7248: Grampa Graffiti.

From The Los Angeles Times…

73-year-old man is arrested in L.A. vandalism
Sheriff’s deputies say they saw the suspect posting ‘Who is John Scott?’ stickers in a downtown subway station. They say he is the oldest alleged street vandal ever captured.

By Andrew Blankstein

For months, a mysterious vandal has been slapping hundreds of “Who Is John Scott?” stickers on buses around Los Angeles.

Authorities expected the vandalism to be the work of teenage “slap taggers,” who hit buses, street signs and light poles with stickers advertising shoes, skateboards, music bands and sometime their own hand-drawn monikers.

But the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s anti-graffiti detail got a surprise when it finally tracked down the man allegedly behind “Who Is John Scott?”

The suspect is old-school — 73 years old to be exact.

On Friday, detectives arrested John Scott on suspicion of felony vandalism, making him the oldest alleged street vandal they have ever captured. Scott, suspected of causing several thousand dollars in damage, was being held in custody on $20,000 bail.

“Up until this year, the oldest guy we had arrested was 36,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Erik Ruble. “We knew our guy was older, but not [73].”

The arrest caps an investigation that began when orange-and-black “Who Is John Scott?” stickers began popping up on buses in Baldwin Hills and on the Westside seven months ago (though some bus passengers insist that they have been around for more than a year). In recent months, the stickers began showing up on light standards and street sign poles.

Then, on Friday, a special graffiti “saturation patrol” was monitoring the 7th Street and Metro Center subway station downtown when they noticed an older-looking man. Ruble said deputies saw him placing stickers on the transit hub’s main stairwell. Authorities said Scott had stickers in his pockets as well in a black briefcase he carried with him.

Detectives spent the rest of the day interviewing Scott, who will be 74 next month. The stickers urge readers to go to a crudely designed website that sells “Who Is John Scott?” T-shirts and hats. It shows a man with his face covered holding a briefcase with one of the stickers on it.

The site also includes some intriguing clues about the man. One is a clipping from a 1976 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that includes a small item about the arrest of a John Scott for illegally selling T-shirts to tourists on a city street. It noted that Scott carried a briefcase with a “Who Is John Scott?” sticker on it.

One bus rider told The Times that he saw Scott in action last winter while taking the No. 780 bus home to Hollywood. The witness said he noticed an older man with gray hair reaching into his briefcase and pulling out orange stickers. The man quickly posted one of the stickers as some other riders looked on, according to the witness, who asked that his name not be used.

The rider said he videotaped the incident. And when the older man noticed it, he and a woman he was with abruptly got off the bus.

Ruble said detectives are still trying to figure out Scott’s background. But he said they believe Scott allegedly was driven to vandalize by the same motivation as his younger cohorts: “fame and notoriety.”

“It just goes to show, the graffiti culture in Los Angeles is not age-specific and is very diverse,” Ruble said.

Scott was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. It is unclear when sheriff’s deputies will present their case to prosecutors. Whatever the motive, Ruble said detectives think the “John Scott” riddle has been solved. “The mystery exists no more,” he said.

7247: Rough Landings.

No bailout cases in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Ex-Congressman William Jefferson will spend 13 years in jail for accepting bribes for political favors. Jefferson is the dude who stashed $90,000 in his freezer. Looks like he’ll be put on ice—and he’ll sit around longer than the Maytag repairman.

• General Motors announced plans to close 37 percent of U.S. Saab dealers as part of the automaker’s sale of the Swedish vehicle brand. Guess the “Born From Jets” campaign went into a tailspin.

7246: Tuskegee Airman On The Air.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Tuskegee Airman lands on the South Side
WWII | Shelby Westbrook’s famed unit will be featured in a 5-part History Channel series starting Sunday night

By Stefano Esposito, Staff Reporter

Shelby Westbrook—a decorated fighter pilot who flew 60 missions over Europe during World War II—went to get a passport the other day. He was turned down for lack of the proper paperwork.

As the 87-year-old South Sider tells it, the “young man” at the post office said Westbrook’s 1945 military papers weren’t proof he’s a U.S. citizen.

Westbrook isn’t just an American citizen. He was part of the famed African-American unit, the Tuskegee Airmen. And the small part he played in history is about to be told in the History Channel’s five-night series “WWII in HD,” which airs Sunday through Thursday.

Westbrook—who grew up in Arkansas and Ohio but has lived in Chicago since the war—is one of 12 Americans featured in the series, which tells the story of the war through their eyes.

He flew P-51 Mustang fighters out of Italy. On one mission, he was forced to belly-land his fighter in a Croatian field after being hit by enemy fire while returning to Italy from a bombing mission over Germany.

“It was just like taking a sled ride,” Westbrook recalled in an interview.

He walked away from the destroyed airplane and later encountered soldiers loyal to Yugoslavian resistance leader Marshal Tito who handed him over to British intelligence officers including Randolph Churchill, the only son of Winston Churchill, and writer Evelyn Waugh.

The soldiers couldn’t possibly have mistaken him for the enemy, Westbrook said: “They knew there were no black Germans.”

Some of his missions took him to the 2,500-year-old Parthenon.

“It was impressive, but my wingman and I used it as protection from anti-aircraft fire,” he said. “The Parthenon sits on a plateau, and right beside that was an airfield. We strafed that airfield two or three times to slow the German evacuation out of Greece.”

Six decades later, Westbrook seems underwhelmed about his inclusion in a TV documentary that the History Channel boasts will show the war “as it has never been seen before.” For one thing, Westbrook isn’t thrilled at the choice of rap star/Hollywood actor LL Cool J to narrate his story. Scott Reda, one of the series’ producers, said the hope is to attract a younger demographic.

“I disapproved of that because I don’t like rap—I like good American jazz music,” Westbrook said.

7245: Staging A Holy War Against Gap.

From Adweek…

Christian Group Calls for Gap Boycott
AFA claims Crispin-generated ads that ‘downplay’ the word ‘Christmas’

By Elena Malykhina

The American Family Association is calling on consumers to boycott Gap Inc. and its brands, which include Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, this holiday season. The Christian organization alleges that the retailer’s ads downplay the word “Christmas.”

The boycott, according to the AFA, is in response to Gap’s holiday advertising and in-store promotions over the years, which have stayed away from recognizing any specific religion. For instance, last year’s campaign was themed “Merry Gap-mas,” substituting the chain’s name for Christ’s. The AFA—which had boycotted other retailers like Sears and Target in the past for their holiday ads—is singling out Gap this year. The AFA is planning to release a “Naughty and Nice” list of retailers who address Christmas and those who don’t.

Randy Sharp, a rep for the AFA, said that a Gap rep sent the group an e-mail alerting them to this year’s campaign, via Crispin Porter + Bogusky, that does use the word “Christmas,” but Sharp said the ad, which features the line “Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanzaa, Go Solstice,” and beckons consumers to “86 the rules,” is offensive. “It looks like an attempt to patronize people,” he said. “What they did was almost make a joke of it.”

The boycott is running from Nov. 1 through Christmas Day, and the AFA is urging consumers to sign a Gap pledge on its site. Gap was not available for comment at press time.

When asked if retailers might have a legitimate business reason to avoid using the word Christmas in ads, Sharp replied that he thought it was a valid concern, but cited polls showing very few people are actually offended by the use of the term. “The problem lies when you try to be politically correct and offend 80 percent or so of consumers,” he said. “The reality is, most people are shopping for Christmas gifts.”

