s meat. It’s down to the values of the agency founders and successor management team to decide what they are comfortable with, even if it is different to the industry norm. While it might sound sensible to ask searching questions before taking on new accounts, in reality most agencies will have a debate internally rather than ask clients directly. If you have enough reason to ask questions in the first place, then you probably know already that you’re uncomfortable about having the account in your agency.”
Agency head
Camilla Harrisson, chief executive, Anomaly London
“Our job as agencies is to build a climate of trust between brands and consumers. If we don’t trust those brands ourselves, not only can we not do our jobs properly but we become complicit in unethical behaviour. What’s more, we have to consider what effect such behaviour is likely to have in the war for talent. Our brightest young people want to work in agencies and for brands they can respect. Agencies must make their own decisions about what is ethical and what is not. But if we think what a client is doing is disreputable or unethical, then we’re right to walk away.”
Intermediary
David Wethey, chairman, Agency Assessments International
“At a time when some agencies will pursue any kind of business however unethical they think it might be and irrespective of whether a client is in a good financial situation, I applaud Albion for the decision it has taken. Agencies have always been defined by the kind of work they do for their clients. So good for Albion if it has found that Wonga is too uncomfortable for it. Agencies are not like lawyers. They are not there to ‘get the client off’ but to develop persuasive communication with consumers. If those consumers are short-changed, that’s the agency’s responsibility.”
Agency head
Lisa Thomas, group chief executive, M&C Saatchi
“Agencies have a moral right to nudge a client towards better behaviour if they feel it’s necessary. But if the management of the agency and the people working on the account feel uncomfortable about it, then walking away is the responsible thing to do. However, this is a tricky area in which it’s difficult to know where to draw the line. But, at the end of the day, no agency is going to do its best work on a piece of business with which it is unhappy. That’s a situation that’s no good either for the agency or the client.”
Adweek reported on the launch of the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a collective of top brands, White advertising agencies, Internet and ad tech companies out to save the world from industry-wide ad fraud. First of all, ad fraud sounds redundant. Is Deutsch LA a TAG member or TAG target? Secondly, expecting adpeople to combat ad fraud is like asking the Ku Klux Klan to honor Black History Month. This leads to a nice segue, in that adland has blatantly practiced fraud in its alleged commitment to diversity—keeping it a dream deferred and denied for decades. Of course, digital ad fraud trumps diversity.
Ad Industry Launches Effort to Combat Rampant Fraud
Facebook, Google and AOL join the Trustworthy Accountability Group
By Garett Sloane
A new group designed to combat industry-wide ad fraud is up and running with a host of big-name companies on its board. Top brands, agencies, Internet and ad tech companies have officially signed on with the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), which is going after one of the most pressing problems facing CMOs.
The 24-member board includes executives from Mondelez International, JCPenney, Omnicom, Motorola, Google, Facebook, AOL and Brightroll among other industry players. Mike Zaneis, evp and general counsel for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, will lead TAG as interim CEO.
The group was conceived last year to stem ad fraud, identify criminal behavior and share policing resources among members, as well as define standards and communicate as a united front. Ad fraud is a persistent problem that some say might amount to $7 billion in wasteful ad spending a year.
“What we’re trying to do is put trust in the digital supply chain,” Zaneis said in an interview this week. “There are serious challenges.”
Zaneis described a worrisome cycle of fraud. Bad actors are establishing websites with pirated content, delivering malicious ads over networks, taking over computers with these ads, driving traffic to their pirated sites and selling ads that only get seen by these zombified computers.
“Marketers need to make sure they know what they’re buying, that it’s high quality and not supporting criminal activity,” Zaneis said.
TAG will focus on four categories of problems—piracy, fraud, malware and transparency, Zaneis added.
Campaign reported OgilvyOne promoted one White man and three White women to managing partners. Idiots like Lindsey Clay and Kat Gordon will hail the elevations as revolutionary progress—but it’s really just routine perpetuation.
OgilvyOne boosts leadership team with four promotions
By Maisie McCabe
OgilvyOne has expanded its leadership team by appointing four new managing partners, including Aaron Goldring, the worldwide creative director on the British Airways digital business.
Goldring, who has been at OgilvyOne since September 2013, becomes the managing partner, creative director. He began his career in New Zealand in 2001 as an interactive designer and has also worked at Proximity and DDB New Zealand.
