The Caples Awards hypes itself with less-than-mediocre advertising—as well as a website that requires registration to access. Can’t imagine the response rate for this shit will merit an award. The Oscar Wilde quote underscores the hackneyed thinking. Is it better to be ridiculed than ignored?
Asiana Airlines to Sue Oakland TV Station Over Use of Racist ‘Names’
By Manuel McDonnell Smith
On Monday, Asiana Airlines confirmed that it will seek legal recourse against Oakland’s KTVU after the station used ethnically and racially insensitive—and inaccurate—“names” to identify the crew aboard Flight 214, which crashed last weekend while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing three passengers.
The airing of the offensive names, described as a “joke” by some, was no laughing matter to many people, including the leadership of the Asian American Journalists Association, which issued a statement saying, “Those names were not only wrong, but so grossly offensive that it’s hard for us at the Asian American Journalists Association to fathom how those names made it on the broadcast.”
The Offending Incident
Initially, KTVU, the Bay Area’s FOX affiliate, was acclaimed for its breaking, first-on-the-scene coverage of the accident. But days later, any goodwill and appreciation for the station’s coverage was quickly replaced by awe when it rushed to air with obviously erroneous information about the pilots involved in the crash.
Claiming “new information” learned by the station’s news team, an anchor reported that the station had confirmed the identities of the four pilots aboard the Boeing 777. She then proceeded to read four distinct and distasteful Asian-sounding “names.” Not only were the insults read on-air, they were also broadcast in full-screen text. Clips of the offensive report have also been widely shared online and in social-media circles.
Shifting the Blame
Fifteen minutes after the names were initially broadcast, the station rushed an apology to air, blaming the incident on information it confirmed with “an NTSB official in Washington.” Scrambling to account for the error, officials at the National Transportation Safety Board pinned the problem on “a summer intern [who] acted outside of the scope of his authority in confirming the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.”
Many were stunned that no one questioned the plausibility of the names in the newsroom of a station serving one of the nation’s most concentrated Asian populations. President and General Manager Tom Raponi issued a statement pledging that station managers have begun “reviewing our procedures to ensure that this type of error does not happen again.” Later, on the station’s early-evening newscast, anchors offered further explanation, saying, “We made several mistakes. First of all, we never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out.”
While the apologies may have been accepted by some, many feel the damage has already been inflicted, as demonstrated by Asiana’s plans to file suit against KTVU to “strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report,” according to an airline spokesperson.
A Case Study for Diversity
Exactly how the “names” arrived in the KTVU newsroom, and how they could have been confirmed by the NTSB, has yet to be revealed. In a statement, NTSB officials promised, “Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.”
Members of AAJA also called for “caution” in coverage of the Asian community and Asian culture, pointing out several reports that suggest that “a defect in Korean culture” contributed to the crash—something the group says there is no proof of.
With new U.S. Census Data and other polling showing that Asian-Americans are now the fastest growing demographic group in the United States, executives can learn more about the cultural nuances of this group to ensure a diverse, hospitable workplace. A good resource to begin with is DiversityInc’s Things NOT to Say series, including “7 Things NOT to Say to Asian-Americans.”
Pew Research Center and USA TODAY polls showed a sharp racial divide on opinions regarding the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman trial verdict. Did someone really see the need to conduct a survey? Hell, Tanner Colby could have predicted the results—as well as the responses from thought(less) leaders Ann Coulter and Ted Nugent.
Attorney General Eric Holder calls Trayvon Martin killing ‘tragic’ and ‘unnecessary’ as Justice Department weighs civil rights charges
In his first remarks since the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Attorney General Eric Holder describe Trayvon Martin’s killing as a “tragic, unnecessary shooting,” and urged the nation to use the case as way to try and better understand one another.
By Associated Press / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the killing of Trayvon Martin was a “tragic, unnecessary shooting” and that the 17-year-old’s death provides an opportunity for the nation to speak honestly about complicated and emotionally charged issues.
In his first comments since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Martin case, the attorney general said that Martin’s parents have suffered a pain that no parent should have to endure. He said the nation must not forgo an opportunity toward better understanding of one another.
On Sunday, the Justice Department said it is reviewing evidence in the case to determine whether criminal civil rights charges are warranted.
The Justice Department opened an investigation into Martin’s death last year but stepped aside to allow the state prosecution to proceed.
Holder said, “We are … mindful of the pain felt by our nation surrounding the tragic, unnecessary shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., last year.”
“I want to assure you that the [Justice] Department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law,” said Holder.
“Independent of the legal determination that will be made, I believe that this tragedy provides yet another opportunity for our nation to speak honestly about the complicated and emotionally charged issues that this case has raised,” Holder said in remarks to the 51st national convention of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
“We must not — as we have too often in the past — let this opportunity pass,” he added.
The Justice Department says the criminal section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the FBI and federal prosecutors in Florida are continuing to evaluate the evidence generated during the federal investigation, plus evidence and testimony from the state trial.
The NAACP and others are calling on the Justice Department to open a civil rights case against Zimmerman. Thousands of demonstrators from across the country protested the jury’s decision to clear Zimmerman in the shooting death of the unarmed black teenager.
