At AdAge.com’s The Big Tent, Rochelle Newman-Carrasco shares her thoughts on the controversial Nissan Multicultural Review. Newman-Carrasco has 28 years of experience in U.S. Hispanic marketing, and she’s currently Chief Branding and Insights Strategist for Alternative and Innovative Marketing in Los Angeles, so the woman has serious cred on the subject matter—and it shows in her perspective. Go read it.
One excerpt from Newman-Carrasco’s post warrants special consideration:
[Victorious agency Dieste Harmel & Partners] deserves to celebrate. Who knows? The Omnicom restructuring may even mean creating some real wealth and real traction for an Asian, Latino or African-American business person to own a piece of Madison Avenue in some meaningful way. [Hispanic Nissan incumbent agency The Vidal Partnership] deserves to wince, but they have had an incredibly successful track record when it comes to new-business wins, so they will look forward, not backward. The independent agencies deserve to be pissed off, knowing there’s nothing they can do but count their losses and be even more wary the next time around. Sadly, I’ve already heard rumblings that pit Hispanic agencies against African-American agencies, with comments that question a Hispanic agency taking the lead agency role in a “multicultural” context and further criticism of the budget allocation that skews heavily Hispanic. Must we really go there too?
Um, yes, we must really go there too—although perhaps not for the reasons Newman-Carrasco doesn’t want to go there.
Like Newman-Carrasco, MultiCultClassics isn’t privy to the specifics and behind-closed-doors decisions in the Nissan affair. As always, the following disjointed ramblings are merely hunches and opinions.
Our industry has certainly created a mess with the way minorities have been professionally categorized, particularly in regards to certified minority ownership. Is Dieste—which is majority-owned by Omnicom—really “less Hispanic” than shops holding a 51 percent share of the minority ownership pie? Of course not. Most owner deals seem to bend the rules to varying degrees and percentage points. Hey, advertising executives have never hesitated blurring the letter of the law and the spirit of the law in just about everything. On the other hand, when an agency does relinquish its minority-ownership status, the principals are completely aware of the implications and consequences. So it’s disturbing to witness Omnicom’s slick maneuvering.
Once again, Omnicom is the big winner. The holding company profited from its relationship with The True Agency in 2002, when the shop nabbed the Black portion of the Nissan account. Six years later, Omnicom drives away with the entire minority booty, while True is left choking on exhaust fumes.
The legitimate minority-owned shops were screwed. And the independent minority shops were absolutely screwed. You have to wonder if failing to hook up with a holding company will ultimately prohibit minority shops from servicing major clients.
Have minority agencies ever been more powerless? Advertisers bundling the minorities is insulting. Why not throw in GLBT and Native Americans too? It’s not common practice to combine direct marketing, public relations, digital and event marketing. Yet Nissan and Omnicom have no problem instructing the colored folks to form a single village and P&L.
General Motors pulled equally strange moves with its recent shift of multicultural accounts. In the GM case, the automaker opted to nix the Asian agency, and may have handed Black assignments to White agencies. But at least the remaining minority shops were not required to meld.
If civil wars erupt between Black and Hispanic partners in this mandated coalition, well, can you blame them? Why should unique agencies with distinct objectives grin after being ordered to coexist? It’s no secret minority marketing receives insufficient funding already. And it’s no secret that Hispanic marketing is growing—they deserve greater piles of money. Who will distribute the minimal budgetary allocations? Let’s hope Nissan does the right thing and boosts the Hispanic budget versus robbing one minority to underpay another. Regardless, you can bet none of this will adversely affect the White coffers.
Newman-Carrasco concluded her piece with Jimmy Carter’s quote, “Life is not fair.” Minorities in the advertising industry—and minorities in general—are too familiar with the statement. These dramas surely don’t enhance recruitment initiatives. Given the increased attention to diversity, you’d think the ruling majority would display a modicum of sensitivity versus launching actions that border on professional apartheid.
Why compound the unfairness in life?
No comments:
Post a Comment