The other promotions are: Mel Stanley, who takes on the role of managing partner, customer engagement planning; Anya King, who moved up to managing partner, BT; and Tracey Barber, who becomes the managing partner, marketing and new business.
The four will report to Sam Williams-Thomas, the chief executive of OgilvyOne UK.
Stanley has been OgilvyOne’s customer engagement planning director since 2013. She joined the agency as a planning partner and strategic lead on the British Gas account in 2010.
King joined OgilvyOne in 2013 to run BT Business, IBM, Sage and BP’s business-to-business account.
Her remit now also includes BT’s consumer unit.
OgilvyOne hired Barber as a new-business manager in 2010. She has since risen through the ranks to become the marketing and new-business director in March 2014. Barber has previously worked at Meteorite and the IPA.
Williams-Thomas said: “As we continue to grow our business and remain the world’s leading customer engagement agency, we look to our latest generation of leaders to demonstrate the passion to drive the business forward.”
The New York Times reported New York City will examine the diversity of its cultural organizations. Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Tom Finkelpearl said, “If you’re living in a city like we are in New York—with 65 percent people of color right now—maybe we’re missing out on some of the talent if we don’t have diverse audiences, staffs and boards.” Too bad this guy isn’t shining a spotlight on Madison Avenue.
New York City Plans to Study the Diversity of Its Cultural Groups
By Robin Pogrebin
In a major study to be undertaken this summer, the de Blasio administration will review the diversity of the boards, staffs and audiences of New York City cultural organizations, such as museums, orchestras and dance troupes.
“If you’re living in a city like we are in New York — with 65 percent people of color right now — maybe we’re missing out on some of the talent if we don’t have diverse audiences, staffs and boards,” said Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s commissioner of cultural affairs, whose department will commission the study.
Mr. Finkelpearl said there was no good data on the racial, ethnic or gender makeup of New York cultural organizations and their audiences, and that the study, to be done by an outside vendor, would help make clear that diversity should be a priority for institutions when it comes to naming trustees or hiring employees.
“Over 90 percent of staffs at museums nationally are white,” Mr. Finkelpearl said.
But the commissioner said the city had no intention of instituting quotas or determining future financial support for arts groups based on their success in achieving diversity. (Only organizations that seek city financing will be surveyed, and their participation will be required.) The city’s consultant on the survey will provide the city only with data on overall trends, not the findings for particular institutions, he said.
“We’re not looking to be punitive,” Mr. Finkelpearl said. “We don’t want a moment when a list gets published that says, ‘Here are the least and most diverse organizations.’ The administration is committed to diversity as a general goal. We want to know by sector — what can we learn from how people develop audiences and staffs and boards, highlighting the positive, sharing best practices.”
The city’s initiative comes as the lack of racial diversity in culture has been widely noted, including Neil Patrick Harris’s recent reference to the whiteness of the Oscars. In addition, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, just released its second “Hollywood Diversity Report,” which found racial and gender imbalances in film and television.
The Department of Cultural Affairs announced its planned survey at a meeting in January at the Ford Foundation that was attended by about 230 representatives of arts groups. An additional 200 attended a second meeting last month at BRIC, a nonprofit arts and media organization in Brooklyn.
Arts executives who went to the meetings said they welcomed the city’s effort and did not view it with alarm.
“I came away inspired,” said Claudia Bonn, executive director of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx. “It’s something that you don’t think about all the time.”
Gregory Long, the president and chief executive of the New York Botanical Garden, who attended the session at the Ford Foundation, said: “It’s fine to stop and focus on it,” noting that “there weren’t a whole lot of people of color in the room.”
At the January event, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, which will help fund the study, told attendees that “the arts cannot be the exclusive purview and playground of the privileged.”
“The problem is that diversity has been framed as giving up something,” Mr. Walker said in a recent interview, “when in fact diversity adds value to the organization.”
The survey, to be conducted by a private nonprofit not yet selected, is the second broad cultural initiative undertaken by Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose profile as a supporter of the arts is still unclear. This year Mr. de Blasio used the promise of free benefits at city cultural organizations as an enticement for people to sign up for new municipal identification cards that are being given out to help undocumented immigrants.
Mr. de Blasio has made diversity a cornerstone of his administration. Of his total agency heads, 18 percent are African-American; 14 percent are Latino; 14 percent are Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders; and more than half are women.