Also on Monday, the White House says President Barack Obama won’t involve himself in the Justice Department decision on whether to pursue civil rights charges against Zimmerman. White House spokesman Jay Carney said it would be inappropriate for Obama to express an opinion on how the department deals with Zimmerman.
Tom Fishburne’s Marketoonist presented the semi-accurate cartoon above. In real life, the assignment would not simply go to a summer intern—it would be handled by a minority summer intern. But only after the advertiser failed to find a minority staffer to dump it on.
Artist’s image of Martin Luther King, Jr. in a Trayvon Martin hoodie goes viral in wake of George Zimmerman acquittal
The image, titled ‘April 4th, 1968,’ — the date of King’s murder — was created by artist Nikkolas Smith and appeared on a website featuring posters promoting gun control.
By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
In the wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal, an artist’s chilling image of Martin Luther King Jr., in a Trayvon Martin-style hooded sweatshirt has gone viral, in an effort by some to link the teen’s death to the struggles of the civil rights movement.
The image, titled “April 4th, 1968,” was created by artist Nikkolas Smith and appeared on a Web gallery of posters promoting gun control.
The title references the date King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
Former Obama adviser Van Jones retweeted the image after the verdict along with the hashtag “RIPTrayvonMartin,” sparking hundreds of retweets, The Huffington Post reported. Versions of it were quickly circulated on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
”Powerful! We all stand with #trayvonmartin!” tweeted author and former CNN contributor Roland Martin.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Smith, a Texas native who works as a creative director at a design studio in Los Angeles, said he created the image a year ago as reports of the killing began to make national news.
“There was this whole national outcry, a hoodie movement and everybody was rocking their hoods and everything,” Smith told Buzzfeed. “Just trying to get that message out there about what is considered suspicious. Is my black skin considered suspicious?”
Martin, 17, was wearing a hoodie when he was shot and killed during a confrontation with Zimmerman inside a gated community in Sanford, Fla., in February 2012.
Since then, hooded sweatshirts have become a symbol of solidarity among Martin supports, many of whom accused Zimmerman of racially profiling the boy for having his hood up as he walked through the rain on a trip back from a convenience store.
Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter on Saturday.
Trayvon Martin’s story lost: Our view
The Editorial Board
For many who closely followed the trial of George Zimmerman, the verdict of not guilty spurred fury, heartache and, by Sunday, protests across the country. But the outcome should not have come as a surprise. Zimmerman’s attorneys managed to undermine the prosecution’s narrative that their client was the aggressor who followed Trayvon Martin and killed him with no justification. And the prosecution — which had the burden of proof — was unable to effectively refute Zimmerman’s story of self-defense.
But somewhere between Martin’s death 17 months ago in a gated community near Orlando and Saturday night’s verdict, the story line that matters the most largely got lost. It’s a tragically familiar tale of snap judgments by strangers, racial profiling and a black teenager’s needless death. And it’s the reason the trial attracted national attention and gavel-to-gavel coverage in the first place.
The verdict deserves to be respected and, as President Obama said Sunday, it should also serve as a reason for calm reflection.
Zimmerman’s successful defense depended on getting jurors to focus on the fight that occurred just before he shot the 17-year-old, unarmed Martin, and not on the events that preceded it. The lawyers established doubt about which man screamed for help, as well as other details of the confrontation — holes that invited an acquittal under Florida’s laws.
But the fact remains that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer and cop wanna-be, instantly identified Martin as a “(expletive) punk” who “looks like he’s up to no good.” The fact remains that Martin was doing nothing wrong; he was returning from a snack run at a convenience store, heading for the house of his father’s girlfriend. And the fact remains that had Zimmerman stayed in his truck, as advised by the police, Martin would be alive today.
Those facts — and the authorities’ initial failure to charge Zimmerman — inflamed the black community. African Americans saw the case in a way that the jury of six women, five of them white and the other of uncertain ethnicity, probably couldn’t. Despite all the nation’s progress in burying its racist past, minorities are commonly stopped by authorities — or viewed by strangers as “up to no good” — for no other reason than the color of their skin.
Consider New York City’s “stop and frisk” policy, which allows officers to search anyone they see as suspicious: In 2011, 87% of those stopped were minorities. Or the shooting of three black men who did nothing more than venture into a white New Orleans community days after Hurricane Katrina. Or try to find an African-American man who hasn’t been stopped for “driving while black” or eyed suspiciously in a department store.
The Justice Department said Sunday it will weigh criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman, as urged by the NAACP and others. That course would be satisfying on one level, presumably addressing the actions that led to the fight. But it’s no slam dunk. It raises fairness issues, and the case is too narrow to serve as an instrument for righting the racial inequities of the justice system, so long in need of attention.
Zimmerman’s fate was determined as it should have been, based on the evidence in a court of law, not the court of public opinion. But just because a verdict is legally justified doesn’t make it morally satisfying. Trayvon Martin’s death remains an avoidable American tragedy — one that Zimmerman set in motion.
