Advertising Age published a perspective titled, “Back to ‘Mad Men’—What the Future Holds for Ad Agencies,” where Luma Partners CEO Terence Kawaja presented five strategies for advertising agencies to survive in the current competitive arena. According to Kawaja:
“Mad Men” has recently finished its seven-season run, and no TV show has ever captured the hearts and minds of the inner workings of Madison Avenue. Or at least, how it was. Much has changed in the agency world since then, and that change is accelerating with the growing presence of data and software in the mix. This change poses significant, if not existential, strategic challenges to agencies.
Actually, not much has changed since the Mad Men era, especially in regards to White exclusivity and cultural cluelessness. And of course, Kawaja’s five big ideas do not touch on diversity—not even the contrived dodge of “diversity of thought and skills” that typically appears in these instances. Kawaja ultimately makes Roger Sterling look downright progressive.
Only a white man could look at the ad industry and claim that much has changed on Madison Avenue since the 1950’s and 60’s.
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“The (Urban League of Greater New York) said that the city’s 10 major advertising agencies employ 23,600 persons but that only 11 Negroes… The league said that in four years it has been able to place only one Negro in employment in the 10 agencies.”
That was 1963.
Are there 10 black Chief Creative Officers nationwide at major agencies, much less NY, in 2015?
We’re still having the same damn discussions about the major agencies in New York failing to hire minorities half a century later.