16788: Just Another Mad Men Monday 2.

16787: What To Expect When Job Hunting Online.

 

The actual LinkedIn Jobs post depicted above should be revised to reflect reality as depicted below.

 

16786: Stereotypical Study Results, Stereotypical Responses.

 

More About Advertising spotlighted a UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance report showing inclusive ad campaigns positively impact profit, sales, and brand value. According to the study, inclusive platforms boost short-term sales by 3.5% and long-terms sales by up to 16%.

 

Given the data mostly focuses on gender equality, multicultural marketing agencies can expect to continue receiving crumbs for their services—or less than 3.5%–16% of what White advertising agencies collect from clients.

 

Go woke – don’t go broke. New UN report shows value in diversity

 

By Emma Hall

 

Despite the high profile missteps of brands including Pepsi Max and Bud Light, new research claims to find real evidence that more inclusive ad campaigns have a positive impact on profits, sales and brand value.

 

The UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance says that inclusive campaigns boost short-term sales by 3.5% and long-term sales by as much as 16%. They also persuade 62% of buyers to choose a product and make 15% of shoppers more loyal.

 

The study was conducted by researchers from the Said Business School at Oxford University. It analysed 392 brands in 58 countries across product categories including personal care, beauty, alcohol, confectionery, snacks, healthcare, household products, pet food and pet care. Diageo, Unilever and Kantar were among the companies to contribute their data.

 

Sara Denby, head of the Unstereotype Alliance secretariat at UN Women, said: “The idea that inclusive advertising content can commercially ­damage a business has limited progress for too long. The assertion is consistently unfounded – but we needed to provide evidence to the contrary. This irrefutable data should reassure any business and encourage brands to renew their commitment to inclusivity in all forms, to not only benefit the communities they serve but also to drive growth and financially prosper.”

 

It’s not just Bud Light’s unlikely foray into the trans community or Pepsi Max’s misjudged BLM bandwagon-jumping that have made brands scared to “go woke”. Many others have found that this kind of tokenistic diversity effort backfires, whether it’s jumping on the Pride bandwagon or – like Costa Coffee – randomly featuring top surgery in a campaign.

 

This report, however, shows that genuine inclusivity works. And it seems to be saying, quite sensibly, that it works best by including the full spectrum of society in your campaign, and not by jumping randomly on a fashionable cause.

 

Yes, the Unstereotype Alliance is an organisation with a vested interest in diversity, but at a time when DE&I is slipping down the agenda for marketing, somebody’s got to keep the woke flame burning.

16785: Stellantis Revs Reviews & Revolting Revulsion.

 

MediaPost reported Stellantis is ready to ride with new White creative advertising agencies for its Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, and Fiat brands in the U.S. Stellantis is now competing with General Motors for worst automaker advertiser, reducing ad people to crash test dummies.

 

The impending car wreck will include incumbents GSD&M and Doner—which means Doner might have to terminate anyone they hired after the recent GM fiasco.

 

Look for Omnicom to stage a massive pileup with its creative consolidation, whereby Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein are in the same class as Jordan Zimmerman.

 

Meanwhile, vehicle shoppers are taking the late Lee Iacocca up on his iconic declaration: “If you can find a better car, buy it.”

 

Stellantis Reviewing U.S. Creative Assignments For Major Brands

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Stellantis today confirmed that it is reviewing creative agency assignments for its Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo and Fiat brands in the U.S. 

 

Incumbents include Omnicom’s GSD&M and Stagwell’s Doner.  

 

Rajoielle (Raj) Register, who joined Stellantis earlier this year as U.S. CMO, issued a statement: “As a matter of standard procedure, we put our agencies through reviews when timing dictates. As a general rule, we also are not beholden to the ‘one agency fits all’ model, instead choosing to give interested agencies the opportunity to bid on creative opportunities across our U.S. brands.”

 

Incumbents include Omnicom’s GSD&M and Stagwell’s Doner.  

 

Register is responsible for the company’s North American marketing, media and analytics efforts.  Her appointment in June was aligned with a department restructuring that combined marketing, social and digital media, website, analytics and paid media operations, “allowing for centralized decision-making in support of a results-driven culture,” the company stated at the time.  