Why did Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America choose a Canadian advertising agency to create its campaign? Plus, is it ever a good idea to let children handle assault rifles in any context?
Layhmond Robinson Jr., Who Paved Way for Black Journalists, Dies at 88
By Daniel E. Slotnik
Layhmond Robinson Jr., one of the first black reporters at The New York Times, who later became a local television news correspondent, died on June 29 in Queens. He was 88.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, his daughter Deborah Robinson said.
Mr. Robinson became a reporter for The Times in 1950, when black faces in the newsroom were rare. He covered crime in Brooklyn, then the New York State Legislature and the contentious 1961 mayoral race between Robert F. Wagner Jr. and then state attorney general, Louis K. Lefkowitz. In 1964, he became the first black president of the Legislative Correspondents Association, a group of reporters covering New York State government.
Mr. Robinson helped to inspire the next generation of black journalists.
“There were, here and there, some black journalists with the white media,” Thomas A. Johnson, the first black reporter at Newsday and one of the first black foreign correspondents for The New York Times, wrote in an essay that appears on the Web site of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. “The fact that Carl T. Rowan, Layhmond Robinson, Bob Teague, Ted Poston, Orrin Evans and some others had cleared that chasm encouraged a number of us to submit our applications to the dailies.”
In 1965, Mr. Robinson left The Times for WABC-TV in New York.
Layhmond (rhymes with “Raymond”) Mack Robinson Jr. was born on Feb. 11, 1925, in Abbeville, La. He served in the Navy as a photographer and writer from 1943 until 1946, then went to Syracuse University. He graduated in 1949 and moved to New York City, where he became a copy boy at The Times and completed a master’s program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Mr. Robinson married Elsie Blair in 1955. She survives him, as do three sons, Philip, David and Christopher; a second daughter, Teresa Kamara; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
After leaving WABC-TV, Mr. Robinson worked in public relations for the National Urban League, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
San Francisco plane crash: TV station duped into giving racist, false names of pilots by NTSB intern
Oakland’s KTVU apologizes for saying ‘Captain Sum Ting Wong,’ ‘Wi Tu Lo,’ ‘Ho Lee Fuk,’ and ‘Bang Ding Ow’ flew the plane—but says NTSB had confirmed the names. It was later revealed that an NTSB intern erroneously confirmed the crew manifest to the station.
By David Boroff and Beth Stebner / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
An Oakland TV station was apparently duped into giving racist, incorrect names for the pilots of the Boeing 777 that crash landed at a San Francisco airport on Saturday.
Anchor Tori Campbell of KTVU said on the air Friday that the Asiana jet crew, flying from Seoul, consisted of “Captain Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow.”
“The NTSB has confirmed these are the names of the pilots on board Flight 214 when it crashed,” Campbell said during the noon report. “We are working to determine what roles each of them played during the landing on Saturday.”
The station later apologized with Campbell saying on the air: “These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official confirming them this morning. We apologize for this error.”
The NTSB confirmed to the Daily News in a statement issued Friday evening that a summer intern—and not an NTSB official—mistakenly confirmed the names of those on the doomed flight.
They said the intern “acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.”
NTSB spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement that the independent government agency “does not release or confirm the names of crewmembers or people involved in transportation accidents to the media.”
She concluded: “Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.”
Two teenage Chinese schoolgirls died in the crash, and a third victim, a Chinese child, was pronounced dead late Friday afternoon.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether pilot error is one of the possible causes of the crash.
Grey’s Michael Houston Takes Air Guitar to New Level
Reflects on bigger job, losing E-Trade and spoofing Hall & Oates
By Noreen O’Leary
Since joining Grey New York in 2007 as director of marketing, Michael Houston has been on a fast track, landing his latest promotion—to North American CEO. The 41-year-old has been a key player in a new-business winning streak which culminated in the recent addition of the much sought-after Gillette global creative assignment. He also has played an important role in the reinvention of the agency’s New York headquarters, which had just under 400 people when he joined and has grown to more than 1,000 staffers. Just back from a European break where he visited London, Paris and Berlin, Houston reflected on his new job, the loss of E-Trade and playing air guitar in a spoof of a Hall & Oates video.
What are you priorities in the new role?
First and foremost, business growth. There’s a lot of growth that can come across the country. So, expanding geographies comes hand in hand with that as does expanding our offerings. Everything is coming full circle again with clients and integration, whether it’s shopper or activation or more digital capabilities.
What advice did Grey Group CEO Jim Heekin give you in taking on the new job?
Don’t try to do it all in one day. Make sure that with growth, we do it in a calculated fashion and we don’t jeopardize the creative product we’ve built here in New York.
How did New York’s management team engineer change within such an established culture?
My creative partner, [N.Y. president, CCO] Tor [Myhren], started at Grey the same week as I did and we wanted to make sure we didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. There were a lot of things Grey was known for—things like client service—and we wanted to make sure we built upon that. But we knew we needed to infuse everything with a greater sense of creativity—not only in the work we provide for our clients but creativity in the way we do business across the board. We also needed a rallying cry: With ‘Famously Effective Since 1917’ we still wanted to be effective but we also brought in fame and pop culture because successful work needs both of those things. … We also wanted to create a much more open and collaborative culture, which was apparent in our new building but also in the way we work. We changed titles, flattened the organization and tried to instill the notion of empowerment with accountability.
