Essay 1173

In the latest issue of Adweek, industry honchos were asked, “What did you learn during Advertising Week?”

Managing Director of VCU Adcenter Rick Boyko marveled about the 300 inner-city students who participated in the Advertising Futures program. Boyko gushed, “At the beginning of the day I asked how many people had considered a career in advertising before and a quarter of them raised their hands. I asked the same question afterwards and over half raised their hands. Given the diversity issues the industry has, this has to be in my estimation the most important thing that came out of the week.”

Right.

Hopefully, Boyko didn’t take the kids to the diversity forum where New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook declared advertising executives “ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean,” and activist Sanford Moore made references to economic colonialism and slavery.

Otherwise, the kids might have raised their hands — to flip off Boyko.