Sunday, February 09, 2025

16952: Super Bowl Advertising Exclusivity Is GOAT.

 

Advertising Age published a super lengthy report on Super Bowl advertising and declared, “Super Bowl LIX advertisers appear to be dialing back efforts around diversity and inclusion.”

 

Reflecting Adland’s diminishing DEIBA+ dedication, most brands asked to participate in Ad Age’s survey declined—only 14 of 58 brands with in-game commercials responded. And many respondents delivered performative PR versus specific data.

 

In short, racial, ethnic, generational, and gender identity representation across all angles—concept, casting, directing, execution, etc.—sucked.

 

This is not news; but rather, an annual event—staged during Black History Month to boot.

 

For Adland, systemic racism is an unbeatable, unchallenged, undisputed dynasty.

16951: BHM 2025—NMAAHC.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture celebrates Black History Month with Invisible Changemakers of Industry—including a salute to Black Rosies.

 

 

Saturday, February 08, 2025

16950: BHM 2025—DiversityStore.com.

 

DiversityStore.com is offering a Black History Month poster highlighting the African Americans and Labor theme.

 

None of the depicted characters appear to be advertising executives.

Friday, February 07, 2025

16949: Advance Notice For Redundant Serfs At Omnicom & IPG.

 

Adweek reported Omnicom expects shareholder approval of the IPG acquisition scheme on March 18, 2025.

 

This means $750 million worth of current employees at lots of White advertising agencies have about one month to land a new job.

 

The challenge is guessing who’s redundant—it’s Russian Roulette RIF.

16948: BHM 2025—Google Gumbo Doodle.

This Google Doodle celebrates gumbo—a stew with West African roots, popularized in Louisiana.

 

Meanwhile, Google joined other US corporations by abandoning DEIBA+ initiatives.

 

Google DEIDICATION is more than performative PR—it’s gumbo mumbo-jumbo.

Thursday, February 06, 2025

16947: Omnicom-IPG Hookup Offers Savings & Losses.

Advertising Age reported Omnicom Group Chairman and CEO John Wren declared the White holding company will ultimately save up to $750 million annually by acquiring IPG.

 

The savings will mostly come from eliminating redundancies and consolidating back-office and operations. Surely additional efficiencies can be realized via extended IPG pruning.

 

Sadly, the savings translate to paychecks—and livelihoods—lost by lots of people.

 

Expect cuts in diversity budgets too. After all, a corporation led by a Pioneer of Diversity + an enterprise recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion = a surfeit of Human Heat Shields.

 

If bullshit had a price tag, the Omnicom-IPG marriage would easily generate gazillions of dollars.

 

How Omnicom plans to save $750 million a year after acquiring IPG

 

Chairman and CEO John Wren provided an update on the merger as he rallies investors ahead of the March vote

 

By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla

 

Omnicom Group Chairman and CEO John Wren on Tuesday outlined how the company’s proposed acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos. will yield ​​$750 million in annual savings—pointing to post-merger job cuts and consolidation of back-office and operations.

 

Speaking on Omnicom’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings call, Wren reiterated that Omnicom and IPG employees dedicated to servicing clients and “generating revenue” won’t be affected by the merger. Instead, cost savings will “arise from streamlining holding company, middle office and regional positions, as well as from eliminating duplicative overhead, back-office, and third-party expenses across our larger combined global footprint.”

 

“In assessing talent, we will adopt an approach focused on selecting the best individuals from across the organizations, irrespective of their current affiliation,” Wren said. “With unified Practice Area leadership teams at the global, regional and country levels, we will eliminate redundant roles, functions and back-office operations, which we expect will generate cost savings exceeding $130 million.”

 

Wren later said the biggest savings would come from cutting 40% of the combined companies’ corporate expenses, including $200 million in compensation and $110 million in general & administrative costs. Additional efficiencies will be realized through procurement consolidation ($150 million), IT and shared services integration ($70 million), real estate alignment ($65 million) and administrative costs ($25 million), Wren outlined. 

 

The combined company, to be known as Omnicom, would generate roughly 85% of its revenue from its top 10 markets, according to Wren, with the remainder primarily distributed across an additional 40 markets worldwide.

 

Omnicom plans to maintain IPG’s advertising brands while integrating them into Omnicom Advertising Group’s structure, Wren said. In the top 10 global markets, IPG’s advertising brands will “continue to be fully present in order to drive growth.” In other markets, a single OAG leader will oversee agency brands locally and report to a regional OAG lead.