Jimmy Van Bramer, the City Council’s majority leader and chairman of the Cultural Affairs Committee, said the survey would not be an “attempt to embarrass institutions.”
“What I would not want to happen is that cultural organizations are identified as bad operators here,” he said, “when everyone should be looking in the mirror at their own institutions.”
Still unclear is what the city will do with the survey results, which Mr. Finkelpearl said he expected back in the fall. “We’re not going to take any action at all until we have some answers,” he said.
At the Ford Foundation, Mr. Walker said the mostly white makeup of many cultural organization boards is a symptom of a larger problem.
“This isn’t about racism or purposeful exclusion of people,” Mr. Walker said. “This is about sophisticated leaders of boards simply not knowing who to turn to for help, because when they look among their own friends, their business associates, their neighbors, they don’t see much diversity.”
With rare exceptions, few of the city’s largest cultural organizations have ever had more than a handful of nonwhite board members. The limited roster of black executives who are typically pursued for trusteeships include Raymond J. McGuire, head of global banking at Citigroup, who is the chairman of the Studio Museum in Harlem and serves on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Public Library; Gordon J. Davis, a former New York City parks commissioner who is on the boards of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Public Theater and the library; and Mr. Walker, who sits on the boards of New York City Ballet and the High Line.
Each of the city’s two meetings featured a panel of speakers, including Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum; Mariët Westermann, vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and Cristián Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the city’s zoos and aquarium.
Mr. Long said almost half of his work force at the Botanical Garden is nonwhite. “It’s something we think about quite a lot here because we’re in the Bronx,” he said, “where there are more people of color.”
Anne Pasternak, the president and artistic director of Creative Time, the public art group, said that — based on census figures showing an increase in New York’s minority population — her organization has already been changing its hiring practices.
“Everything we do in the organization now is seen through the lens of equity,” she said. “If you want to have audiences for the arts in the city, where are they going to come from? It’s not only an issue of what feels good and what’s right. It’s an issue of survival.”
Advertising Age reported Sprint was criticized by a watchdog organization for potentially misleading statements in its advertising. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure once claimed, “As we offer the best value in wireless, we’re going to offer consumers three things: value, clarity and simplicity.” Guess he didn’t realize communications might get fuzzy when hiring the lying assholes at Deutsch LA.
T-Mobile Prompts Ad Watchdog to Admonish Sprint for Its Ads
By Mark Bergen
Sprint should shed the superlatives for its wireless network in its ads, the National Advertising Division (NAD), an industry self-regulatory council, declared in a statement on Tuesday. The NAD recommended the wireless carrier drop the terms “brand new,” “all-new” and “America’s Newest,” as well customer satisfaction claims, from its marketing.
The decision came after T-Mobile, Sprint’s boisterous rival, challenged the advertising claims.
“We are pleased the NAD has acknowledged the many substantial technological improvements we have made to our network, which we continue to make. We will take the NAD’s recommendations into consideration,” said a Sprint spokeswoman.
Sprint is several years into an expensive network overhaul, which is partially responsible for its considerable customer loss. But the NAD says the network upgrade does not justify the descriptor “newest.” It went on:
NAD recommended that the advertiser modify advertising featuring improved performance claims – “faster data speeds,” “better call quality,” and “fewer dropped calls” – to clearly disclose that the basis of comparison is to Sprint’s own prior network.Finally, NAD recommended that the advertiser discontinue the claim that it is “the most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years.”
John Legere, T-Mobile’s CEO, frequently taunts Sprint. Last month, on an earnings call, he said his fourth-placed carrier would surpass the competitor in size “by the next month or two.”
The CLIO Awards have taken cultural cluelessness to award-winning levels. Anyone who can figure out this concept deserves to steal a trophy. To present Apartheid for an exclusive awards show catering to a segregated and arguably racist industry is nothing short of asinine—and patently offensive to boot.
Adweek reported on the latest bullshit from Cannes, where a Glass Lion Award is being introduced to honor work that “shatters gender bias.” Um, crap like Dove Real Beauty has been winning trophies at Cannes already. What’s the point of further appeasing White women whiners? Of course, it’s just another smokescreen to divert attention from the true problem: adland’s despicable and discriminatory dearth of diversity. Why not launch an exclusive award for diversity advertising? Call it the Ass Lyin’ Award.
