Essay 737

This is a little late, but below are comments responding to Earl Graves Jr.’s recent rant on our racist industry (article appeared on AdAge.com and Essay 687 — click on the essay title above to review)…

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>Bias Agencies Put Auto Companies At Risk. The Automotive Industry is dying because it has saturated two-thirds of the country and its revival and survival is dependent upon reaching ethnic minority car buyers. The industry is miss-targeting a third of its customers, and cannot reach this important market with White agencies. The auto industry should require companies it does business with to be as diverse as the customers they need to reach, similar to how they require auto suppliers to do business with minority suppliers. General market agencies have refused to provide the necessary research to track African American car buyers, and have virtually ignored them along with Second and Third generation Latinos and Asians. Ford and General Motors are particularly at risk, because they have no way of effectively reaching ethnic minority car buyers. Perhaps if they had the right research, they would market all their models to African Americans, who by the way, already buy all model lines. More “Madison Avenue” campaigns and bright ideas simply cannot revive these companies, because there are over 600 models competing for only 17 million vehicles annually. If these agencies supported media which struggles to serve the growing multicultural market, perhaps there would be more educated car buyers and the annual new vehicle sales volume would be 20 million. Then maybe auto companies would not be laying off employees, shutting down plants and putting suppliers out of business. The auto industry has no one to blame but itself for allowing these agencies to get away with their bigoted practices for so long. Randi Payton, CEO & President of On Wheels, Inc., which publishes African Americans On Wheels, Latinos On Wheels and Asians On Wheels magazines. — UPPER MARLBORO, MD

>Yes the ad industry is racist. We’ve known that for the last 7 decades. Now what are we in the African-American community going to do about it? (Yes, I’m Black.) The real problems is the fact the African-American consumers won’t stop buying product from brands that don’t advertise to them in their own media vehicles. Until that social issue is solved, outside of the ad community, we marketers to the African-American target won’t see any movement in the dollars being spent. It is almost as simple as that. In addition, African-American media outlets must invest in measurement tools. So that marketers will have no reason to deny the impact of the African-American audience. In the last ten years there simply has not been enough growth in the area of African-American marketing measurement and tracking versus the rest of the audiences being targeted. Period. How is it that African-Americans are the longest standing minority yet there is no record of our behavior patterns, purchase traits, etc.? I’m not buying that this can’t be done. No one has invested in it yet; and that is what is sad. I can find out the purchase habits, product ownership, viewing patterns and lifestyle of a pig farmer in rural Iowa (no offense to my Midwestern brethren) and put it in a database so that I know how many other pig farmers share his traits. I can also see this same segment in syndicated research and in white papers. Where are these same sources for African Americans? I challenge my counterparts in the African-American marketing arena to create these sources where they don’t currently exist. How is it that the entire industry has moved toward data driven segmentation, ROI, CRM, and database marketing, except for African-American media and agencies? Why aren’t the agencies that target and the media that serve the one of the most valuable segment in the U.S., if not globally, for trendsetters, tastemakers, and influencers actually investing in building out these services within their companies? Until African-American media and agencies actually take on this effort to build out the more data-driven marketing services and research that quantify the effect of the African-American audience — with projectable numbers and predictive analytics, client side marketers won’t embrace greater investment in targeting the audience. And we all know once client side marketers spend more money against the African-American market the hiring practices changing to add more people of color will change on the client side; which will result in the needed change within agencies for more people of color. Agencies reflect the culture of their clients first and foremost, so the change must start with the client-marketers' cultures, marketing and hiring practices and agencies will follow in lockstep. — New York, NY

>You see, it’s the Round Rock, TX comment on this comment page that is exactly the problem. He/she states that the CEO of B.E. runs a “racist organization.” So, because a magazine, TV/cable network, radio network or otherwise that targets and caters to the AA target, speaks their language has an emotional attachment to their community and their audience, THAT MAKES THEM A RACIST??? You know, Round Rock happens to be where Dell Computers resides. I’m hoping this comment is not from one of their employees with media placement responsibilities. A subpoena in Round Rock might be in order... — New York, NY

>Talk about playing the race card. It’s essentially saying, ‘We’re a black magazine and we want your money. If you don’t spend it here, then you're a racist.’ What? That type of attitude is inclined to have me tell my media buyers to buy from anyone but him just for kicking such a bad attitude about it. What a punk. — Suwanee, GA

>If, as Mr. Graves has said, they’ve “proven the net worth of [the black] segment” and clients still don’t want to pay for it, the sales message has been lost. If the black community only spends dollars with advertisers who support diversity the advertisers will listen. It’s all about business and doesn’t have to be regulated by the government. The black community has the power to effect change. Let’s get organized and see it happen. — Anchorage, AK