7244: ANA Masters Of Cluelessness.

Wanted to briefly comment again on the ANA 2009 Masters of Marketing conference held last weekend in Phoenix. At The Big Tent, conference attendee Rochelle Newman-Carrasco posted a perspective on the event, focusing her remarks on the speech delivered by Mickey D’s CMO Neil Golden. Worth highlighting is the excerpt below from Newman-Carrasco:

In fact, a polling question fielded by [Bob] Liodice following the morning’s presentations asked the audience to choose where their organization was in terms of multicultural marketing commitments and the use of specialized agency partners. The majority of the audience responded that they had not engaged any specialists of this nature.

This revelation goes to the heart of the advertising industry’s diversity issue. It seems fair to make the following overreacting presumptions:

• Most advertisers are culturally clueless. This wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t also partnering with White advertising agencies whose exclusivity and ignorance makes it highly likely that irrelevant images, idiotic stereotypes and insensitive messaging will ensue.

• If advertisers are not engaging minority firms, it begs the question, “Are advertisers engaging minorities with their brands at all?” Perhaps advertisers recognize what Dan Wieden admitted: “… like it or not, in this business I essentially hire a bunch of White, middle-class kids, pay them enormous, enormous sums of money to do what? To create messages to the inner-city kids who create the culture the White kids are trying like hell to emulate. But if you go into the inner city, odds are these kids aren’t even going to see advertising as a possibility, as an opportunity for them. Now that’s fucked up.” It appears that advertisers are essentially mirroring Wieden’s actions by hiring White agencies to create messages to minority audiences. Now that’s fucked up.

• It seems like Liodice missed a golden opportunity to ask his peers to join The Army.

7243: GLBTV.

From Newsweek…

Kings of Queens
Gays on TV once helped promote tolerance. Now they may be hurting it.

By Ramin Setoodeh | NEWSWEEK

Even if you’ve never seen glee, the Fox dramedy with show tunes in its veins and opera in its nervous system, you probably know that it’s TV’s gayest product since Richard Simmons. Last week’s episode centered on a singing contest of “Defying Gravity,” the anticonformity anthem from Wicked, every tween girl’s favorite musical. The contestants: Rachel the glee-club diva vs. Kurt the, um—what’s the male version of diva? Kurt (Chris Colfer) wears fluffy Alexander McQueen sweaters and sings notes high enough to make your fillings hurt. He can belt Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and thrust his hips better than Ms. Knowles herself. Yet he can also melt your heart with his fortitude and frankness, especially during his fraught talks with his dad, a mechanic who still remembers when his son wore high heels—as a toddler. That’s the thing about Kurt: he can be endearing, but he’s also confusing. In one episode, the glee club split into a boys’ team and a girls’ team. Guess which side Kurt went for? If Kurt were transgendered, all that would make perfect sense, but he’s not. Instead, he’s that oldest of clichés: the sensitive gay boy who really wants to be a girl.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Really. If the gay community has stood for anything in the 40 years since Stonewall, it’s the freedom not just to love who you want but to be who you are: we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it. For a while, TV got with the program. In 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres came out on her sitcom, she paved the way for gay characters of every stripe. The next year, Dawson’s Creek introduced a studly jock named Jack (Kerr Smith), who became perhaps the first teen to come out in prime time. TV’s other Jack (Sean Hayes), from Will & Grace, swung the more flamboyant way, while lawyerly Will (Eric McCormack) could have been just another “Friend.” Over time, the image of gay people on TV became less lavender and more gray—as multifaceted as the five men on Queer Eye for the Straight Guyor the ladies of The L Word. By bringing all these diverse folks into America’s living rooms, TV helped bring gays into the mainstream. A survey by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of the people who say their feelings toward gays and lesbians had become more favorable in the past five years, about one third credited that in part to characters they saw on TV.

In the past year, however, the public-acceptance pendulum seems to have shifted back, at least for what is arguably the biggest test of equality. Two weeks ago, the people of Maine followed the people of California in reversing existing laws that had legalized gay marriage. In fact, when gay marriage has been put before the voters of any state, it has failed every time. Is TV to blame for this? Of course not. The mission of popular culture is to entertain, not to lecture. But if we accept that Will, Dawson’s, and the rest once fostered acceptance, it’s fair to ask if Gleemay be hurting it, especially because the Kurt model is everywhere. There’s Marc (Michael Urie), the flaming fashion assistant on Ugly Betty; Lloyd (Rex Lee), Ari’s sassy receptionist on Entourage; the gay couple on Modern Family (one guy still pines for his ice-skating career; the other wears purple in every episode). The fey way extends to nonfiction, too, from the dozens of squealing contestants on Project Runwayto the two gayest words in the English language: Perez Hilton. Next week American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert’s new album, For Your Entertainment, arrives: that’s Lambert on the cover, wearing heavy mascara, black nail polish, and perfect lip gloss. Lesbians face a different problem. They are invariably played by gorgeous, curvy women straight out of a straight man’s fantasy—Olivia Wilde on House, Sara Ramirez on Grey’s Anatomy, Evan Rachel Wood on True Blood—and they’re usually bisexual. How convenient.

Minority groups have long struggled to balance assimilation and extinction, self-expression and alienation. Some African-Americans are complaining that the poor, uneducated girl in Precious perpetuates stereotypes; others say she represents a part of the community and deserves to be celebrated. For gays, that schism falls along generational lines. Older gays who spent their lives fighting for civil rights continue to want to stand out, to argue that acceptance means nothing if it doesn’t apply to the most outré members. Younger men and women, for whom society has been more tolerant, think of themselves as “post-gay,” meaning their sexual orientation is only a part of who they are. Last month, gay groups held a march on Washington for marriage. The older folks gave speeches. The younger ones seemed more interested in snapping a Facebook picture of Lady Gaga.

The problem with the Glee club is that Kurt and the rest are loud and proud, but their generation has turned down the volume. All this at a time when standing apart seems particularly counterproductive. Marriage (and the military) are sacred institutions, so it’s not surprising that some heterosexuals will defend them against what they see as a radical alteration. But if you want to be invited to someone else’s party, sometimes you have to dress the part. Is that a form of appeasement? Maybe. It’s not that gay men and women should pretend to be straight, or file down all their fabulously spiky edges. But even Rachel Maddow wears lipstick on TV. The key is balance. There’s so much more to the gay community than the people on TV (or at a gay-pride parade). We just want a chance to live and love like everybody else. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, we won’t get there until the post-post-gay generation.

7242: Photoshop Is Not Brain Surgery.

Anyone else think they attached the same neurosurgeon’s head from the upper photo to the lower right figure via Photoshop?

7241: Knockouts.

Scuffling through the news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Mike Tyson and a photographer were arrested after scuffling at Los Angeles International Airport. Has anyone ever thought about posting a camera crew at LAX and turning it into a celebrity reality TV series?

• AT&T is dialing up the pressure in its lawsuit against Verizon, demanding that the competitor pull commercials that denigrate AT&T’s network coverage. Verizon is standing firm behind its messages. Apparently, the iconic Verizon guy is not hearing AT&T’s calls.

• Lou Dobbs has resigned from CNN. Don’t look for him to resurface on Univision. Or Lopez Tonight.

7240: Not Ladies’ Night.

From The New York Times…

Among Late-Night Writers, Few Women in the Room

By Bill Carter

In many ways, television today is about women more than men.