How did you revamp your approach to business development?
We put together an internal presentation about how an agency makes money and created a new-business culture, making sure everyone understood the need and felt the excitement. It’s fun not to be tethered to client directives and take things out on the road and see how fast it can go and what direction it takes. That’s what we use new business for, an opportunity to show the industry and ourselves what we are made of. Once we started to have success it became infectious.
How difficult is it to split with E-Trade, one of the first clients to showcase New York’s creative abilities?
It’s extremely hard. It was our first big win as a new team and as an agency redefining itself. That brand allowed us to do some fun, interesting, unexpected work and it will always be a part of our transformation story.
How did you become a blond, air-guitar playing rock star in a Hall & Oates parody video?
We did it for an all-agency meeting just to get a laugh. This goes back to the new Grey culture in being able to laugh at ourselves from a management perspective. We played it internally and next thing you know it’s on Agency Spy and Tor’s getting an email from Darryl Hall who was wasn’t too pleased about potential copyright infringement. We were just making a commentary on how naval gazing, self-obsessed and ego driven our industry is. We put the video together very late at night after we had finished a lot of pitch work, where we were in a conference room fighting. Then we went into a studio, dressed up, had some beers and a great time.
Part of your job is to button things down but Tor prefers to be unbuttoned. How do you manage this?
We both want the same thing for the agency and are respectful of the roles we play. Tor is one of the more pragmatic creative people I’ve ever met and we also both share a real passion for new business. We meet every Tuesday morning for breakfast and while we don’t always agree about everything going on, 95 percent of the time we do. I don’t think I could pick a better creative partner.
What did you learn at your agency before Grey, Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners?
I learned from Richard [Kirshenbaum] and Jon [Bond] that it ain’t over till it’s over and you have to keep going at it, be tenacious and persistent to get the things that you want. I learned a conviction in one’s point of view about creativity is paramount. Another thing: Everything you do and say ultimately contributes to the brand. They knew that for themselves and their agency but applying it to clients’ business particularly in today’s world with social media is an important lesson.
Minorities more likely to live in ‘urban heat islands,’ study finds
By Tony Barboza Los Angeles Times
Blacks, Asians and Latinos are more likely to live in “urban heat islands” that are most at risk during extreme heat waves that are expected to worsen due to climate change, according to a new study.
Researchers at UC Berkeley used satellite imagery to find neighborhoods in hundreds of U.S. cities where there are few shade trees and a lot of heat-absorbing, impervious surfaces like pavement, cement or roofing.
The authors paired that information with data from the 2000 Census to find that blacks were 52 percent more likely than whites to live in “urban heat islands” — microclimates that can get an extra 5 to 10 degrees warmer during heat waves — while Asians were 32 percent more likely and Latinos were 21 percent more likely.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that people who live in more segregated cities, including whites, are more likely to live in heat-absorbing neighborhoods.
“Overall this pattern of racial segregation appears to increase everyone’s risk of living in a heat-prone environment,” study co-author Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor of public health and environmental science at UC Berkeley, told the Los Angeles Times.
The research highlights one way in which minorities are likely to suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change. Living in a concrete jungle could put blacks, Asians and Latinos at greater risk during heat waves, which are expected to become more intense, frequent and long-lasting as cities heat up.
Extreme heat waves are responsible for about one in five deaths from natural hazards in the United States, the study said.
To help reduce the risk, the study recommends that city planners plant more trees, paint highly reflective roofs, use pavement that absorbs less heat and consider racial and ethnic inequalities in decisions about adapting to a changing climate.
“Efforts to minimize heat risks in cities need to be more attuned to the racial disparities we see on a national scale,” Morello-Frosch said. “We need to make sure that any heat mitigation strategies really focus on the most vulnerable communities.”
Hollie Rapello at Why Moms Rule spoke with Alice Randall about topics including marketing to Black women.
Advertising Age reported the launch of new Newport cigarettes will likely boost ad spending in magazines. The folks at Ebony and JET are alive with pleasure!
New Newport Smokes Likely to Give Publishers Spending Boost
Not Just E-Cigs: Ad Spending Behind Traditional Smokes Could Grow
By Michael Sebastian
Print publishers, get ready: There could be some substantial dollars coming your way as Lorillard Tobacco Co. prepares to launch two new cigarettes.
Magazines are already seeing a spending uptick from e-cigarette ads. But now ads for actual cigarettes could rise. For the first time since Congress granted it broad powers to regulate tobacco in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration has given a green light to two cigarette introductions. Lorillard’s Newport Non-Menthol Gold Box 100s and Newport Non-Menthol Gold Box will launch in the fourth quarter.
“We are proud to be the first company in the industry to receive authorization to begin marketing these new products in the U.S.,” said Murray Kessler, Lorillard’s chairman, president-CEO, in a statement.