>Having been on both sides of the fence, in general market and ethnic agencies (as a “white” guy) i think that gm agencies on average are too lily white in their thinking and they do make the mistake that everybody’s white just with darker skin. This makes sense when you consider the privileged background that most ad people come from. Also there is a perception that ethnic agencies aren’t as strong as general market agencies. part of that is true, part of that is living up to diminished expectations. Of course you’re not going to attract as talented people when a large part of the work is adapting general market strategies. Oh put some spanish in it, put a black person in—they’ll love it. Funny thing is that african-american agencies are probably much larger racists than what you encounter in a general market agency. I’m not putting a value statement, it makes sense—why wouldn’t blacks in power feel a little hostile towards the white guy. Payback man. i love it when the numbers are bandied about and no digging behind them takes place. there are 9% AA’s in ad agencies—fewer in upper management, compared to 25% AA’s in New York. This makes sense. Why because if you look at where most of the ad industry gets their people—second tier kids of affluence (bain, goldman was just out of reach)—you would expect that blacks on average have less of an affluent class, and more kids who are trying to become wealthy. if you’re really hungry for success you don’t go into advertising. plus it’s hard to get in if you don’t have money because the internships don’t pay—how do expect to get a more representative slice of the population if you don’t pay your interns. i grew up lower middle-class, i never had an internship—i stumbled in because i knew someone who knew someone because i was at a top-notch school where people tend to be of a higher social class. i know that i’m different than most who grow up in my environment, but we can attract people from different social classes if the industry chose to change it’s pay structure. if it doesn’t—we’ll just continue to get second tier rich kids, and we will mover further and further away from the c-level suite planner — Chicago, IL

>I have been in this industry since 1974. There are still no African Americans hired in any creative, or management positions at any agency within the entire Knoxville and East Tennessee region. That is exactly why I had to start my own firm in 1979. It is criminal how these agencies across the country get away with this blatant discrimination and it is just now being called into check. Now they are running to the Hispanic market for cover! What really needs to be investigated is the amount of discrimination occurring now that young people especially are being required to apply for jobs only online! How smart! Now we don’t even get the opportunity to address racism face to face. — KNOXVILLE, TN

>Amen to Earl, Jr. who is echoing the sentiments of his dad and a host of black publishers going back to John Russworm and Samuel Cornish, publishers of America’s first black-owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in 1827. Black Enterprise, Ebony, Jet and the more than 200 black-owned newspapers have survived, for the most part, in spite of this insidious institutional racism that repeats itself with each generation. I wonder if it begins in the university classroom where so many of the young hires are trained. Even among the African American execs, unless they are mentored by someone who knows the history, role and purpose of black-owned media, the mind-set remains the same. Just yesterday, our ad manager was told by a BET exec that black newspapers cannot fulfill there advertising needs. Yet, we are flooded with press releases and phone inquiries to cover and report on their events for our collective circulation of over 1 million readers. Our community reads Black Enterprise. We understand the importance of its continued existence and appreciate all of the news and information it continues to provide. It is not only an asset to its targeted market, but to every corporation that is truly committed to serving a diverse marketplace. Thanks to folks like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, members of the NAACP and a few informed local and national politicians, ad agencies have begun to examine themselves and are taking note of their discriminatory practices. The American Advertising Federation established the Mosaic Principles and Practices for Effective Advertising in the American Multicultural Marketplace (www.aaf.org/multi/principles.html, of which only a small number of corporations and advertising agencies have signed on as supporters). This entire effort was the result of Tom Joyner’s use of the airwaves to “call out” a New York ad agency following the release of a memo that contained a racist statement. In closing, I sent a letter to Earl Graves, Sr. congratulating him for naming his son his successor. In it I said, “I have two sons, ages 18 and 20, who represent the next generation of Black Enterprise readers. Black Enterprise lives on through them.” Earl, Jr. represents the next generation. As a representative of the generation that preceded him, I too am angry but have found a way to succeed in spite of the racism. My dad did it, Earl’s dad did it and he will, too. Denise Rolark Barnes, Publisher The Washington Informer www.washingtoninformer.com — Washington, DC

>This seems less like a cry for equality than a ploy to spend money advertising in his magazine. As a white kid growing up, it was drilled into my head that skin color doesn’t matter. Now he says that “they believe African-Americans and Latinos are white people in black skin,” Ummmm, okay, so I guess he’s telling me there’s deeper difference that a dumb-ass white boy will never understand. That’s lame. But that’s besides the point. I agree that the lack of diversity in ad agencies is an abomination. Especially on the creative side. I don’t get it. Blacks and latinos are more than represented in every other creative field. Why not advertising? — San Diego, CA

>Hmmm, the president-CEO of a racist organization states that the ad industry is racist. Go figure. — Round Rock, TX

>I think we really have to identify the African-American culture better. African-Americans in the U.S. are segmented similar to the Hispanic culture. Some are assimilated into the general market and some are acculturated. The only difference is that there isn’t a language to clearly define the segments. African-Americans recognize this, but because of our history have not really embraced it fully. Is racism still alive, of course, but I think there is more to this issue. If African-Americans clearly own and identify the distinction of assimilated vs. acculturated we can then communicate this to the advertising world. Capturing these segments could begin to bring better understanding on how media dollars should be spent to target African-Americans. We all know African-American spending is prevalent, but a deeper study on “who” is spending what among African-Americans is where it should start. For the future I hope we can begin to dissect the problems and educate one another. And for the record, I love Seinfeld one of the best shows ever! The Cosby Show has them beat though. Davaughnu Banks —Detroit, MI

>I have to say that this article definitely is the hard truth that I have come to know since I have been in the media field. I have worked at media agencies and am now at the only LA interconnect and I have to say if the problem isn’t racism then what is it? At present there is only one black woman in sales at my job now and that’s me. At present the powers that be have no intention of making me part of the actual sales team so I am left only one option. — Los Angeles, CA

>I’m a little “fuzzy” on Mr. Graves’ issue. Is it that media dollars are not targeted to blacks or is it that media dollars are not targeted to “black” owned media outlets? — New York, NY

>This is the problem. We worry how much money we spend on each market. If we keep thinking like this agencies are going to remain segregated. Hispanic, black, general market... That’s ridiculous! Tell the military, baseball and southern schools if they’re not better off with diversity. — Chicago, IL