More women watch television than men; female producers and writers have had huge success in prime time and daytime; in January, women will occupy two of the three seats as anchors of network evening newscasts.

But there is one glaring exception: very few women make it inside the writing rooms for late-night television hosts, despite that women make up a larger proportion of their audience than men.

There are no female writers on the new “The Jay Leno Show,” none on “Late Show with David Letterman,” none on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

The lack of women in late-night writing positions was pushed again to the forefront by David Letterman’s confession of sexual relationships with his staff members.

In an article for Vanity Fair’s Web site, a former writer for Mr. Letterman, Nell Scovell, described her experiences in the late 1980s, citing what she called a “hostile work environment,” including Mr. Letterman’s romantic relationships with women on the staff.

“Writing for late-night talk shows is a great entry-level TV job, and if you deny women that opportunity it reduces the chance for them to pursue careers in comedy,” she said in an e-mail message. Her article was cited in motions filed with the court this week by the lawyer defending the man accused of blackmailing Mr. Letterman.

In the 1980s, Mr. Letterman pioneered the kind of college-age male humor that dominates late night. But now, his audience is almost 55 percent women; Mr. Leno’s is more than 53 percent, and Mr. O’Brien’s just over one half. Yet the writing room and sensibilities of the show itself remain largely male.

Steve Bodow, head writer for “The Daily Show,” conceded that the preponderance of male writers had not changed much in recent years, although his show hired two women writers in September.

“We shook the trees a little,” Mr. Bodow said of the special efforts the show made. “Women have a different perspective, which we like on the show.”

But perspective is not the same as sensibility. Some women in the business argue that, as long as the hosts remain almost exclusively male, so will the writers.

“When you’re writing for late night, you’re writing through one person’s prism, and that person at the shows you’re looking at is always a dude,” said Hallie Haglund, one of the new writers on “The Daily Show. “ Allison Silverman, who has served as the only woman writer first on “The Daily Show” then on Conan O’Brien’s staff, said she had no trouble assuming the voices of male hosts. But she added, “I don’t think the issue of sensibility is off base. The hosts and the staffs I worked on often resembled one another. Have you seen how many tall Irish people are on Conan’s staff?”

Read the full story here.

7239: The Marcus Graham Project Explained.

Advertising Age presents a nice video featuring Lincoln Stephens discussing The Marcus Graham Project.

Eddie Murphy’s Long-Term Effect on Ad Agency Diversity
Story of Dallas’ Marcus Graham Project

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — How is Eddie Murphy playing a role in a new push to diversify ad agencies? Former agency account exec Lincoln Stephens is both an example and an evangelist of the “Boomerang” effect. A year ago Stephens abruptly quit his Chicago agency job, moved back to his hometown of Dallas and, on a shoestring budget, launched a program to recruit, train and motivate talented young African Americans for advertising agency jobs. Execs at The Richards Group, Imaginuity, Tracy Locke and other Dallas organizations volunteered to mentor participants in his first boot camp sessions.

7238: A Carl’s Jr. Offer You Can’t Refuse.

Carl’s Jr. set aside its typically sexist advertising for stereotypical depictions offensive to Italian Americans. Note the response from the corporate director of public relations—it’s pretty clear that Carl’s Jr. does not see a problem with perpetuating ethnic stereotypes in an effort to amuse “young, hungry guys.” The campaign was touting the chain’s Chicken Parmesan Sandwich; hence, the need to push mafia imagery. Good thing they weren’t promoting fried chicken or Asian chicken flavors.

Fuggedaboudit: Carl’s Jr. Stops Mob Ad Campaign

by Jennifer Lawinski

Fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. has stopped the ad campaign for its Chicken Parmesan Sandwich after Italian-American groups complained about the mafia-themed commercials.

The California Italian-American Task Force and the National Italian-American Federation praised Carl’s Jr.’s parent company CKE for its decision not to buy more TV slots for the ads, which feature mobster and garbage man characters that critics said showed negative Italian-American stereotypes, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

In the ad, a man sits in his car eating the Carl’s Jr. Chicken Parmesan Sandwich as marinara sauce drips out of his mouth and down his shirt. When two mafia goons approach the car, the man plays dead. Fooled by the sauce dotting his shirt like blood, they leave him alive assuming someone else killed him before they arrived.

“NIAF was pleased to see the positive steps taken by Carl’s Jr. Restaurant to remove negative, inaccurate and unfair characterizations in their recent commercial advertisements,” Jeff Capaccio, the group’s regional vice president for the Far West, told the paper. “These advertisements only fuel further incorrect assumptions about an entire ethnic group.”

Controversy is nothing new for Carl’s Jr. Earlier this year, the company launched a racy ad featuring Padma Lakshmi inhaling a Western Bacon Thickburger.

Beth Mansfield, director of public relations for CKE told Slashfood that the company, which is also the parent company of Hardee’s, “adopts a creative approach” to its advertising. “It is intended to communicate the core message of our premium-quality food to our target audience of ‘young, hungry guys.’ We do not aim to exclude or offend any other groups with our efforts, but merely to appeal to and amuse a very specific audience. We understand that not everyone may view our advertising the same way, so we respect all views and welcome comments and feedback.”

The company decided not to extend the media run for the Parmesan Chicken Sandwich, but the campaign formally ended on Nov. 8, although the commercials may still make appearances “infrequently in limited markets,” Mansfield said.

But it’s still offering $1 off coupons on its Web site.

After the Chicken Parmesan campaign, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s will be taking another stab at McDonalds, Mansfield told Slashfood.

Its next ad campaign for Carl’s Jr.’s Big Carl burger and Hardee’s Big Hardee burger will target the McDonald’s Big Mac in “round three of the Premium Burger Wars,” which Mansfield said the company calls “McSmack.”

“The direct comparison worked so well and we got such a great response from them, that’s what we’re looking at doing again,” she told Slashfood. “We just keep kicking the shins of that 800 pound gorilla.”

7237: Holiday Lights.

Holy cow! It’s another MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The Chicago Sun-Times published a letter to the editor from a reader responding to an Illinois State Lottery campaign by Energy BBDO:

Advertiser should ask Linus

In Monday’s paper, columnist Lewis Lazare notes that Energy BBDO has created a series of holiday television commercials using the song “Joy to the World” to sell—of all things—lottery tickets! The new lyrics and retro music may be captivating and clever, but are the people at BBDO familiar with the original words to this Christmas hymn? Or do they care?

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”

Or is Linus the only one who still understands what Christmas is all about?

Dan McGuire, Bensenville

• Sammy Sosa sought to address his apparent skin lightening during an interview with Univision. Sosa explained, “It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed. … I use [it] to soften [my skin], but [it] has bleached me some. … I’m not a racist. I live my life happily … I don’t think I look like Michael Jackson.” Um, Sosa was never known for his defensive skills.

7236: Disabling Diversity…?

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

‘Glee’ casting choice hits sour note with disabled
TELEVISION | Putting able-bodied actor in chair sparks debate

By Lynn Elber

LOS ANGELES—The glee club members twirl their wheelchairs to the tune of “Proud Mary” and in joyful solidarity with Artie, the fellow performer who must use his chair even when the music stops.

The scene in tonight’s episode of the hit Fox series “Glee,” which celebrates diversity and the underdog, is yet another uplifting moment—except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates. For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.