It may not be the last to get the go-ahead. The move is seen as a signal that the FDA will begin ruling on roughly 4,000 requests from tobacco companies. The agency also rejected four applications, but said it cannot say why or who submitted them.
A spokesman said Lorillard will roll out the products with some marketing support, but wouldn’t elaborate. The nation’s third-largest tobacco company, Lorillard is already the industry’s second-biggest spender on print. The company spent $28.9 million promoting its Newport brand in print magazines last year, according to Kantar Media. Measured media accounts for only a portion of Big Tobacco’s marketing dollars; marketers have poured money into direct-mail campaigns, in-store promotions and product discounts.
The approval comes at an opportune time for Newport, which accounted for roughly 87% of Lorillard’s net sales in 2012. Newport Menthol is the top-selling menthol cigarette in the U.S., but the FDA is considering restrictions or a ban on menthol flavoring.
John Inverdale ‘has written to Marion Bartoli over remark’
BBC commentator John Inverdale says he has written to Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli to apologise for saying she was “never going to be a looker”.
His comments on Radio 5 live as she prepared for Saturday’s final provoked anger.
Speaking on air on Sunday, he said he was sorry “if any offence was caused” by his “ham-fisted comments”.
A BBC spokesperson said earlier: “We accept that this remark was insensitive and for that we apologise.”
Asked about Inverdale’s comments, Bartoli said: “It doesn’t matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry.
“But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.”
Inverdale’s comments came about an hour before French player Bartoli’s match against Germany’s Sabine Lisicki as he chatted on air about Bartoli’s technique as a player.
He said: “I just wonder if her dad, because he has obviously been the most influential person in her life, did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, ‘listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker.
“‘You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you’re never going to be 5ft 11, you’re never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that.
“‘You are going to have to be the most dogged, determined fighter that anyone has ever seen on the tennis court if you are going to make it’, and she kind of is.”
Speaking at the start of 5 live’s coverage of Sunday’s men’s final between Briton Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, Inverdale told listeners: “Before we start, I probably ought to just briefly return to yesterday and a clumsy phrase that I used about Marion Bartoli which has understandably caused something of a furore.
“The point I was trying to make, in a rather ham-fisted kind of way, was that in a world where the public perception of tennis players is that they’re all 6ft tall Amazonian athletes, Marion - who is the Wimbledon champion - bucks that trend.”
He said she was “a fantastic example to all young people that it’s attitude and will and determination together, obviously, with talent that, in the end, does get you to the top”.
“So I have apologised to Marion by letter if any offence was caused and I do hope that we can leave the matter there now,” he added.
He had earlier said he had poked fun “in a nice way at how she looks”, adding: “She is an incredible role model for people who aren’t born with all the attributes of natural athletes”.
Inverdale has presented TV and radio sports programmes for the BBC — including Grandstand and sports chat show On Side - since the 1980s.
He was one of the corporation’s 2012 Olympics presenters and also presents coverage of sports including rugby union and rowing.
Race, class emerge in battle over Obama library
By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
CHICAGO — President Obama probably won’t make a final decision on where his presidential library and museum will be located until near the end of his second term in the White House.
But here In his adopted hometown — particularly the neighborhoods where Obama made a name for himself as a community organizer before entering politics — the issues of race and class play a central role in the debate over where in the city the shrine to the first African-American president’s legacy belongs.
“I think he has certainly benefited from his ties to the African-American community in terms of how of how he built his political career,” said John Owens, a community organizer on the city’s South Side who worked closely with a young Obama when he arrived in Chicago in the 1980s. “I am not saying that he owes everything to the African-American community. But he did get his start here, and this community was his political base. This is an opportunity for him to help the community where he started from.”
There’s no guarantee that Obama will even settle on the Windy City to host the library and museum. The president grew up in Honolulu, and the University of Hawaii has launched its own bid to win the library. The state has set aside one of the last undeveloped oceanfront plots in Honolulu to try to lure Obama.
What is clear to politicians and activists here is that the library has the potential to offer a huge economic boom that could transform whatever community the president settles on.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum spurred $1 billion in real estate investment in downtown Little Rock. The George W. Bush Presidential Center on the Southern Methodist University campus, which opened in April, is projected to inject $50 million annually into the local economy, said Phillip Jones, chief executive officer of the Dallas Visitors and Convention Bureau.
It’s that potential that draws activists and politicians in Obama’s old stomping grounds to make the case that the president should remember the economically deprived neighborhoods he sought to change as a young man.
The University of Illinois-Chicago — the state’s second-largest university on the city’s Near West Side — confirmed last week that it has launched an exploratory committee to see how it might persuade Obama to build his library there. University officials declined to speak in detail about the effort.
Chicago State University, which is in the heart of the South Side neighborhood where Obama worked as a community organizer in the 1980s, announced in May it would make a spirited pitch to Obama that the school — a historically black university that draws students from some of the city’s most impoverished communities — was the perfect place for Obama to bring his library.