 

That restructuring came as the company is introducing a host of electric vehicles to its U.S. lineup. Register joined from Sysco Corporations and previously served at Ford in a senior marketing role.  

 

Agency assignments for Jeep are not being reviewed at this time.

16784: Systematic Systemic Racism From VML.

 

Take a close look at this actual LinkedIn job listing from White advertising agency VML—it exposes all that is wrong with hiring practices in Adland.

 

The post appears to be a raw template, literally including phrases such as:

 

*Insert Intro paragraph about the role*

 

(PLACEHOLDER)

 

Top 3–5 attributes on scorecard go here

 

First, the job listing underscores that agency talent recruiters are stupid, lazy, or useless—and they’re often all three. In these times of AI, it’s a wonder such roles aren’t replaced by automated technology. It would be so fitting for Artificial Intelligence to handle Artificial Inclusivity.

 

Second, the base salary range is indicated as $60,000–$140,000. That’s quite expansive, and final pay offers—in terms of receiving crumbs versus cold cash—are undoubtedly tiered based on candidates’ gender, race, and ethnicity.

 

Third, the scenario feels like a deceptive stunt routinely executed by White advertising agencies. Specifically, firms will post job listings when no real jobs exist in order to satisfy faux DEIBA+ goals; ie, VML can now report to watchdog entities (eg, the EEOC) that they’ve opened opportunities to applicants of color.

 

Fourth, it’s most outrageous how VML engages in sneaky and systemically racist tactics—aka box-checking bullshit—while positioning itself as pioneering and culturally competent. The pathetic practices are performative, not progressive.

 

Finally, that 38 people applied for the fuzzy position presents a sad statement on the employment situation in Adland—even sadder if the job seekers include minorities.

16783: Dude, Where’s My Campaign?

 

Hey, the previous post could inspire a special Adland subgroup within White Dudes for Harris—sponsored by Diet Madison Avenue.

16782: #OpenToWork As A Political Pundit.

Political endorsement from a reformed feminist…? Hey, depending on the outcome of his lawsuit, the guy might get hit by Kamala Harris’ proposed tax increase for rich people.

16781: WTF alma DDB Disses DDB…?

 

alma DDB CEO Isaac Mizrahi continues to push the Latino agency’s “ungeneral” platform by asking, “How can marketers move away from ‘general market’ thinking?”

 

It’s unusual that a message urging marketers to avoid general-market thinking—ie, White advertising agencies—is posted by the DEIBA+-deficient DDB.

 

To make a sloppy segue, over the years, DDB has seemingly operated a revolving door for Chief Diversity Officers. Does alma DDB even have a Human Heat Shield on staff?

16780: Just Another Mad Men Monday.

 

16779: Don’t Sugar-Coat Campaign Critique.

 

This Nigerian mental health awareness campaign—launched on World Suicide Prevention Day—takes a mindful and compassionate approach. But mistakenly using en dashes versus hyphens in the headlines is, well, depressing.

 

16778: MEI Is MEH.

 

Digiday Media’s Worklife reported on efforts to replace DEI with MEI—Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence. In Adland, however, the acronym would stand for Monotone, Exclusivity, and Insular.

 

WTF is MEI? (and will it replace HR DEI efforts?)

 

By Hailey Mensik

 

Corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are currently under fire, and some are trying to replace the term DEI with another acronym — “MEI” — which stands for merit, excellence and intelligence.

 

Elon Musk and Alexandr Wang, co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, have spoken out against DEI programs in favor of what they call “MEI” based hiring, which they describe as hiring based solely on one’s talent and ability to do the job well — often assessed by an impressive track record, or simply letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves.

 

In a recent blog post, Wang wrote “we only hire the best person for the job, we seek out and demand excellence and we unapologetically prefer people who are very smart. We treat everyone as an individual. We do not unfairly stereotype, tokenize or otherwise treat anyone as a member of a demographic group rather than an individual.”

 

What’s wrong with MEI?