 

“IPG’s other advertising and marketing services businesses will be aligned within our respective practice areas,” he added.

 

Wren emphasized that the $750 million target is conservative, with more savings likely post-merger. Omnicom expects to drive revenue growth by expanding the offerings it can present to a much broader set of clients.

 

Another aspect of this merger to watch will be how clients respond. Wren said that he hasn’t seen any client concerns from the merger news, noting that Omnicom leadership will spend time later this month meeting with consultants to update them on plans, given that marketers often work with them. 

 

Shareholders of Omnicom and IPG will vote on the acquisition at special meetings set for March 18, according to a new regulatory filing. The meetings for Omnicom and IPG shareholders will take place virtually at 9 a.m. ET that day via live webcasts. The merger also needs regulatory approval in the U.S. and abroad.

 

Omnicom and IPG hope to complete the deal in the second half of 2025.

 

Omnicom had a full-year 2024 organic growth target of 4% to 5% and reported organic growth of 5.2% for both the fourth quarter and full year. It reported worldwide organic revenue growth of 4.1% in 2023. Organic growth, a common measure of performance for agency companies, excludes acquisitions, divestitures and effects of exchange rates.

IPG will report its results on Feb. 12.

 

Earlier Tuesday, rival Publicis Groupe reported organic net revenue growth of 5.8% for 2024, with 6.3% growth in the fourth quarter.

Shares of Omnicom were down more than 2% in after-hours trading. IPG shares were unchanged after slipping nearly 0.7% on Tuesday, while Publicis shares climbed 2.3%.

16946: BHM 2025—USA TODAY.

 

USA TODAY is offering a Black History Month Special Edition. Ironically, interest for BHM has especially diminished in the USA today.

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

16945: The End Of ‘End Racism’ In End Zones…?

 

NBC News reported the NFL will delete ‘End Racism’ from the end zones for the Super Bowl.

 

It’s unclear if the end zones edit was made to appease President Donald J. Trump—scheduled to attend the game—who has expressed his disdain for all DEIBA+ initiatives.

 

Somebody should invite Colin Kaepernick to take a knee during the opening ceremonies.

 

NFL will remove ‘End Racism’ from the end zones ahead of Super Bowl

 

The announcement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump would be attending the game.

 

By Kyla Guilfoil

 

The NFL will remove the words “End Racism” from the end zones at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the NFL confirmed to NBC News.

 

Instead, the field will have stencils of the phrase “Choose Love” as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Tuesday.

 

Throughout the 2024-25 season, NFL teams have advertised pro-diversity slogans at their stadiums and on their uniforms. The field stencils have been a part of the league since 2020, McCarthy said.

 

“Teams have used on the field this year ‘Vote,’ ‘End Racism,’ ‘Stop Hate,’ and ‘Choose Love.’ This is part of the NFL’s Inspire Change,” he said.

 

At their conference championship games on Jan. 26, the Chiefs had “Choose Love” in their end zone and the Eagles had “End Racism.”

 

The NFL said Tuesday that it would have stenciling only of the phrase “Choose Love.” Sunday’s game will be the first Super Bowl since February 2021 at which “End Racism” will not be in an end zone stencil.

 

“The Super Bowl is often a snapshot in time and the NFL is in a unique position to capture and lift the imagination of the country,” McCarthy said.

 

He said the phrase is most fitting because of tragedies the country has endured in recent weeks.

 

“‘Choose Love’ is appropriate to use as our country has endured in recent weeks wild fires in southern California, the terrorist attack here in New Orleans, the plane and helicopter crash near our nation’s capital and the plane crash in Philadelphia,” McCarthy said.

 

The statement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump will attend the Super Bowl.

 

The Secret Service said in a statement that “extensive planning and coordination have been in place to ensure the safety of all attendees, players, and staff,” with security measures having been “further enhanced this year, given that this will be the first time a sitting President of the United States will attend the event.”

 

“The U.S. Secret Service has been on the ground for days, working in close collaboration with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, as well as the NFL, to implement a comprehensive security plan,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s communications chief.

 

Trump has made his stance against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives clear since he took, signing an executive order on his first day in office to end DEI programs in federal agencies and putting employees in those programs on leave.