“I think there’s a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable,” said Robert David Hall, a cast member of CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

That is nonsense, said Hall: “I’ve made my living as an actor for 30 years and I walk on two artificial legs.”

Increasingly, television is expected to reflect America in whole and not just the so-called mainstream. That was the intent in assembling the cast of “Glee,” said executive producer Brad Falchuk, along with getting the best performers possible.

“We brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair,” he said. “It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV.”

He understands the concern and frustration of the disabled community, he said. But Kevin McHale, 21, who plays Artie, excels as an actor and singer and “it’s hard to say no to someone that talented,” Falchuk said.

“Glee” isn’t alone in using an able-bodied actor for a wheelchair role: “Curb Your Enthusiasm” did it twice in a recent episode.

“There are very talented performers with disabilities,” said Gloria Castaneda, program director of the Media Access Office, a California program that promotes hiring of the disabled in the entertainment industry. “We just don’t know what producers are thinking.”

7235: Best Buy Spins New DJ Club.

Adweek reported Best Buy is the latest brand to hijack urban culture. The Geek Squad must be comprised of wiggers and wannabes.

Best Buy Spins ‘Club Beats’
Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre to promote chain’s DJ-focused offerings

By Alex Palmer

Best Buy is aiming to become a destination for DJs. The retailer has partnered with Monster Cable and Beats by Dr. Dre headphones to launch its new in-store “Club Beats” area.

The big-box retailer is creating a new section in all its stores where consumers can sample the latest audio, music, entertainment and technology products including DJ equipment, mixing software, turntables, headphones and laptops.

To help promote Club Beats, Best Buy will host a series of events featuring appearances from top music artists including Lady Gaga, Will.i.am and Dre. It will tout the events through local radio and newspaper advertisements. The retailer spent $213 million on advertising in 2008 and $142 million in the first eight months of 2009, per Nielsen.

Best Buy sees a growing interest not only in DJing, particularly with the recent release of DJ Hero, but also in the concern for sound quality. Beats by Dr. Dre—which was co-founded by Dre and Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine—was selected because of its commitment to giving average listeners a professional-quality experience through their headphones. Monster Cable, meanwhile, promises to “make music sound better” in its ads.

“DJs in clubs are now the new rock stars that are sought after because of [their sound]. It changes the whole atmosphere, and our average users are really picking up on that,” said Wendy Fritz, svp of merchandising for mobility at Best Buy.

The services will be tailored to meet a variety of DJ needs, whether for the novice making sure his or her laptop is configured for new software, or professionals seeking something more sophisticated.

Best Buy sees this DJ-focused offering as something brand new for mainstream retail. “It may not be simple to find these products in a mainstream environment—either you have to know what you need, or you have to talk to someone who is in the industry,” said Fritz. “What we’re trying to say is ‘hey you can do this,’ and when they come into the store our Blue Shirts can say ‘these are the three or four products you need to get started.’”

Seven stores will feature a full “experiential” Club Beats area, with a spectrum of products while 300 stores will feature an “interactive” area, with similar options but slightly fewer products to try out. All remaining stores will include a “core” Club Beats area, with a product selection, merchandising signage and customer service assistance but less of a focus on interactivity.

7234: Light News Coverage.

Pale comparisons in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• MLB slugger Sammy Sosa is getting second looks over his apparent skin lightening. An acquaintance claims Sosa is undergoing a skin rejuvenation process. Or maybe he’s trying to land a spokesman gig with L’Oréal.

• Sprint announced plans to dump 2,500 workers by the end of the year. Employees can expect to receive their notices via text.

7233: Masters Of Leisure.

Advertising Age has bundled its coverage of the ANA 2009 Masters of Marketing conference. It’s interesting to note the lack of reported talk about diversity, especially given Bob Liodice’s hype and hollering over initiatives like the ADCOLOR® Coalition. Instead, ANA members held their annual event in Arizona—hardly a bastion of multiculturalism—at an expensive and exclusive resort. Yep, these guys are in touch with America’s changing consumer cultures.

7232: Teachers Learn Healthy Lessons.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Compton schools’ weighty competition
Staff members team up to lose pounds and gain cash prizes. The district hopes their successes will inspire students to make better food choices too.

By Gerrick Kennedy

Diahanne McKinley stepped off the scale and shook her head in disbelief. She tried again, this time removing a head wrap—every ounce counts, she said. But again, the number was not good. So she shifted her weight from side to side and stepped on the scale one more time, observing the digital numbers aglow below her.

“I’m not happy,” said the 53-year-old, fanning her eyes to stop the tears. “I’m working out four to five times a day—morning, noon and night. I only lost one pound.”

The Compton woman is one of more than 300 staff members from the Compton Unified School District competing to lose weight. Nearly $9,000 in cash prizes—provided by the district’s insurance broker—is at stake.

McKinley, a systems analyst for the district, had hoped to continue the momentum of the previous week, when she shed 12 pounds. She cut fried foods and starches out of her diet, replacing them with fruits, vegetables and steamed chicken.

The competition is a local version of the 50 Million Pound Challenge, a nationwide initiative started by Dr. Ian Smith, known for his appearances on “Celebrity Fit Club,” and reminiscent of NBC’s hit show “The Biggest Loser.” Anyone can join at no cost through the website www.50millionpoundchallenge.com and track weight loss, download a 30-day meal plan, record exercise and create teams.

Since early October, Compton Unified’s 61 five-member teams—sporting names like Simply Delicious, Fat No Mo and Diet Divas—have been attending weekly weigh-ins where they are given recipe cards and diet tips from the district’s nutritionist. But, unlike the television show, participants do not have the luxury of trainers to guide their exercise. Instead, most of them walk and do cardio at nearby El Camino College Compton Center.

McKinley weighed more than 300 pounds at her heaviest. She hopes her weight loss will help relieve chronic back pain. Also, she has felt the financial sting of being overweight: Her health insurer recently raised her rates by more than $40 a month.

Tami Foy, director of the Compton Education Foundation, started the program to help employees like McKinley. She said obesity has long plagued the area because lower-income neighborhoods tend to be surrounded by fast-food eateries that offer processed, high-fat foods. She hopes Compton students notice the progress being made by the school staff and work with their parents to make better diet choices.

“Every week we’re hearing about someone dying of a heart attack,” Foy said. “Our kids will not outlive us if we don’t do something about this.”

This isn’t the first time Foy has tried to encourage district employees to trim some pounds. Foy said that about a year ago she wanted employees to enroll in Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but participation was poor because people could not afford the meetings or pre-packaged foods. So Foy looked for a free alternative.

Tracie Thomas, director of student nutrition services for the district, said television shows such as “The Biggest Loser” and “Celebrity Fit Club” are popular because they emphasize teamwork.

“We spend more time in our workplace around these people than we do in our own homes. I think everyone working together to get healthy works best,” Thomas said.

As part of the program, Thomas has taken parents on tours of local grocery stores to learn to make healthier choices. Her department also sponsors weekly cooking classes to expose families to salad bars and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

The competition ends with a final weigh-in Dec. 2. The team that has lost the most will win $4,000. There are additional cash prizes for second- and third-place teams, and the individual who loses the most will win $1,000. Dickerson Employee Benefits, insurance broker for the school district, donated $10,000 for prize money and food, Foy said.