Wayne Watson, Chicago State’s president, recruited former state senator Emil Jones, who served as Obama’s mentor when he was in the state Legislature, to join the exploratory committee. Watson dispatched one of his deans to Washington to talk to National Archives officials about the process and to Little Rock to pick the brains of the Clinton library officials.
The area around Chicago State, which has an unemployment rate that hovers around 30% and is among the city’s most violent neighborhoods, would be resurrected by the economic jolt that would come from the hotels, restaurants and other economic development that would follow the library, Watson said.
“His political roots are right here on the South Side, pretty much in a 2-mile radius of where we are,” Watson said. “Secondly, President Obama represents hope. … If there is one community in Chicago that needs to have hope reinforced, it’s the community where the president got his start.”
The private University of Chicago, a leafy island in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood on the hard-scrabble South Side, is running a quiet campaign for the library with the assistance of Susan Sher, a former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama.
The Obamas have deep ties to the university. The president worked there for 12 years as a senior lecturer at its law school, and the first lady served as an executive at the university’s medical center. In addition to Sher, David Axelrod, Obama’s former political adviser, was hired by the university to lead a program intended to encourage students’ interest in politics and public service.
The university declined to comment about its bid, saying it is premature to discuss the library. Sher and other university leaders have met with officials at the National Archives and Records Administration and have visited with officials at the recently opened George W. Bush library in Dallas.
Don Rose, a Chicago political consultant, said the University of Chicago has a long, complicated history with the surrounding poor and working-class African-American communities that have been pushed out as the university has expanded over the years. Rose suggested that the university, with its deep ties to the Obamas and proximity to downtown, is the favorite to win the library.
“From a practical sense, the University of Chicago seems like the logical choice,” Rose said. “But on the other hand, if he wanted to make a bolder stroke, he could place it elsewhere on the South Side.”
Anthony Beale, an alderman on the city’s far South Side, said Obama choosing the University of Chicago — which boasted a $6.57 billion endowment at the end of the past fiscal year — was tantamount to “fattening up the frog.”
“I think it would send a wonderful message if he could bring it on home and reward the community where he got his start rather than just giving it to the University of Chicago that already has everything,” said Beale, who is on the Chicago State University exploratory committee.
Beale advocates for the project to be built a few miles off the Chicago State campus on the grounds of the dilapidated George Pullman state historic site, where the relics of the 19th-century sleeper car factory sit behind a chain-link fence.
Lester Coney, who helped raise more than $1 million for Obama’s two presidential campaigns, has suggested building the library on yet another site on the South Side, the grounds of the former U.S. Steel plant , an enormous site several miles south of downtown that developers are eyeing to turn into a residential and retail hub.
Coney said the University of Chicago — with its political clout and track record on handling projects of this magnitude — is the right partner for Obama to work with on the library, “but I just struggle with seeing it as the right place to have that grand effect that his library can have.”
Some residents in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood — an area steeped in the city’s blues and jazz scene — want the library to be built on the site of a shuttered hospital.
The site, near the McCormick Place convention center and about 2 miles north of the University of Chicago, had been floated as the site to build the Olympic Village when the city made an unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Olympics.
More recently, during a community meeting, developers floated the possibility of building a casino there, said Harold Lucas, president of the Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council.
“Obama came to Chicago to learn how to be a community organizer,” said Lucas, who wants the presidential library to be built on the old hospital site. “If he’s truly that, the least he could do is put the presidential library somewhere in the black community where it can act as a catalyst.”
Executive From the Agency Grey New York Takes On a Larger Role
By Stuart Elliott
A LEADING agency is promoting an executive to a new, senior-level post where his responsibilities will include considering expansion through adding offices in more American cities.
The executive is Michael Houston, who since last year has been chief operating officer of Grey New York, part of the Grey North America division of Grey. (Grey, in turn, is a unit of the Grey Group, which is owned by WPP.) Mr. Houston, who turned 41 on Wednesday, is being promoted to chief executive of Grey North America while continuing to share the leadership duties at Grey New York with Tor Myhren, who is president and chief creative officer there.
Mr. Houston’s promotion makes him one of four regional chief executives at Grey, all reporting to James R. Heekin, chairman and chief executive of the Grey Group. Mr. Heekin most recently handled the Grey North America duties with his other responsibilities.
Mr. Houston, in assuming his new post, becomes one of the few African-Americans in the executive suites of the large, mainstream Madison Avenue agencies — even, perhaps, the most senior. No black person has been chief executive of such an agency since 2006, when Ann Fudge, chairwoman and chief executive at the Young & Rubicam Brands division of WPP, retired. “By no means do I define myself only by that,” Mr. Houston said in a telephone interview. Still, “I do think it’s unfortunate that my appointment potentially makes me the highest-ranking African-American,” he added. “It sends a signal there aren’t a lot of African-American people in the industry in the highest ranks.”
That is problematic, Mr. Houston said, because “we’re meant to appeal to, tap into, popular culture” on behalf of marketer clients, “and it’s hard to do that without diversity.”
“I do applaud the industry for trying to diversify,” he added, but “in our industry ‘diversity’ ought to mean diversity of thought, diversity of background, different ages, different approaches, different sexual orientations. We need to ensure we’re taking the broadest definition of diversity, really being able to appreciate, respect and value others’ points of view.”