 

After the deadly midair collision of an American Airlines plane and Army Black Hawk helicopter in the Washington, D.C., area last week — which McCarthy cited as one of the tragedies inspiring the “Choose Love” slogan — Trump again took aim at DEI, implying diversity policies were at fault for the disaster.

 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a news conference Monday that he does not think the league’s policies to promote diversity conflict with Trump’s push to eliminate DEI programs.

 

“Our policies have been designed to be well within the law, well within the practice,” Goodell said. “There are no quotas in our system. This is about opening that funnel and bringing the best talent into the NFL.”

 

He added that the NFL’s policies are consistent “with the current administration, as well as the last administration.”

 

“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven ourselves, that it does make the NFL better,” Goodell said.  

16944: BHM 2025—Target.

 

Despite dialing down its DEIBA+ dedication—which brought backlash, boycotts, and lawsuits—Target continues to promote Black-owned and Black-founded brands for Black History Month, helping such businesses stay in the black.

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

16943: BHM 2025—Stagwell Stonewalling…?

White holding company Stagwell wished everyone a Happy Lunar New Year, but has not yet acknowledged Black History Month—despite a Harris Poll survey indicating most Americans support DEIBA+ programs.  

Monday, February 03, 2025

16942: Survey Shows Support For DEIBA+—But Results Probably Don’t Apply To Adland.

 

Mediapsssst at MediaPost spotlighted a Stagwell/Harris Poll survey indicating most Americans still support DEIBA+ programs.

 

The survey also showed people in most demographic groups believe their careers benefited from DEIBA+ initiatives.

 

The data probably does not apply to Adland, which continues to fail in diversifying White advertising agencies.

 

Additionally, it’s unlikely members of the group in Adland that has most benefited from DEIBA+ programs—White women—openly admit their careers advanced from such arrangements. Indeed, White women have co-conspired with White men to prevent fair racial and ethnic representation in the field.

 

Poll: Most Americans Still Support Diversity

 

By Richard Whitman

 

It’s no secret that DEI programs are being cut in both the public and private sectors but according to a new survey from Stagwell’s Harris Poll, Americans still see the benefits of diversity. 

 

The poll, done in collaboration with Axios Vibes, found that most demographic groups say DEI has benefited their career rather than hindered it. 

 

While 41% support efforts to roll back diversity initiatives, the majority – nearly six in 10 – oppose such efforts or are unsure. 

 

61% recognize the positive impact of diverse teams on organizations. 

 

75% want to see more work on diversity to ensure everyone is advancing. 

 

39% of Democrats have benefited from DEI, compared with 26% of Republicans.

16941: BHM 2025—Griffin Museum Of Science + Industry.

 

The Griffin Museum of Science + Industry presents Black Creativity 2025—a program now in its 55th year—including Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition, Black Creativity Gala, and Black Creativity Night Out.

 

Sunday, February 02, 2025

16940: BHM 2025—Google.


Google kicked off Black History Month by celebrating house music. The tech company also produced an extensive Black History and Culture experience.

 

The hoopla sharply contrasts the fact that Google—like many major corporations—dramatically downsized its DEIBA+ programs.

 

Then again, the maneuvers represent a classic DEIBA+ dodge. That is, in lieu of actually hiring Blacks at all levels, Google fabricates splashy heat shields—and delegates performative PR duties to Human Heat Shields.

Saturday, February 01, 2025

16939: BHM 2025—African Americans And Labor.

 

From the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®):

 

The 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. Indeed, work is at the very center of much of Black history and culture. Be it the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed Low Country colonies, debates among Black educators on the importance of vocational training, self-help strategies and entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice, Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. The 2025 Black History Month theme, “African Americans and Labor,” sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work.

 

Considering Black people’s work through the widest perspectives provides versatile and insightful platforms for examining Black life and culture through time and space. In this instance, the notion of work constitutes compensated labor in factories, the military, government agencies, office buildings, public service, and private homes. But it also includes the community building of social justice activists, voluntary workers serving others, and institution building in churches, community groups, and social clubs and organizations. In each of these instances, the work Black people do and have done have been instrumental in shaping the lives, cultures, and histories of Black people and the societies in which they live. Understanding Black labor and its impact in all these multivariate settings is integral to understanding Black people and their histories, lives, and cultures.