Alex Muldrow, an operations manager for the district, said his biggest challenge was changing his “if it looks good, I’d eat it” mentality. He said Compton’s limited choices in dining fueled his bad eating habits. Instead of frying food, he now bakes. He also eats more fish, chicken and raw vegetables. Muldrow’s goal is to get down to 230 pounds from 277. McKinley hasn’t set a goal, but becoming a grandmother gave her added incentive to get her weight in check.

“I know I’m 100 pounds overweight. I just started eating the wrong things,” she said. “I don’t mind paying that little extra for insurance. I just want to live.”

7231: Mad Men Fades To White.

AMC series Mad Men ended the season with principals at Sterling Cooper Advertising launching a new shop. Don Draper, Bert Cooper, Roger Sterling and the English guy recruited key staffers to join the enterprise. Of course, no one bothered to consider Hollis the elevator attendant.

7230: Save! Save! Save!

This actual craigslist ad is from a self-proclaimed turnaround artist offering to save Kmart and Sears. We can do the same with two words: Dump Draftfcb.

I can save Kmart and Sears (United States)
Date: 2009-11-07, 2:27AM CST
Reply to: job-vxqye-1455198111@craigslist.org

I can save Kmart and Sears GUARANTEED.

Sears has been around since people used to wait for the new catalogs (also before toilet paper).

Kmart started the big discount store.

Both these companies have become Wal-Martized.

They forgot how they got started and what brought them to 2009.

I can save Kmart and Sears. No money down.

If Kmart and Sears will contract with me for an advertising/marketing/promotion, I will guarantee 20% instant sales gains overall. Sales of the items on promotion will also increase 20%.

To refresh the math:
If I can contract with Kmart and Sears (I have worked for both companies) I will guarantee 20% increase in total sales and 20% sales increase for items on promotion.

I have over 30 years retail experience, most as multi unit manager, district manager, regional manager, owner of multiple stores.

I can save: Kmart and Sears
Box 222
Walled Lake, MI 48390

savekmart@yahoo.com

7229: Not Lovin’ The Cultural Cluelessness.

Check out the Advertising Age report below, immediately followed by a brief MultiCultClassics perspective.

Ethnic Insights Form Foundations of McDonald’s Marketing
CMO Golden: ‘Start With the Ones Who Are Setting the Pace’

By Emily Bryson York

PHOENIX — The marketing at McDonald’s is informed first and foremost by ethnic insights that shape the chain’s marketing to African Americans, Asians and Hispanics. Then McDonald’s lays those insights over work for the general market.

“Ethnic segments are leading lifestyle trends,” Neil Golden, chief marketer officer of McDonald’s USA, told the ANA assembly. He added that his team decided to “start with the ones who are setting the pace.”

They’re also where a lot of the money is. Mr. Golden said 40% of McDonald’s current U.S. business comes from the Hispanic, Asian and African-American markets, and 50% of consumers under the age of 13 are from those segments. “And they’re among our most loyal users,” Mr. Golden said.

‘No malls in the ghetto’
McDonald’s has attempted to understand ethnic segments for decades, hiring Burrell Communications in the early 1970s. But they haven’t always gotten it right. Mr. Golden recalled a meeting with Chicago franchisees 15 years ago in which he announced that the African-American population was going to love a new product and marketing program. A franchisee asked him how he knew. McDonald’s had
done a study. The franchisee asked where it was held. Mr. Golden told him it had been conducted in a mall. “We don’t have malls in the ghetto,” the franchisee told him.

Since then, Mr. Golden said McDonald’s has instituted an “approach that ensures this will never be an afterthought.” Now during in the product-development cycle, McDonald’s looks for a disproportionate level of ethnic insights, he said. Out of nine focus groups, whenever possible, two are Hispanic, two are Asian, two are African American and the remaining three represent the rest of the market.

When McDonald’s takes its ads to market, the chain makes sure that spending behind certain spots represents the country’s ethnic makeup, such as 15% behind Hispanic marketing, 12% behind African America, 5% behind Asian.

As for the ad-creative-development process, Mr. Golden said each ethnic agency is given a blank canvas—within the “I’m Lovin’ It” framework—to create campaigns that will resonate in the respective market. The chain’s McCafe launch, for instance, included a Hispanic push aimed at the increasingly empowered Latina. The Asian McCafe work focused on the quality of ingredients. And while McCafe is performing
well in the general market, it’s doing even better in many ethnically driven locations.

The chain has also looked for more meaningful touchpoints, including a scholarship program for Hispanic students in Texas and tie-ins with Lunar New Year celebrations to target the Asian community.

And it’s paying off. McDonald’s ethnic marketing continues to receive accolades from trusted names in the communities they’re targeting, such as Latina Style and Black Enterprise magazine.

He also pointed out McDonald’s “walks the talk” in its C-suite as well. His boss, McDonald’s USA President Don Thompson, is African American. Mr. Thompson’s boss, Chief Operating Officer Ralph Alvarez, is Hispanic. CEO Jim Skinner has said his goal is not to have to talk about it anymore.

Hard to argue with results
It’s hard to argue with McDonald’s business results. Since 2002, he said the U.S. business alone has grown by $10 billion, or $750,000 per restaurant. That translates into an additional 1.8 billion customer visits each year, or about 75,000 visits per restaurant. Restaurant cash flow has grown 50% over the same period.

Mr. Golden admitted that his company in 2000 “had lost its way.” The company was focusing on limited-time promotions and partnerships with other properties that subordinated the McDonald’s brand. At the time, he said, the marketers wanted to get back to the glory of “Nothin’ but net” and “You deserve a break today.”

“We’d lost our confidence,” Mr. Golden said. “Reinventing and modernizing the brand had to be a top priority.”

He credited the “Plan to Win,” an overall business strategy unveiled in 2002, and the “I’m Lovin’ It” theme, introduced in 2003. He said the five-note jingle now enjoys 100% awareness, boosting not only sales results, but also morale.

When asked about the growing momentum toward fast-food regulation, Mr. Golden said, “Our commitment is to evolve what we offer our consumers as consumers change their tastes and needs,” pointing to the addition of low-fat milk and apple dippers to kids meals, as well as grilled chicken options and better salads. Now, said the former tennis pro, consumers can eat at McDonald’s “six, seven, 10 times a week. I sure do.”

For a corporation that has been partnering with minority advertising agencies since the 1970s, McDonald’s still displays disturbing levels of cultural cluelessness.

First, Mickey D’s continues to baffle the senses by boasting of its own diversity while working alongside general market agencies whose exclusivity borders on institutionalized discrimination. Sorry, hiring minority shops does not compensate for the hypocrisy.

Equally perplexing is the proclamation that “ethnic segments are leading lifestyle trends.” Um, this has been common knowledge since even before the launch of shops such as Burrell. Yet minority firms must continue to repeat the point again and again.

And while advertisers like Mickey D’s recognize that minority consumers lead the trends, they are loath to let minority agencies lead the marketing.

Sure, Mickey D’s will occasionally permit the minorities to pitch against the Whites for projects. Additionally, minority spots will get general market media rotation. But in the end, there is a steadfast reluctance to hand over the reins completely.

Perhaps it’s rooted in the “No Malls In The Ghetto” recollection. Do advertisers like Mickey D’s believe deep down that the majority of minorities are ghetto dwellers?

More importantly, do advertisers realize that by prohibiting minority agencies from achieving a greater status, they are ultimately maintaining the corporate ghetto also known as multicultural marketing?

7228: ANA Masters Of Deception.