 

Workplace experts say merit-based hiring relies too heavily on one’s past accomplishments and formal professional experience than true skill, talent and ability to do a job well. “You’re kind of creating an environment where only certain types of people can get in the door. And that’s not really a fair assessment of talent,” said Neha Sampat, CEO of Contentstack.

 

The best organizations “look for the best talent for any job, but also recognize that that isn’t necessarily always from the same place. It’s not always from an Ivy League school. It’s not always from someone in Silicon Valley, it could be from someone completely overlooked by other employers,” Sampat said.

 

The MEI philosophy, HR and management experts said, has the potential to be harmful because it could create organizations with less diversity of thought, but also can add even more bias into hiring processes. DEI-based hiring “understands that there’s bias, not only unconscious bias, and merit assumes there is no bias, and that’s the biggest problem,” said Stuart McCalla, managing partner at Evolution, an executive coaching and leadership consulting firm.

 

“The problem I have with meritocracy is it assumes that humans can look at something objectively, and as a species, we cannot do that,” McCalla said.

 

McCalla points to studies on hiring bias displayed during resume reviews, often based on names and recruiters preferring applicants with more “european” sounding names, he said.

 

In a 2024 study, economists sent tens of thousands of fake job applications of candidates holding the same qualifications but with differing names to about 100 major global companies. Employers reached out to applicants they presumed to be White almost ten times more than those who they presumed to be Black, they found.

 

What’s right with it?

 

For companies really thinking about MEI, it should actually be tied to performance reviews and promotions rather than hiring, said Arnicia Arrington, evp of people operations and culture at EBONY media.

 

“MEI is great in terms of when you are trying to come up with your goals, your KPIs, your strategies and things like that,” Arrington said.

 

Some studies have found certain demographic groups are less likely to receive promotions despite equally — and sometimes even outperforming — others. For instance, a 2022 MIT study found women received higher performance ratings on average than men, but received 8% lower ratings when evaluated on their potential. As a result, female employees on average were 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues.

 

Making promotions more merit based can ultimately help stem some of that bias and put more underrepresented groups in leadership roles. The idea behind meritocracy really is “to create equity, because anybody can, based on their efforts and their skill, get advancement within an organization. So based on how much work you’ve done, the quality of the work that you’ve done, and the people that have seen it,” McCalla said.

 

Will it really catch on?

 

Even given the current state of flux around DEI programs, MEI is unlikely to really catch on, experts say. But the debate over diversity in the workplace among those in HR is expected to continue, especially when it comes to changing language.

 

Earlier this summer the Society for Human Resources Management dropped the word “equity” from its “DEI” strategy — inciting widespread backlash on Linkedin among HR professionals. Many said they would cancel their SHRM memberships, rallying against the organization.

 

But some think the attention on this topic and increasing discussion is positive. “It’s creating a lot of debate and conversation, and in some ways, I welcome that debate and conversation. I think it’s healthy to talk about it,” Contentstack’s Sampat said.

16777: Hasta La Vista, National Hispanic Heritage Month.

 

Ads Of The World features collections for Chinese/Lunar New Year, Earth Day, Halloween, Holiday (Christmas), Ramadan, Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day, April Fools’ Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and more.

 

But there’s nothing for National Hispanic Heritage Month. ¿Por qué?

16776: Prioritizing Pets Over People Of Color…?

 

Like most White advertising agencies, FCB did not commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month via social media posts. However, the global enterprise did celebrate International Dog Day.

16775: 100% Performative PR.

 

Why is a variation of this L’Oréal advertisement appearing on the back cover of the September/October 2024 issue of Essence magazine? Perhaps it’s residual reparations for the Munroe Bergdorf misstep.

 

Also, how many oh-so-committed L’Oréal Groupe brands are partnering with White advertising agencies—where DEIBA+ is a dream deferred, delayed, delegated, and denied? The percentage is probably much closer to 100% than 0%.

 

16774: Performative Posts, Paltry Patronization.

 

The few White holding companies and White advertising agencies that commemorated National Hispanic Heritage Month delegated the duties to resident Latino ERGs. ¡Ay, caramba!

16773: Multicultural Marketing May Need A Rebrand—But Adland Needs A Racism Removal.