Mr. Houston joined Grey New York in 2007 as executive vice president and director for marketing after working at agencies that included Chiat/Day, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and Y&R as well as at firms like And Partners, Elias Arts and Landor Associates. He was named global chief marketing officer of Grey in 2010 and managing director of Grey New York in 2011.
“I think a lot of Michael,” said Catherine Bension, chief executive at SelectResources International in Santa Monica, Calif., which helps marketers with agency searches.
“He’s a terrific person,” she added, “and one of the young new leaders of our industry.” (Last year, Mr. Houston was named one of the “40 Under 40” by Crain’s New York Business.)
“Michael has been at Grey New York since the start of its transformation or metamorphosis into a more future-facing, more contemporary agency,” Ms. Bension said, referring to Grey New York’s winning a skein of new accounts with billings estimated at more than $3 billion, among them DirecTV, E*Trade Financial, Gillette, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, RadioShack and Sargento Foods (although one, E*Trade, recently departed.) She praised Mr. Houston for being “a great partner to the creatives” at the agency.
Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s largest agency holding group in billings, also had nice words about Mr. Houston.
“I’m delighted for Michael,” Mr. Sorrell wrote in an e-mail, describing him as “a key member of the Grey management team.”
Mr. Houston has “done an outstanding job,” Mr. Sorrell said, “and thoroughly deserves this recognition for his success, which is based on an exceptional track record.”
Mr. Heekin, in a phone interview, said he would be turning to Mr. Houston for three primary tasks: prospecting for new business, expanding services like digital and working on “a smart, strategic approach to expanding our footprint in the U.S.”
Grey North America has, in addition to Grey New York, offices in San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. It has no presence in other prominent American markets after closing offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities.
Among the markets Mr. Heekin listed as having potential were the Southwest and the Midwest, “whether it’s Chicago or Kansas City,” because “our footprint in the middle of the country is nonexistent.”
He said he would consider both starting offices and making acquisitions, and added that the latter was more likely, as he and Mr. Houston had already been talking to agencies that Grey might buy. In the meantime, Mr. Houston and Mr. Heekin are making changes in San Francisco, hiring Milan Martin as president of Grey San Francisco, succeeding Brad Fogel, who is leaving to pursue other interests, a spokesman said. Mr. Martin, 39, most recently was managing director and chief strategist at Anthem Worldwide in San Francisco, part of Schawk Inc.
“We’re getting things moving in San Francisco,” Mr. Houston said. “We’re excited about what we could do with the office if we can build on the history there and bring in some of the fervor we have in New York.” Clients of Grey San Francisco include Purolator, Reliant Energy and Symantec.
Mr. Houston’s new post includes other duties, among them overseeing Grey Activation and Public Relations. He will share the oversight of Wing, a multicultural agency with offices in New York and Miami, with Alain Groenendaal, who is president and chief executive of Wing and Grey Latin America.
Advertising Age reported BBDO in Canada experienced collateral damage as a result of Energy BBDO in Chicago recently “winning” the Bud Light account. The Canadian office wound up losing the Coors Light account. It’s a safe bet the Chicagoans’ response was a sheepish shrug. Whoops. Guess Corporate Cultural Collusion can have its drawbacks. But don’t worry, Canadian partners. Omnicom will likely give you the Propel Zero business as compensation.
Molson Coors Yanks Coors Light from BBDO in Canada
Marketer Will Reassign Brand As Result of Bud Light Conflict
By E.J. Schultz
BBDO’s Bud Light win in the U.S. has cost the agency the Coors Light account in Canada.
The cross-border conflict was apparent as soon as the agency picked up Bud Light in the states last month. Molson Coors, which markets Coors Light in Canada, began considering its options almost immediately and has decided to move the brand to another agency soon.
“Molson Coors Canada will announce the re-assignment of the brands currently managed by BBDO Canada within the coming weeks,” Peter Nowlan, chief commercial officer for Molson Coors Canada, said in a statement to Ad Age. The marketer will “not be conducting an open RFP process,” he added, but “is in discussions with a very short list of whom we believe to be the best agencies in Canada.”
BBDO declined to comment.
Molson Coors competes with Bud Light-owner Anheuser-Busch InBev across the globe, including in the U.S. where Molson Coors jointly owns MillerCoors. BBDO’s Toronto office picked up the Coors Light account in March without a review when Molson Coors severed ties with DraftFCB, Canada. BBDO also had been working on other brands that Molson Coors markets in Canada, including Keystone, Heineken, Strongbow and Miller Chill.
Bud Light, the top-selling beer brand in the U.S., was a major win for BBDO, which is handling the business from its Chicago office, known as Energy BBDO. (Bud Light in Canada is handled by Anomaly.) But the Coors Light business in Canada is also significant. The brand is the second-best selling beer in Canada at 11.75% share by volume, trailing Budweiser’s 13.2%, according to Euromonitor International. Molson Coors says that Coors Light is the No. 1 Canadian beer, according to its internal sales figures.