The Association of National Advertisers is holding its annual powwow this weekend. The official agenda for the ANA 2009 Masters of Marketing doesn’t include any references to diversity. Bob Liodice will likely be asking peers to join The Army between events. However, Liodice did unveil the Marketer’s Constitution, which dumped a nod toward inclusiveness into the 7th commandment. The Marketer’s Constitution, of course, does not require ANA members to uphold the U.S. Constitution in regards to hiring practices on Madison Avenue. Thanks, Masters!

Marketer’s Constitution

1. Marketing must become increasingly targeted, focused and personal.
2. Marketing must build real, tangible and enduring brand value.
3. Marketing must become more effective — more creative, insightful and accountable.
4. Marketing must become more integrated and proficient in managing expanding media platforms.
5. The marketing supply chain must become more efficient and productive.
6. The marketing ecosystem - including agencies, media and suppliers — must become increasingly capable.
7. Marketing professionals must become better, highly skilled, diverse leaders.
8. Marketing must be indisputably socially responsible.
9. Marketing must be unencumbered by inappropriate legislation or regulation.
10. The marketing discipline must be elevated and respected.

7227: Comparing Rates.

Ups and downs in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent, the highest since 1926. The Madison Avenue diversity rate has risen far less than that since 1926, and it’s still well within the lower single digits.

• Mickey D’s settled a lawsuit from a Minnesota burger parlor that charged the fast feeder had ripped off the registered line, “Who’s your patty?” Guess McDonald’s Black advertising agency will have to go back to the drawing board.

7226: Fathers & Daughters Event Tomorrow.

Learn more here.

7225: Pink Cadillac? No, Pure White.

Advertising Age reported McCann didn’t make the final cut for the Cadillac pitch. Also not among the contenders: Any Minority Agency. General Motors allegedly has prerequisites for candidates, including some prior car experience and expertise with luxury brands. Not publicly listed with the mandates: White Skin. Will GM even allow minority shops to handle the minority assignments—or will the automaker once again let Whites cover everything?

McCann Out of Running for Cadillac Account
Rumored Front-Runner Not Among Contenders for GM’s Luxury Auto Business

By Jean Halliday

DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Cadillac has narrowed the list of agencies in the hunt for its national creative account, and McCann Erickson has not made the cut.

General Motors Co.’s luxury brand said the contenders are: Publicis Groupe-backed Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, and Publicis, New York; two Interpublic Group of Cos. agencies, Gotham, New York, and Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; Omnicom Group’s DDB, Chicago; and independent McKinney.

The automaker said it will hold meetings with the agencies in Detroit before Thanksgiving, and finalists will pitch in January. Executives familiar with the pitch said GM, in searching for an agency for its Cadillac brand, concentrated only partly on prior car experience; another crucial skill-set was experience with luxury brands.

Ark Advisors is managing the search, for which General Motors invited McCann, Birmingham, Mich., a major GM agency globally, that also handles Saab and GM’s corporate account in the U.S. Dentsu’s McGarryBowen, New York, was also invited, according to executives close to the matter. McCann is also pitching GM’s Chevrolet project for the launch of the small Cruze car.

There was talk that McCann was a shoo-in for the Cadillac account because of the close relationship between Steve Shannon, exec director of marketing at the brand, and Garry Neel, president-CEO of McCann’s Detroit-area office—a claim Cadillac and GM’s Bob Lutz, vice chairman-marketing and communications, vigorously denied.

Incumbent Modernista, Boston, opted not to defend the account.

7224: Diversifying Late-White TV.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Wanda Sykes, George Lopez bring new comedy, new colors to white men’s late-night TV domain

By Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the blink of an eye, late-night TV is shifting from a white men’s club to the start of a rainbow coalition.

Wanda Sykes’ weekly Fox comedy show debuts 11 p.m. EST Saturday, followed by George Lopez’s four-night-a-week talk show on TBS, starting 11 p.m. EST Monday. They join “The Mo’Nique Show” on BET.

Lopez is counting on an audience hungry for something different — as in the first Hispanic to host a nighttime talk show on a major network, cable or broadcast.

Sykes is the first black late-night host since the late 1990s, when celebrities Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Keenan Ivory Wayans tried and failed to follow in Arsenio Hall’s successful 1989-94 footsteps.

“There’s a huge percentage of people not watching late-night TV at all,” Lopez said, figuring that the shows headlined by hosts including David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel draw from roughly the same audience pool.

For people of color, the actor and comedian said, “I don’t think a lot of their needs are met with the current talk shows. I would pull a different audience.”

Shari Anne Brill, an analyst with media-buyer Carat USA in New York, echoes Lopez’s assertion.

“There is a huge, growing multicultural population in this country, and the current late-night fare doesn’t really take them into account,” she said.

But neither Lopez nor Sykes are talking about practicing exclusionary TV. Lopez’s ABC sitcom drew a cross-section of viewers, and Sykes said she expects her show to attract the same mixed crowd she gets at her standup appearances.

“Young, old, male, female, all races, gay, straight. I love the audience that I draw,” Sykes said.

She rebuts the idea she got the job because of her gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation (the actress-comedian, who appears on CBS’ “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” came out as gay in 2008).

“I do understand the importance of being on a late-night talk show as a black, gay woman. But I’ve been at this for 20 years. I don’t think they (networks) were saying, ‘Hey, it would be fun to get a black woman on late-night. Who fits that role?’

“I got this show in spite of being a black lesbian,” she said, adding that viewers will tune in to see her or Lopez and not a type.

“It’s all driven by the host. It’s not what you’re getting from a minority, it’s us,” Sykes said.

She doesn’t see an “Obama effect” in the sudden late-night diversity, given that she was approached before the election of the first African-American U.S. president. But Lopez said his interest was piqued as he campaigned for the Democratic candidate.

“Being with Barack for a year and seeing the people and how their eyes and their faces filled with hope for him, for this country … and, on a very smaller scale, to have a show that is fun and can galvanize people and bring them together” was appealing, he said.

The two shows, as sketched by their hosts, will take different approaches.

Lopez promises to bring “the party back to late-night,” signaling a looser, hipper hour in the tradition of “The Arsenio Hall Show,” said analyst Bill Carroll of media buyer Katz Television in New York. Sykes is planning Bill Maher-type panels with both lighthearted and serious discussion of politics and culture as part of her mix.

“In some ways, these shows are looking at breaking the mold,” Carroll said. “Lopez Tonight,” he suggests, could be “what late-night might look like in the future.”

Sykes, whose show replaces Fox’s “Mad TV,” could compete successfully in her partial overlap with NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” analyst Brill said. “Viewers could watch her show and then switch to ‘SNL’ in time for the news, which is the only part that’s funny anyway.”

Eva Longoria-Parker, Ellen DeGeneres and Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant are the scheduled debut night guests for Lopez. Sykes will welcome Mary Lynn Rajskub of “24,” Daryl “Chill” Mitchell of “Brothers” and “The Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan.

John Ridley, head writer for Sykes, said he’s wary of asserting that the show will “blow apart” the late-night model.

“If you look at all the shows, they’re not different. Are we going to have a monologue? Absolutely. Guests? Yes. A panel? Yes. But it reflects Wanda’s sensibility,” he said.

And that, it’s safe to say, is not akin to what Carroll calls the “predominantly middle-aged — to be kind — white men” that have long dominated late-night.

7223: Gringo Market Domination…?

