Essay 491

The essay below appeared in Screen Magazine, a Midwest publication focused on advertising commercial production. The MultiCultClassics response directly follows…

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Revolving Door 03.20.06
By Dan Patton

Swallow a spoonful of the Great American Melting Pot. You taste steak, ribs, jalapeños, potatoes, pierogis, chop suey, baklava and curry. Metaphorically, a great dish. Realistically, these flavors are best kept apart. People of different cultures also clash, but in America, like the melting pot suggests, we get along. Except for those within New York City ad agencies, according to City Councilman Larry Seabrook. Calling their ethnic makeup, “an embarrassment for a diverse city,” AdAge reports that he’s ready “to subpoena industry executives for a grilling on the subject.”

His criticism reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the industry. Advertising relies on creativity and creativity is colorblind. Agencies hire anyone who can persuade consumers, regardless of color, creed, religion or sexual orientation. They don’t even care about standard business appearance. Indeed, the stereotype of a creative director is an unshaven, long-haired stoner.

But in a larger sense, his intentions are perfect. Advertising seeks to influence 18-to-35-year-olds who define their lifestyles through music and fashion - trends often generated by ethnic minorities. Advertising motivates white America to buy the stuff like it’s going out of style, until it eventually goes out of style. Then some new craze in Houston or Atlanta starts the whole thing all over again. Throughout the process, advertising gets fat atop the economic food chain while bottom-feeding off the cultural melting pot, and the top-earning executives seem to always be white.

Such exploitation has been around since Elvis and the Stones filled arenas by sounding black when, in fact, they were not. It exists today in the so-called tribute album to Sly Stone, “Different Strokes by Different Folks.” Hyped at the Grammys by a shameless cast of mostly white musicians, it came off like an after-dinner variety show in a suburb with a really clean Denny’s. Even the title itself seems derived from a sitcom about a bumbling, lovable white guy who generously adopts two poor black kids.

Advertising agencies are not to blame for these unequal opportunities in America, nor do they seek to perpetuate them. But they should create advantages for those who endure them. Like the blues and old-school that preceded hip-hop and oversized hoodies, another great tradition is evolving somewhere in the dense inner-cities and depressed hollows of America – a tradition born from pure innovation and a profound lack of resources. By increasing the diversity of those who will inevitably turn this tradition into a marketing trend, we’ll all have an easier time swallowing.

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The writer’s column title reads, “Revolving Door.” Appropriately enough, the perspectives present a revolving door of clichés and passive bias.

Patton is probably a decent person with contemporary attitudes. But his statements warrant discussion and dissection.

First, the term “Great American Melting Pot” is a crock. While U.S. communities are more diverse now than in the past, we still tend toward tribalism and cliques. Like “Star Trek: The Next Generation” characters facing the Borg, Americans ultimately refuse to be assimilated. Don’t believe the hype to the contrary.

If there’s “a fundamental misunderstanding about the industry,” it’s that we’re not as progressive as our work. The lack of diversity is a fundamental problem that we continue to ignore. Creativity is colorblind. But creative department leaders with hiring power are not. Long-haired stoners are revered — provided the long hair isn’t an afro or any other non-Caucasian strand.

“Agencies hire anyone who can persuade consumers, regardless of color, creed, religion or sexual orientation.” So how come even organizations like the AAF and 4A’s bemoan the low number of minorities on Madison Avenue? Why do these groups desperately seek ways to recruit and retain people who aren’t White?

“Advertising agencies are not to blame for these unequal opportunities in America, nor do they seek to perpetuate them.” Says who? If you’re an industry that has failed to integrate for countless decades — even when the clients you serve and the consumers you target have made deliberate, measurable strides — how can you possibly deny blame? Let’s not forget that advertising agency leaders have made public commitments to change, yet never delivered on their promises.

While Patton inevitably professes support for diversity, his action plans are void of tangible directives. Which makes his argument a little hard to swallow.