 

Africans were brought to the Americas to be enslaved for their knowledge and serve as a workforce, which was superexploited by several European countries and then by the United States government. During enslavement, Black people labored for others, although some Black people were quasi-free and labored for themselves, but operated within a country that did not value Black life. After fighting for their freedom in the Civil War and in the country’s transition from an agricultural based economy to an industrial one, African Americans became sharecroppers, farm laborers, landowners, and then wage earners. Additionally, African Americans’ contributions to the built landscape can be found in every part of the nation as they constructed and designed some of the most iconic examples of architectural heritage in the country, specifically in the South.

 

Over the years to combat the superexploitation of Black labor, wage discrepancies, and employment discrimination based on race, sex, and gender, Black professionals (teachers, nurses, musicians, and lawyers, etc.) occupations (steel workers, washerwomen, dock workers, sex workers, sports, arts and sciences, etc.) organized for better working conditions and compensation. Black women such as Addie Wyatt also joined ranks of union work and leadership to advocate for job security, reproductive rights, and wage increases.

 

2025 marks the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids by labor organizer and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, which was the first Black union to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor. Martin Luther King, Jr incorporated issues outlined by Randolph’s March on Washington Movement such as economic justice into the Poor People’s Campaign, which he established in 1967. For King, it was a priority for Black people to be considered full citizens.

 

The theme, “African Americans and Labor,” intends to encourage broad reflections on intersections between Black people’s work and their workplaces in all their iterations and key moments, themes, and events in Black history and culture across time and space and throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. Like religion, social justice movements, and education, studying African Americans’ labor and labor struggles are important organizing foci for new interpretations and reinterpretations of the Black past, present, and future. Such new considerations and reconsiderations are even more significant as the historical forces of racial oppression gather new and renewed strength in the 21st century.

Friday, January 31, 2025

16938: FYI IPA DEI WTF.

 

More About Advertising reported on the 65th Annual IPA Agency Census, spotlighting little to no progress has been made with racial and ethnic diversity for roughly 65 years.

 

White women continue to enjoy increased C-suite representation; however, the gender pay gap is widening—although the ethnicity gap is much worse.

 

In Adland, census results expose senseless racism.

 

Agency staff numbers up and turnover down in new IPA census

 

By Emma Hall

 

The IPA’s 65th annual agency census shows that staff numbers in both media and creative agencies are up, while turnover is down to 24.1% (from 31.2%). This is likely to be a reflection of tough economic conditions: freelancing is an increasingly precarious option, so people are more inclined to go PAYE and then stay put.

 

Hybrid working could be key to these retention levels, with 66.1% of agencies settling for three days in the office and 16.5% for two days. Only 5% of agencies demand four days and 2.5% still insist on the full five days.

 

The increase in numbers is noteworthy but still tiny, at just 157, taking the total to 26,787. Worryingly, young people are less likely to choose advertising as a career – under 25s are on the decline, bringing the average age up to 35.2 years from 34.6 years. Non-white employees are up 0.5% to 26% in media agencies, and by 1% in creative to 22.6%.

 

Diversity and inclusion continues to make agonisingly slow progress, with c-suite women up by 2% to 39.9% while c-suite non-whites are down by 0.5% to 10.5%. Meanwhile, pay gaps are increasing. The gender pay gap in favour of males has increased from 15.2% in 2023 to 19.7% in 2024, and the ethnicity gap is 31%, up from 21.6% the previous year.

 

Leila Siddiqi, director of D&I, IPA, said: “This year’s census findings show that there continues to be a lack of progress in terms of the progression and remuneration of ethnically diverse talent, and the remuneration of women. Bold leaders who have the foresight to be transparent and galvanise their teams to take an inclusive approach after taking a good look at what their data is telling them are likely to emerge as trailblazers with future-ready agencies.”

 

Paul Bainsfair, director general of the IPA, said: “It is welcome news that the percentage of women in C-suite positions continues its positive trajectory, and that the proportion of women and people from a non-white background entering the business is strong. We are, however, seeing that there are areas where more focus could be applied; particularly with regard to ensuring the progression of people from non-white backgrounds and women up the ladder, which will in turn help to reduce the ethnicity and gender pay gaps.”

Thursday, January 30, 2025

16937: On The White House & White Advertising Agencies, Part 6.

 

The image above shows President Donald J. Trump dictating his political agenda and dismantling DEIBA+—which mirrors how things will likely go down at White advertising agencies.

 

That is, expect DEIBA+ heat shields and Human Heat Shields to be quickly erased as the ruling majority promotes pet projects, protects power structures, and perpetuates systemic racism.

 

Make Adland Grating Again.