New Cannes Award Honors Creative Work That Shatters Gender Bias
It’s time for a Glass Lion
By Noreen O’Leary
Industry activist Cindy Gallop said she is shocked over her selection as jury president for the new Cannes Glass Lion award, considering she’s been a bit of a thorn in its paw. The former advertising exec got to know the Lions Festival director of brand strategy, Senta Slingerland, last year after taking to Twitter to criticize the awards’ lack of female representation on its juries.
Turns out Slingerland shared many of Gallop’s concerns about the ad industry’s male-dominated creative ranks and the Lions exec was already thinking of ways to elevate women through Cannes involvement and initiatives.
Gallop, the former chief of Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York and now founder of the IfWeRanTheWorld consultancy, doesn’t see the award as one espousing new gender stereotypes. “This is not an award showing women in wildly empowered situations—it’s not about marginalizing women. It’s about celebrating them and should show great work that represents the world around us today,” she explained. “Young men as well as young women should want to win this award with great work that reflects the future of our industry.”
Gallop said she’s looking to draw creative types from beyond the agency world in making up the judging pool of eight. The gender split has yet to be determined.
Industry award competitions are making female recognition a greater focus. While the Clio Awards (Adweek’s sibling) doesn’t recognize the specific characterization of women in advertising, last year the show changed its policy to ensure there always will be a 50/50 male/female jury.
Proceeds from Glass Lion entries are being donated back into a program that Slingerland said “helps the mission of creating a more gender-neutral media landscape, free of unconscious bias.”
In recent weeks, rumors had circulated of a new female-focused award after a short video from DDB Sydney hit the Web, proposing a new “Lioness” category to challenge gender-based objectification in advertising. Slingerland calls the DDB video a “happy coincidence” to a plan already in progress.
“The way gender is represented in marketing has a negative impact on not only women but on society as a whole. Rewarding work that aims to change that is a hugely important thing for us to do,” said Slingerland, adding that the genesis of the Glass Lion began with a new female initiative at Cannes. “We launched ‘See It Be It’ last year not only to help accelerate the careers of very talented female creatives, but also to draw attention to the lack of female creative directors.”
Twelve industry women, below the level of creative director, were invited to Cannes last year and given access to industry leaders and festival speakers such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who urged Cannes organizers to launch the award. Cannes will host “See It Be It” again this year; nominations can be made through canneslions.com, starting in March.
Advertising Age published, “How Adland Is Replacing Steady Stream of Talent Leaving for Greener Pastures,” highlighting the ways White advertising agencies are wooing candidates and competing for staffers with tech companies. Nowhere in the article is any mention of diversity, as it doesn’t really concern ad agencies—or tech companies, for that matter. The story featured the illustration above, which should have been rendered with manure.
Give Pornhub credit for its continued success at generating self-hype. But not much else. The latest promotional fluffer piece involved introducing the Wankband—a device allowing users to charge their phones while masturbating. Imagine the brainstorm session that led to Wankband. Then again, don’t. Just realize that Pornhub is run by hackneyed jerk-offs who don’t deserve the masturbation-charged time of day.
Pornhub develops ‘Wankband’ gadget that lets users charge phones by masturbating
By Melissa Chan | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The power is in your hands.
Adult video site Pornhub is developing a device that allows men to simultaneously save the planet and charge their phones by masturbating.
The genius gadget, called “Wankband,” is strapped to the naughty user’s wrist and generates electricity when it’s moved up and down, according to the XXX-rated website, which claims to have the Earth’s best interest in mind.
“It’s well known how incredibly fast we run out of our natural resources and, what’s worse, how much they pollute in order to create energy,” a promotional video on the pornography site says.
“At Pornhub, we realize that by offering our users millions of hours of adult content, we are part of the problem. That’s why we’re going to show men how they can save the planet while doing what they do best.”
The creative cuff contains a valve with a small weight inside that generates and stores the electricity.
It also has a USB port on the side to power laptops, phone, cameras and tablets.
“Stop jacking off and start jacking on,” the clever ad says.
Not surprisingly, the accessory has already quickly formed a fan base.
“If anybody thinks the #WankBand isn’t anything short of genius is obviously in denial,” @studmuffwstaken of N.J. tweeted Saturday.
“I can finally fulfill my dreams of becoming a power company! #wankband,” @minibsez posted.
It’s unclear when the band will hit the shelves.
