Essay 1214

Still more comments responding to the AdAge perspective presented in Essay 1205…

> Hey, Mark from Ridgefield. Stop screaming. Here’s a job spec: I am looking, right now, for a mid-level media planner/buyer to work on very cool account and on some new business. I will hire that person today if they’re qualified. If you can send me a candidate, regardless of skin color, who is qualified, and I have the chance to check references, I will hire them. Send any resumes to keith@rethinkgroup.com — Stamford, CT

> Hmmm…couldn’t they let this post be the most recent one until Monday? I doubt anyone is going to jump on Bart’s latest post until this here post gets rode out a little bit more. FWIW, if you visit Mint's site (www.mintadvertising.com…seems to be down right now, better get on that), I’m the short one. — Branchburg, NJ

> I feel like I want to SCREAM! The problem is not awareness. There are more than enough minorities who are aware of advertising as a career (at least as well as anybody else). The problem is not recruiting. All the white guys who have jobs at ad agencies never got recruited. Minority candidates aren’t asking to be recruited. They are happy to do the legwork and come knocking on your door. The problem is HIRING (or the lack thereof). That’s the problem. About 10 years ago, in response to hearing all the excuses other companies were making about why they weren’t hiring enough minorities, the Sr. Vice President of HR at Xerox wrote an article in the NY Times entitled, “Just shut up and hire.” I think that says it all. — RIDGEFIELD, CT

> Hey Gabriel, You bring up some good points. I appreciate the issues you take with my opinions as well as your passion. Hopefully the industry will change as fast as we would all like it to. In the meantime, in your professional excellence and personal determination, make yourself impossible to ignore—and an example of why the industry must change. All the best. — Stamford, CT

> Hey Keith of Stamford, Conn. I don’t think anybody who’s posted thus far is missing the point regarding Marc’s naive assessment. Sure your points are valid but nobody likes to talk about the race/diversity issue because everyone is trying to be so P.C. or pseudo progressive about their own perceived lack of racism or ignorance. We all carry it and it’s not the Bull Connor redneck variety either—so don’t be so quick to want to dismiss it under all this economic blah blah blah. Maybe your comment reflects how much a part of the problem you are. Hopefully, Ad Age will allow Marc to respond to the comments his blog generated. I think it’s ironic in taking a cursory look at Marc’s own company website, I did’'t see any notable diversity(janitors and or cleaning ladies not included) or was there anything mentioned about what his company is doing to address the issue or be a part of the solution. So if you’re gonna talk the talk, walk the walk. — Brooklyn, NY

> I think everyone who has been piling on Brownstein is missing the point. Whether or not he has a “black friend” who is a “class act” is irrelevant—and attaching those parts of his comments is a symptom of why things never get resolved. First off, advertising as an industry is currently so crippled, low-paying, and murky-futured, it’s having trouble attracting any new blood right now—Caucasian or otherwise. (I also wonder why anyone, of any background, would want to work in it.) That said, let’s start with recruiting…with holding company ownership sucking the cash away from agencies, with drastic cost-cutting, layoffs, slashing of virtually all training programs, when was the last time you heard of an agency willing to spend money on serious college recruitment, or showing up at any college to recruit alongside the banks, accounting firms, and pharmaceutical companies? The irony is, smaller agencies would love to do this but simply can’t afford to shell out recruiting dollars when they need them to create impressive, unpaid new business pitches against their much larger (and cheaper) rivals. Let’s talk awareness…it’s the cobbler’s shoes…agencies are legendary for not practicing what they preach to clients. Ask a group of college students to tell you what the following companies are and what they do: BBDO, JWT, Y&R. Probably the same number who can tell you who Spiro Agnew was. Let’s also talk college curriculum…economics is a defined major where learning can be quantified as are chemical engineering, law, pre-med, you get the picture. In short, what you learn makes you minimally ready to grasp your responsibilities for your next step, be it an entry-level job or grad school. Now take a look at the advertising and/or communications programs at schools…pedestrian, boring, and they bear absolutely no resemblance to what is required to work in this field in the real world. What’s more, the placement offices of most schools, when it comes to advertising, have irresponsibly underserved their students by not doing their jobs and keeping up with where the jobs are and who might be offering them. There’s plenty of blame to go around. — Stamford, CT