10943: Automotive Diversity Scorecard B.S.

Target Market News reported Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, along with Citizenship Education Fund, surveyed automakers on benchmarks and best practices related to diversity. The Automotive Diversity Scorecard presented stoplight ratings as follows:

Green: Best Practices automotive company for ethnic diversity. Companies that provided full disclosure of goals, initiatives and dollar investments with some accountability and growth.

Yellow: Some indication of ethnic diversity evident. Dollar investments, key figures and other scorecard factors undisclosed.

Red: Diversity initiatives and investments well below the norm. Did not provide enough relevant information for scoring. Did not submit a completed questionnaire.

In the category of Advertising, the grades were as follows:

Green: Ford, Toyota, General Motors and Chrysler

Yellow: BMW, Honda and Volkswagen

Red: Subaru, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and Mercedes Benz (Mercedes Benz did not respond to the survey)

Really? Jackson must have been grading on quite a curve to award Green to any car corporation. If the automakers’ AORs were part of the computations, the ratings system would have required adding another grade below Red. General Motors deserves a lifetime fail for dumping its minority advertising agencies in 2007. Hell, that Ford AOR Team Detroit employs Mark LaNeve should have warranted an instant asterisk and demerit. It’s also common knowledge that minority advertising agencies and multicultural marketing receive substandard funding compared to White agencies and “general-market” initiatives—so the highest grade given to any company in the advertising category should have been Red-minus.