It’s still in its development stage, but the company is looking for “loving hands” to test it out when it’s finished.
Targeting Inequality, This Time on Public Transit
By Kirk Johnson
SEATAC, Wash. — On Sunday, the county transit system for the Seattle metropolitan area began hurtling down a road that few cities have traveled before: pricing tickets based on passengers’ income.
The project, which is being closely watched around the nation, gives discounts on public transportation to people whose household income is no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level — for instance, $47,700 or less for a family of four under the 2014 guidelines. The problem it addresses is that many commuters from places like SeaTac, an outlying suburb, are too poor to live in Seattle, where prices and rents are soaring in a technology-driven boom. If they are pushed out so far that they cannot afford to get to work or give up on doing so, backers of the project said, Seattle’s economy could choke.
“I would characterize this as a safety valve,” said Dow Constantine, the King County executive and chairman of Sound Transit, a transportation agency serving multiple counties in the region. From 1999 to 2012, Mr. Constantine said, 95 percent of the new households in King County have been either rich or poor, earning more than $125,000 a year or less than $33,000, with hardly anything in between.
“It’s people doing really well, and people making espresso for people who are doing really well,” he said.
At 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, buses, trains and passenger ferries in the county began charging only $1.50 per ride — more than 50 percent off peak fares — to riders like Basro Jama, who lives in Tukwila, just south of Seattle.
Ms. Jama, 27, an immigrant from Somalia who is raising two young children by herself, earns less than $25,000 a year after taxes from her full-time job cleaning office buildings in downtown Seattle at night. She enrolled last week in the first wave of sign-ups for the ORCA Lift reduced-fare program, which transit administrators said could reach perhaps 100,000 people. (ORCA, or “one regional card for all,” is King County Metro Transit’s name for its fare card.)
ORCA Lift is run by King County Metro Transit, but the discount will apply to all passenger public transit in the county, including that of other agencies, like Sound Transit.
The program hinges on smart-card technology, an aggressive outreach effort by King County officials to people like Ms. Jama, and a liberal political establishment that believes the region’s economy is unbalanced and vulnerable in its growing divisions of poverty and wealth. Politicians and voters have raised the minimum wage based on that argument, with an increase to $15 an hour, more than twice the federal level, approved by voters in SeaTac in 2013 and by the Seattle City Council in 2014.
The reality of public transportation in America is that almost all of it is heavily subsidized by government, no matter how rich or poor the riders are. And those budgets, not least in Seattle, have been under severe stress. More than 70 percent of the nation’s transit systems cut service, raised fares or both during the recession and its aftermath, according to the American Public Transportation Association, a trade group. King County Metro Transit has raised fares six times since 2008, including an increase of 25 cents that kicks in on Sunday.
But income-based pricing is logistically complicated, which is partly why it has rarely been tried on any large scale, transportation experts said. San Francisco, which many in Seattle see as a kind of big brother to the south — sometimes to be emulated, other times to be scorned — got there first with a fare program called Muni Lifeline, which started in 2005. But after 10 years, Muni Lifeline remains tiny, with fewer than 20,000 card holders in a system that serves about 350,000 people a day.
Smaller, tentative experiments are underway elsewhere. Greene County, Ohio, near Dayton, recently started a program for low-income riders, with social service agencies buying travel vouchers and distributing them to their clients. In other places, like western Pennsylvania, nonprofit groups have jumped in to provide bus service to the poor.
But at least for the moment, all eyes are on Seattle, transportation experts said.
“What Seattle has done is what others might consider,” said Art Guzzetti, vice president for policy at the American Public Transportation Association. “Everyone is watching.”
The distinctions start with scale and ambition: King County has about two and a half times San Francisco’s population, and in aiming for enrollment numbers San Franciscans could only dream of, it is relying on what transit experts say is the most innovative idea of all: tools honed by the Affordable Care Act. A countywide system of more than 40 health clinics, food banks, community colleges and other sites run by nonprofit groups was put together to enroll residents in health insurance, and those partners were re-enlisted in the last few weeks to start registering people for ORCA Lift.
That is how Ms. Jama got her little blue card. She went to a health clinic here in SeaTac on Tuesday morning to have a doctor look at one of her children. While she was there, a worker for a nonprofit called Global to Local — a member of the ORCA Lift team tasked with connecting residents to health and social services from a kiosk in the lobby — asked Ms. Jama if, by chance, she was a transit rider.
