I don’t know if you saw it on Friday, but the New York Times ran a piece in their business section about the systematic racism in the advertising and marketing companies on Madison avenue and the NAACP’s massive lawsuit against them.
Spear-headed by Cyrus Mehri, a lawyer who successfully won lawsuits against Coca-Cola for discrimination to the tune of $194 million and pushed through the Rooney Rule in the NFL, the lawsuit claims, in a 100-page report, that advertising giants like Omnicom Group (BBDO Worldwide, DDB) and Interpublic Group of Companies (McCann Erickson Worldwide) have double standards across hiring, compensation, assignments, and promotions.
The most provocative criticism at the news conference of the lack of diversity at agencies came from Sanford Moore, an activist and talk-show host who is a former employee of BBDO. He has worked with city officials to change the employment practices at New York agencies.
Speaking quietly but forcefully, Mr. Moore took issue with what he called “the cotton curtain of discrimination†as perpetuated by “the men in the gray flannel sheets†and declared that “it is time for the last corporate bastion of Jim Crow to fall.”
I know a lot of YBP’s are in the marketing and advertising fields. One of the up-and-coming ones include my sister, who will be graduating this year. To hear executives and former executives related to this industry espouse biting words like ‘the last bastion of corporate Jim Crow’ is not only shocking, but completely disappointing. What’s worse is some of the comments surrounding these stories in other blogs offering theories of ‘well, there must not be enough qualified Blacks in the industry…obviously’.
While I won’t give in to the default ignorance that is blog comments, I do want to hear from some of our readers, especially those looking to get into or already in this industry.
Are you seeing the type of ‘80 cents for every dollar’ discrimination? Does this lawsuit give credence to any paranoia you felt before?
Speak on it….
Ed
I hope the up and coming ones like your sister look at entrepreneurial options to compete against the discriminating culture. I believe due to the current landscape of many Madison Avenue firms losing revenue, it is great opportunity for people of color to enter the industry as competitors.
January 13, 2009 at 7:06 am
Mad@TheMan
Reading this I just wanna cry. I graduated with a BBA in Advertising from Baruch College in 1990. I'm a Black woman and as much as I tried I never got anywhere in that industry. New York City is STILL as segregated as the mason-dixie line. I hope the younger generation of Black professionals finally bury those racist bastards in their gray flannel suits.
January 13, 2009 at 9:00 pm
V
Without a doubt, racism thrives within every industry, but particulary in the marketing and advertising field where “image is everything”. While employed as a communications coordinator with a local transit authority, I volunteered to assist the marketing coordinator. My ability to connect with current and prospective riders proved invaluable and I was promoted. Once I secured a benign title and “status” within the marketing department, my direct manager began to re-assign me to answer the phones and copier duty while she trained the actual admin at marketing events. My experience, degree and professional contacts worked in my favor, but my manager did not.
January 14, 2009 at 10:48 am
Malcolm Turner
Ed, I completely agree. This is why the NAACP and other organizations irrationally devoted to assimilationist agendas are merely a shadow of their former selves. There is a fairly easy solution to all of these discrimination cases. Take a lesson from the so-called Jews. What do you do when the media treats your people unfairly? Get a group of your people together and buy the media companies. Don't try to integrate Omnicom Group….buy it. It's time to stop crying, suing, and protesting and time to start buying assets. They don't want to hire us? F 'em, we can do better on our own.
We're in a recession people, that means the economic pie isn't getting any bigger. The only way to get more pie when the pie isn't growing is to take it from someone else. Time to face reality folks. We either start competing or we lay down, but nobody is going to give us anything.
January 14, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Danielle
Well…*sigh* I know that it is/was hard to get into this major advertising/pr/marketing companies. Therefore I am currently in the process of building my own boutique marketing firm….I have the knowledge, the experience, and the passion….and a couple of clients….
January 17, 2009 at 11:18 pm