Advertising Age reported that IKEA is seeking to integrate its White and Latino advertising efforts. Sounds like forced assimilation for the minorities. After all, clients are loath to demand that White agencies become more culturally integrated.

Ikea Begins Creative Review to Integrate General Market With Hispanic
Retailer Says It Is Searching for Improved Communications Efficiency in U.S.

By Natalie Zmuda and Rupal Parekh

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Swedish furniture retailer Ikea, nearing completion of a media agency review, is now examining its creative roster of U.S. agencies in what it calls a move towards “integration of general market and Hispanic creative.”

The marketer has hired Boston-based Pile & Co., which has managed agency reviews for the retailer before, to assist with its “integrated communications” search.

“Ikea is evaluating all creative agency partners and identifying areas for improved communication effectiveness and efficiencies,” said Leontyne Green, marketing manager for Ikea U.S. “Integration of general market and Hispanic creative could afford Ikea the best opportunity to develop breakthrough messaging and establish a more-integrated approach to marketing communications.”

The marketer said it now partners with numerous creative agencies, citing Deutsch and Anita Santiago Advertising as specifically participating in the review.

Ikea, which spends some $300 million globally, is known in marketing circles to be a bit finicky, conducting agency reviews with some regularity. Its agency roster spans various holding companies: Omnicom Group’s Ketchum handles PR; WPP shops Mediaedge:cia and Mediacom have handled media duties, and Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Deutsch has U.S. creative.

Deutsch has a long history with Ikea; the retailer handed domestic creative duties back to the shop in 2006 after a break from a decade-long stretch of working together. The agency is expected to participate in the latest review.

Separately, Ikea is wrapping a seven-month-long review of its media-agency partners, and executives with knowledge of the process said the company is expected to make a decision soon. Mediaedge:cia has handled planning and buying for the furniture maker in the U.S. and certain global markets, while sibling Mediacom handles the business in other regions.

“Ikea U.S. is tasked with driving the business in an unprecedented way,” Ms. Green said. “Consequently, having strong, consistent and relevant communications will become even more critical to delivering to that task.”

Nontraditional marketing methods
Ikea’s marketing strategy tends to veer away from TV and other traditional methods. In recent times, it has favored using branded entertainment as a marketing tool, including movie integrations with “Mamma Mia!” and “(500) Days of Summer” and branded webisode series “Easy to Assemble,” starring celebs such as Justine Bateman and Tom Arnold. It also staged an in-store opera and an elaborate out-of-home campaign dubbed “Embrace Change” in honor of Barack Obama’s inauguration, creating a replica of the Oval Office in a train station.

Earlier this year, Ikea marketing chief Magnus Gustaffson told Ad Age the company plans to devote an increasing amount of its estimated $300 million global marketing budget to digital media in the coming years, using projects such as “Easy to Assemble” to engage its customers.

“In the next three to five years, we can expect both content concepts and the distribution model to develop even more rapidly,” Mr. Gustaffson previously said. “So in that time frame, the importance of the 30-second TV spot, as we know it, will decrease and the importance of something that today is perceived to be more niche, i.e., web series, will increase.”

Like other retailers, Ikea has been hit hard by the recession. Over the summer it laid off 5,000 employees, or 4% of its workforce. And it has slowed store openings, expecting to open about 15 new stores next year, primarily in Europe. For the year ended Aug. 31, Ikea reported sales of $30 billion, up 1.4% from the year prior. In total, Ikea operates 267 stores around the world.

In the U.S., the retailer’s 2010 catalog highlights new, lower prices throughout, surely an effort to attract cash-strapped consumers who have been delaying home purchases. The 2010 catalog also garnered attention for its shift from Ikea’s version of the Futura font to Verdana—a move that ruffled brand loyalists, designers and typography junkies, and received tons of PR coverage.

Contributing: Michael Bush

7222: Muse Musings On Diversity.

At The Big Tent, Ken Wheaton noted that Jo Muse released a report on Corporate Diversity Communication. Forget the irony that it’s a White Paper. Go check it out now.

7221: Confessions Of An Advertising Industry.

Wanted to make one more quick point regarding Laurence Boschetto’s perspective.

Boschetto opened with: “The intense, ongoing scrutiny our industry has undergone for insufficient diversity and inclusion has been well-documented — and warranted.”

Add Boschetto to the growing list of leaders — including Dan Wieden, Rick Boyko, Mike Hughes, John Seifert, Bob Liodice, Nancy Hill, Bob Scarpelli, etc. — who have essentially admitted that our industry has failed in its responsibilities toward diversity. Looks like Cyrus Mehri can put aside any potential lawsuit, as Madison Avenue honchos are offering full confessions.

Does any other profession allow such admissions to be consistently repeated without assigning penance? What makes things worse is Boschetto recently received a shiny new Mosaic Award to prove insufficient efforts will not only be tolerated — they’ll be rewarded.

7220: Making The Cuts.

Cutting through the news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Johnson & Johnson announced a restructuring plan that will cut about 8,000 jobs by 2011. They’ll need a lot of Band-Aid© Brand Adhesive Bandages to handle that many cuts.

• The Louisiana Justice of the Peace who recently refused to marry an interracial couple has resigned. His single-sentence resignation letter read, “I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009.” That’s pretty clear in black and white.

• The U.S. Army reported that 70 percent of American military-age youth are unqualified to enlist because they’re overweight. One official remarked, “We’ve never had this problem of young people being obese like we have today.” However, the rejected recruits are eligible to serve at Mickey D’s.

7219: Boschetto Bashings.

Via The Big Tent, Draftfcb President-CEO Laurence Boschetto presented a perspective on minority vendors, likely reiterating points he made at The New Dynamics of Diversity event during Advertising Week. Hadji Williams, Harry Webber and Sanford Moore offered a few bashings rebuttals.

7218: Hockey Homophobia.

From USA TODAY…

It’s time to end the use of gay slurs in hockey

By Justin Bourne, Special for USA TODAY

In my days as a hockey player, I did nothing but contribute to hockey’s culture of homophobia and prejudice against gays. I used gay slurs more times than I’d like to admit. Six months after I left my last professional locker room, I felt a twinge of regret, followed by a full-out, stomach punch of regret. And by the time I finished the first draft of this column, I was disgusted with myself.

At the time, it seemed harmless. After all — when you think about the NHL, AHL, ECHL and more, can you call to memory a single open homosexual among them? There was nobody in my team’s dressing room to offend, right?

The lack of a homosexual presence in hockey must mean one of two things: either homosexual men don’t play the game or they don’t feel comfortable admitting it — in which case I, and my brethren, were offending some teammates with our close-mindedness, and furthering what must have been unsettled feelings of fear and general exclusion.

For us as a culture, that means another two things. That either we need scientists doing research on professional hockey players ASAP, because apparently there’s a link between our sport and sexuality. Or, much more realistically, we need to alter the culture of hockey, because homosexuals are being forced to play entire careers masquerading as people they’re not.

As many times as I used these slurs, I heard it back tenfold. As well as I fit in behind the doors of a dressing room, I had pursuits that made me seem different. I kept a journal while I played. I’m into piano music and reading. In the hockey world, that’s your basic formula for eliciting more comments about sexual orientation than acting in “Rent.” It’s always the first shot fired.

Hockey culture is something I’ve known and loved, but I’m not oblivious to the disconnect between how players and coaches act behind that dressing room door and how society expects them to act in public. Since we have to change something about how we act and what we say when we leave the team room, we’re probably acting improperly in the first place. And during my playing days, I was aware that was the case.