In the U.S., Coors Light is the second-largest beer brand with 8.7% market share behind Bud Light’s 18.6%, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Advertising for Coors Light in the states is handled by WPP’s Cavalry of Chicago, which won the account last year when MillerCoors ended its relationship with DraftFCB, Chicago.
Molson Coors’s roster of Canadian agencies includes Rethink, which handles the Molson Canadian brand. The brand had been at Crispin Porter & Bogusky Canada, but the agency lost the account in 2011 after it was learned CP&B in the U.S. was pitching A-B InBev business, Canadian trade pub Marketing reported at the time.
“Our partners cannot have other North American alcohol brands or business on their rosters (beer, wine, spirits or other),” a Molson spokesman told Marketing at the time.
With Bud Light in hand, BBDO also faces potential conflict issues with Diageo-owned Guinness and Red Stripe beer brands, which the agency runs from New York. But so far the agency appears to have hung onto those accounts, although Diageo and BBDO have not commented on the situation. Paul Chibe, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s VP of U.S. marketing said in a recent interview that he would not have an issue with BBDO keeping Guinness, noting that “Guinness in the U.S. is pretty small and it’s run out of New York.”
Jourdan Dunn’s Boobs Get Her Cut From Dior Show
Plenty of top models walked the runway for the Christian Dior Couture show in Paris this morning, but Jourdan Dunn wasn’t among them. The model tweeted yesterday that she was cut from the lineup… because of her body:
Luckily, Dunn didn’t seem too upset about it. Not only does the 22-year-old maintain one of the busiest work schedules in the biz, but she also seems to understand that her chest is only too big according to the stringent (and often unrealistic) standards of the fashion industry.
Plus, as she tweeted immediately after, getting cut for her chest size is “minor”:
In an interview with The Edit in March, Dunn recalled being turned away from model castings because the client “didn’t want any more black girls” and also revealed the time a white makeup artist said she wouldn’t work on her face because she was black.
We suppose getting told your boobs are too big is better than straight-up racism… but it isn’t great, either. Just ask Filippa Hamilton, who was allegedly fired from Ralph Lauren for gaining weight. (“They said I was overweight and I couldn’t fit in their clothes anymore,” she told the press in 2010.) Or ask Ananda Marchildon, a “Holland’s Next Top Model” winner who was dropped from her agency when her hips got too big.
Just when you think the fashion industry is moving forward, a model reminds us just how far we still have to go.
DiversityInc is hosting Talent Development: Diversity-Strategies Event in October. The list of sponsors features major corporations including AT&T, Marriott and Toyota. Additionally, the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity presents powerhouses like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Verizon. Noticeably absent from the sponsors and Top 50 honorees are advertising agencies and holding companies. All of which continues to beg the question: Why do global advertisers collaborate with ad shops whose dismal track records on diversity run completely counter to the clients’ accomplishments?
Judge tosses sex suits vs. ex-TV Elmo
By Bruce Golding
It was a sunny day for ex-Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash after a judge tossed three suits filed by young men who claimed they suffered psychological damage as a result of having had underage sex with the “Sesame Street” star.
In a ruling filed yesterday, Manhattan federal Judge John Koeltl said the men, now all in their 20s, waited too long to sue the longtime voice of Elmo under a statute of limitations that requires legal action within “six years after the cause of action accrues or three years after the plaintiff turns 21, which ever is longer.”
All three suits — which Koeltl noted contained “nearly identical” language — were filed between eight and 16 years after the men say they had sex with Clash while in their teens.
Clash resigned in disgrace after the first suit was filed last year,. but the scandal didn’t stop him from winning three Daytime Emmy Awards last month, including outstanding performer in a children’s series.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jeff Herman, vowed to appeal, calling the statute of limitations “an arbitrary timeline that silences victims.”
Cecil Singleton, 25, of Harlem, said he wished he could have spoken to Koeltl personally to explain why he waited so long after his relationship with Clash, which he says began at age 15 when they met on a gay telephone chat line.
“Until I knew Kevin had a fetish for underage men, it never occurred to me that I was a victim,” Singleton said.
A similar suit filed by a fourth accuser who lives in Pennsylvania remains pending in federal court in Harrisburg, Penn., where Clash has filed a motion to transfer the case to New York.
Clash’s lawyer didn’t return a request for comment.
MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.
Missed the Advertising Age preview on AMC series The Pitch—the worst advertising-related program ever.
The Pitch is gearing up for its second season with a lineup of advertising agencies that reads like a Who’s Who of Who Dat? The only arguably recognizable shop is commonground, winner of Advertising Age’s 2012 Small Agency of the Year Gold Award. Other competitors actually include agencies from Nashville. Really? Why bother? If The Pitch stumbles into a third season, look for the contestants to be in-house marketing departments of local car dealerships. It would be preferable to organize face-offs between students from portfolio schools.
This all supports MultiCultClassics’ opinion on the series. That is, the reality TV show is anything but real—and it makes for really bad entertainment.
Hard to believe the idiots behind this lingerie campaign from Germany couldn’t come up with a headline incorporating whistleblower.
