Essay 4435

News of the U.S. Census Bureau awarding its estimated $250 million government account to DraftFCB warrants a few observations, as the story dovetails with other recent events.

Technically, it’s probably more accurate to say the real winner is not DraftFCB, but parent company IPG. After all, the U.S. Census Bureau is asking that 40 percent of the billings go to small businesses, including women- and minority-owned firms. Which means DraftFCB pockets roughly $150 million. But IPG shareholders aren’t too unhappy, as many (and perhaps all?) of the companies being given subcontractor status are in the IPG network.

According to Advertising Age, “The Census Bureau on Sept. 6 identified DraftFCB’s subcontractors as including DraftFCB, Puerto Rico; GlobalHue, New York: A to Sí, New York; IW Group, San Francisco; G&G, Albuquerque, N.M., and Billings, Mont.; Allied Media, Alexandria, Va.; Weber Shandwick, Minneapolis; Jack Morton, New York; Booz Allen Hamilton, Washington; the Marcom Group, Fairfax, Va.; and Zona Design, New York. Initiative Media will buy media. G&G, a Native American agency, is the only one of the group that is repeating from the 2000 Census.”

That’s a lot of shops grabbing for slices of the segmented $100 million pie. Guess it’s a decent start for the U.S. government, which has been doing a lousy job of distributing assignments. In fact, the Government Accountability Office released a report showing a paltry 5 percent of the government’s $4.3 billion ad-related spending went to small and minority firms (see Essays 4313 and 4333). Senator John Kerry remarked, “This report shines a spotlight on the federal government’s failure to make equal opportunity a reality, not just rhetoric.”

It would actually make sense for the subcontractors’ budgets to reflect the country’s demographic figures. That is, the Latino shop should receive at least 15 percent of the total $250 million, the Black shop can collect around 12 percent, etc. Of course, such logic typically escapes Madison Avenue. Given the tactics of DraftFCB, look for Howard Draft to try compensating the Native American agency with cases of Effen vodka.

Were any small or minority agencies considered for the lead role? As the Latino population continues to surge, surely a Latino shop should have a strong voice on the team, perhaps even quarterbacking the overall effort.

Oh, who are we kidding? The minority shops were undoubtedly packaged with the White-owned finalists. Meaning the victorious subcontractors benefited from being in a network versus legitimately competing for the prize—no offense to the winning small and minority firms.

But it does awkwardly segue to a different point: the lack of qualified minority shops. In the related story posted in Essay 4333, the president and chief executive officer of the National Black Chamber of Commerce noted the U.S. boasts about 50 Black-owned advertising agencies and 75 Latino-owned. You don’t have to work for the U.S. Census Bureau to realize those numbers are pretty appalling. Anyone could easily find over 50 White-owned agencies in every major market—or numerous minor markets, for that matter. Minority shops unattached to a holding company may be systematically eliminated from opportunities like the U.S. Census Bureau account.

Then again, perhaps this is what constitutes being a U.S. minority.

[Click on the essay title above to read Advertising Age’s story on the U.S. Census Bureau and DraftFCB.]