There hasn’t been progress on this issue for years. When I ran the idea for this column by my uncle, a sportswriter and editor, he mentioned a piece he wrote 20 years ago after the general manager of a major junior hockey team in Canada said something like: “We don’t have any weak-wristed players in this locker room.”

Twenty years later, this attitude has yet to be shucked from hockey. We can’t wait another two decades ignoring the small but consistent strides of progress that the world outside sport is making.

We need to make a change now, because kids who move away from home to play junior hockey at 16 or 17 are still impressionable. If they don’t encounter a good role model, the seeds are sown for a person, who after trying to fit in, thinks it’s OK to drink, treat women a certain way and use homosexuality as a punchline.

I recently read a quote in the “Verbatim” section of Time from Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, encouraging African-Americans to support gay marriage. He said “black people, of all people, should not oppose equality.” But really, shouldn’t all of us have learned from the horrible mistakes of our past, not just African-Americans? There’s not a single good reason for any of us to continue to support inequality in any shape or form. We’ll look back at this time in our history and hang our heads for allowing this prejudice to continue.

Policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are the kinds of things that when our kids grow up, they’ll look at us and say “dudes couldn’t fight for their country because they kissed dudes? Wait; explain that again, I’m lost. They were fighting for their country, right?”

The goal is to get to a place where our differences aren’t so much as a blip on anyone’s radar. By the time we have our sixth black President, let’s hope it’s not a story anymore — he’s just the President.

And maybe the first openly gay NHL star will elicit stereotypical responses but hopefully the 100th is just a guy who will show up in my columns for being “a completely overrated, third-line defensive specialist at best.”

It will be hard to survive the dressing room for the first players to come out. That’s a fact. Very few things are off-limits for jokes and barbs. This is a place where “Right, but your girlfriend has cheated on you like, six times” is a witty comeback.

On the ice, the first gay professionals will likely take some verbal shots. Trash-talking is part of the game and we all look for the easy target. The stuff I used to hear was harmless: I was called “skinny” and “soft” and worse (but not much).

Whoever the pioneer is will have to know what he’s in for — he’ll have to be a strong man, possibly in the literal sense.

We’ve somehow made something totally irrelevant to hockey performance – sexual preference — such an issue that every gay player has been forced to conclude that their private life is something best hidden.

Hey, hockey players: not knowing doesn’t change the reality that there are gay men in the professional ranks today.

And maybe it’s not many, because we’ve driven so many away; players who didn’t want to be teased, shunned, and worse, a target for on-ice violence. Who knows how many great players hung up their skates in favor of some lesser talent, strictly to find acceptance and peace of mind.

So it’s time.

It’s time to acknowledge we’ve been unfair to the gay community, that the culture of our sport can be misogynistic, homophobic and cruel. More important, it’s time to make a stand that we want it to change.

I know I can’t take back the words I said during my time as a hockey player, but this is a start. I think if you asked any minority group that has won the rights and freedoms that all people deserve, they’d agree on one thing about change — it’s better late than never.

7217: All The Pennies In China…

Call China now for just pennies? Um, there are lots of dollars worth of pennies here.

7216: Prime Talent Wanted.

Prime BurgerHouse will apparently be checking all candidates’ buns.

7215: i-D P.Y.T. Issue.

From i-D Magazine Pre-Fall 2009.

7214: White Power To The People.

Advertising Age presented Power Players 2009. With a few exceptions, it looks like White Power.

7213: A Woman’s Nation.

From The Los Angeles Times…

A woman’s nation: tears and empowerment
Women still want to change the world, on their own terms.

By Cathleen Decker

The state Women’s Conference, when it began almost two decades ago, was all about women changing the world. The speakers tended toward the practical. The frills were nonexistent.

Under the direction of First Lady Maria Shriver, last week’s conference was a two-day extravaganza, a Technicolor version of the event of old. Much of the focus was “The Shriver Report,” a collaboration between Shriver and a Washington think-tank, which declared two weeks ago that we have become “a woman’s nation.”

But the heart of the conference occurred at lunch on Day 2, when Shriver, her voice breaking, for the first time publicly reflected on her mother’s recent death. Her words brought thousands to tears in a silent arena.

It was hard to imagine the same personal scene at a conference of men. But that was part of the point, for the theme of the conference might well have been: We still want to change the world. We just want to do it on our terms.

The phrase “a woman’s nation” reflects potential as much as reality. As the report indicated, half the paid workers in the nation are women, and they are the primary breadwinners in four of 10 families. Most Americans, men and women, say that having women in the workforce is a positive.

But the rise in women’s economic heft has come about in part because the national recession disproportionately has hit male-oriented jobs in areas like home construction and finance. Women still earn substantially less than men and remain underrepresented relative to their share of the population in such jobs as law firm partners and chief executives, two traditional measurements of success.

In her report, Shriver declared the battle of the sexes to be over, replaced by negotiation. Translation: In all the difficult decisions of daily life, the things that get us from here to there, much still needs to be worked out.

That rang true to Barbara O’Connor, who attended the conference. O’Connor, a communications professor at Cal State Sacramento, has spent years counseling young women who want power on their own terms, who want a career and a family.

”I think we need a new definition of the women’s movement, and it has to include men,” O’Connor said. Her students, she said, look at her generation and shake their heads. “They all look at the women and what they have given up. There needs to be a discussion of how to do it differently.”

Differently, that is, than the 63-year-old O’Connor. She never married and never had children, “and I’ve struggled with that guilt all my life,” she said. “I think a lot of women are saying, ‘I played by the rules and have outward indices of success—and where has it gotten me?’ “

For her generation, of course, there was far more pressure to choose one over the other—usually home over career.

And there was less societal assistance if you went the other way. Even now, despite improvements, day care, flex time and other assistance are hard to come by.

Part of the reason is that women are no political monolith. Past decades have seen friction between working women and stay-at-home women, each nursing perceived slights and working against a unified insistence on things that could help both groups.(More than one speaker at the conference called for that to end, to much applause.)

Although women are the biggest voting bloc in California, they hold a small proportion of elective seats, in part because when push comes to shove, most women vote for ideology over gender.

That may be tested anew this year in the state’s two biggest races, for governor and U.S. Senate.

Former EBay chief executive Meg Whitman is running for the Republican nomination for governor, and so far is getting the same support from women as men. The same is true for potential Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, a former head of Hewlett Packard.

In neither case is there a gender gap in polls of potential primary voters.

Some political analysts surmise that the lack of a gap is because the pressure is off: There are now enough women in high-ranking positions that it is harder to invoke the passions that led to firsts, like election nationwide of several women senators in 1992 or Hillary Clinton’s close second in last year’s presidential contest.

For Kathy Hunn of Antelope Valley, who also attended the conference, politics is only one measure of success. Though happy to see women on the ballot, she said, “I won’t vote for a woman just because she’s a woman.”

Hunn, a high school counselor, was among the people at the conference for whom the old icons of success—the corner office or big salary—don’t matter.

She has attended for five years, and, inspired by what others were doing, found herself nursing a notion to create a reading program for homeless children. She called a nearby shelter and now operates a volunteer program in which she collects books, reads to kids and gives them the books to keep.

”I saw the need coming, and I got it going,” she said. “If I hadn’t been coming here, the idea would have been unformed.”