 

MediaPost published an opinion piece from DXagency CEO Sandy Rubinstein, presenting a persistent POV—Multicultural Marketing Needs A Rebrand.

 

Rubinstein regurgitated routine rants, including:

 

• The General Market is a Multicultural Market

 

• Swapping White people with people of color in advertising is not multicultural marketing

 

• Most work purporting to be multicultural marketing lacks relevance, resonance, and respect for the intended audience

 

• Multicultural marketing is not philanthropic, purpose-driven, DEIBA+, box-checking heat shields

 

• Multicultural marketing deserves more investment than crumbs during Fill-In-The-Minority History Month

 

• The majority of White people are culturally clueless and woefully unqualified to handle multicultural marketing

 

In the end, multicultural marketing does not need a rebrand. Rather, Adland needs a reprogramming to eliminate systemic racism.

 

Multicultural Marketing Needs A Rebrand

 

By Sandy Rubinstein, Op-Ed Contributor

 

As an industry veteran in the marketing, media, and television industry with over 30 years of experience, I have a problem with the term multicultural marketing. I’m a Hispanic, female founder of a digital marketing agency who has seen the unfortunate shift over the years that has happened when brands try to reach and cater towards diverse audiences. Multicultural marketing has become synonymous with only race and ethnicity, it’s now exclusionary when it should be inclusive marketing. Let’s be clear: General marketing is now multicultural.

 

The traditional approach to multicultural marketing is no longer effective. For example, given the growing Latino population in the U.S. more companies than I can count are throwing a Hispanic person into an ad and saying that it’s multicultural marketing, or that it’s quality, and that their work is done.

 

But most of the time, it’s not even relevant, it serves no purpose and they fail to ask themselves before launching their media buying campaign the necessary questions like “How does that feel?” “What’s the texture like?” to understand how it might resonate. It’s almost always never meeting the intended audience where they are. Instead they are only focused on how they can be visually representative and as a result oftentimes are feeding into stereotypes.

 

That’s not multicultural marketing. A lot of multicultural campaigns that go to market have produced one-dimensional stories that alienate a large portion of the intended audience. The nuances are the differences, and that’s the most important component that usually gets left out of the equation. What needs to happen instead is niche targeting with relevant content that speaks to that hyper-specific target consumer and audience. Brands need to go deeper to get a better understanding of the consumer.

 

Multicultural marketing is not your chance to do some social good in the world. It’s not a box that needs to be checked. Brands need to stop trying to appropriate the phrase. This is a for profit business, and thinking about those groups as audiences with inherent value, just like any other place needs to happen. It's not something you have to do, it's something you should do, and it's all about nailing specific audience targeting.

 

Yes, there are going to be times that the audience happens to be what we call multicultural, but if you just treat it like multicultural, then you're missing the boat entirely. If you focus on hyper target audiences with your media buy, you're going to be much more successful than just investing a small portion of your ad dollars in a one-time marketing campaign during Black History or Women’s History month.

 

One company that is getting it right is Rihanna’s lingerie and beauty line Savage x Fenty and beauty. They have managed to make women and men of all ages and sizes feel a part of the brand’s messaging and have set the bar high for the new industry standard. Their ads are inclusive of any way a person might look which makes them multicultural by default as a starting point, and not the end point.

 

There’s no doubt in the value of trying to connect and resonate with underrepresented groups. According to PQ Media, $45.8 billion is expected to be spent on U.S. multicultural advertising this year. Understanding subcultures while also creating content that resonates with a mainstream audience separates a winning campaign versus one that is not appropriate in connecting with diverse audiences.

 

Brands and the agencies they work with need to not only be on top of current trends, but trends to come because consumers are very savvy today and they can tell when messaging is inauthentic. Brands need to do a better job at taking into account the origins and backgrounds behind a certain group of people. You have to really micro target your conversations to the relevant audience.

 

Let’s call it what it is: niche marketing. Not multicultural marketing, and not diversity, equity, and inclusion. Stop talking about DEI and confusing the two. What matters is the audience and needing to communicate to these audiences in the right ways. There should always be a prioritization around cultural sensitivity in marketing that celebrates not just the differences between different groups, but also the commonalities.