Ms. Jama said yes. She also happened to have a recent pay stub in her pocket, verifying her income. Fifteen minutes later, she had the card in her hand.
Though it works like a regular transit pass, the card will remove only $1.50 for a fare. It is good for two years without the need for users to reconfirm their income. County officials said they did not anticipate big wage increases.
“What’s the trick in it?” Ms. Jama asked softly, glancing down at the card and up at Amy Samudre, the program manager at Global to Local who had processed her application.
“No trick,” Ms. Samudre replied with a little shrug.
The discount ORCA Lift provides might sound trivial to some, but for Ms. Jama, it is clearly not. The $10 or more a week that she will save on commuting represents a raise of almost 2.5 percent in her take-home pay. She said she might use the money for a special treat.
“That’s like taking my kids to McDonald’s,” she said. “Two Happy Meals is $9.”
White Sox legend Minnie Minoso dies at 92
By The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Minnie Minoso, who hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat when he became major league baseball’s first black player in Chicago in 1951, has died, the Cook County medical examiner said Sunday.
The medical examiner’s office did not immediately offer further details. There is some question about Minoso’s age but the White Sox say he was 92.
Minoso played 12 of his 17 seasons in Chicago, hitting .304 with 135 homers and 808 RBIs for the White Sox. The White Sox retired his No. 9 in 1983 and there is a statue of Minoso at U.S. Cellular Field.
Minoso made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1949 and was dealt to Chicago in a three-team trade two years later. He made his White Sox debut on May 1, 1951, and homered in his first plate appearance against Yankees right-hander Vic Raschi.
It was the start of a beautiful relationship between the Cuban slugger and the White Sox.
Minoso, regarded as baseball’s first black Latino star, was a Havana native who spent most of his career in left field. He is one of only two players to appear in a major league game in five different decades. He got his final hit in 1976 at age 53 and went 0 for 2 in two games in 1980 for the White Sox, who tried unsuccessfully over the years to get the “Cuban Comet” into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
“When I watched Minnie Minoso play, I always thought I was looking at a Hall of Fame player,” White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said in an informational package produced by the team for a 2011 Cooperstown push. “I never understood why Minnie wasn’t elected. “He did everything. He could run, he could field, he could hit with power, he could bunt and steal bases. He was one of the most exciting players I have ever seen.”
Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso Arrieta was selected for nine All-Star games and won three Gold Gloves in left. He was hit by a pitch 192 times, ninth on baseball’s career list, and finished in the top four in AL MVP voting four times.
Despite the push by the White Sox and other prominent Latin players, Minoso has never made it to Cooperstown. His highest percentage during his 15 years on the writers’ ballot was 21.1 in 1988. He was considered by the Veterans Committee in 2014 and fell short of the required percentage for induction.
“My last dream is to be in Cooperstown, to be with those guys,” Minoso said in that 2011 package distributed by the White Sox. “I want to be there. This is my life’s dream.”
Minoso, who made his major league debut with Cleveland in 1949, hit .298 for his career with 186 homers and 1,023 RBIs. The speedy Minoso also led the AL in triples and steals three times in each category.
Playing in an era dominated by the Yankees, Minoso never played in the postseason.
“Every young player in Cuba wanted to be like Minnie Minoso, and I was one of them,” Hall of Fame slugger Tony Perez said. “The way he played the game, hard all the time, hard. He was very consistent playing the game. He tried to win every game. And if you want to be like somebody, and I picked Minnie, you have to be consistent.”
Minoso appeared in just nine games in his first stint with the Indians, but he took off when he was dealt to Chicago as part of a three-team trade in 1951 that also involved the Philadelphia Athletics. He went deep in his first plate appearance against Yankees right-hander Raschi, and hit .375 in his first 45 games with the White Sox.
Minoso finished that first season in Chicago with a .326 batting average, 10 homers and 76 RBIs in 146 games for the Indians and White Sox. He also had a major league-best 14 triples and an AL-best 31 steals.
It was Minoso’s first of eight seasons with at least a .300 batting average. He also had four seasons with at least 100 RBIs.
“I have baseball in my blood,” Minoso said. “Baseball is all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
The new Cadillac commercial featuring Njeri Rionge—including a Behind the Scenes video—sure feels awfully forced and patronizing. Dare greatly? More like fail greatly.
