9953: Black Businesses In The Black…?

“Black Business Ownership Surges” is the title of a recent addition to
The New America fluff series from Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau. The report stated, “According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business owners, the number of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. grew at around triple the national rate.” It’s a safe bet the figures do not apply to Black-owned advertising agencies. But maybe the boys at Made will launch a multicultural division to service the prospective clients.

9856: Stereotypical View On Stereotypes.

The New America series from Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau included a perspective titled, “Is Including A Stereotype Inclusive Enough?” For this piece, Draftfcb looked beyond its staff and U.S. Census Bureau press releases, tapping Caroline Ceniza-Levine to ponder culture-infused comedy and minority representation in media. Guess it would have been too outrageous to find an actual Draftfcb executive to comment on the topic, as the agency is notorious for displaying insensitivity and cultural cluelessness. Ceniza-Levine is of Filipino descent, and she mused on Asian characters in popular programs. Wonder how she’d feel about Draftfcb’s work for KFC.

Is Including A Stereotype Inclusive Enough?

When are you allowed to joke about another minority? Never

By Caroline Ceniza-Levine

When I took an intro to comedy class, my very experienced comedy teacher had a strict rule: you can make fun of your own race, gender, or ethnicity but nobody else’s. When a Korean classmate made fun of her long-time Jewish boyfriend? Not allowed. When a white classmate with a series of Dominican boyfriends made snarky observations about them? Not allowed. We see this play out in everyday life: communication among people of the same race, gender or ethnicity can push the envelope in a way that people communicating with races, genders or ethnicities outside of their own cannot.

It might not be such a horrible thing to insist that only those of the same race, gender or ethnicity be allowed free rein on jokes or snark. Do I really want to encourage what might devolve into a slur-fest? I’m of Filipino descent, but, if I’m looking for more representation in media and advertising of Filipinos (or Asians in general), then I either need to lift my only-Filipinos-can-talk-about-Filipinos rule or hope and pray that there is a Filipino writer on Louie or a Filipino creative director for The Gap. How many Filipino executives are calling the shots for media programming or advertising campaigns?

Therein lies the conundrum. I don’t like it when non-Filipinos comment about Filipinos. At the same time, I’d love to see more of us in mainstream media, and I don’t want to wait until we fix the diversity in hiring behind-the-scenes before we can fix the diversity in front of the camera. Who knows how long true parity in hiring for all positions will take?

Furthermore, I don’t want to suggest that one Filipino can speak for all. I certainly couldn’t fill that role, as I was born in the U.S., don’t speak Tagalog, and haven’t visited the Philippines for over 20 years. I have a blended family of my own, so my kids are even further removed. How much pull does a fractional Filipino have? Then again, we’re talking about entertainment, not an academic dissertation. Do we really have to be the thing we make observations about (comedy class notwithstanding)? Do we need statistically significant sampling for every cross-cultural reference?

Does lack of representation behind the scenes lead to stereotyping in the content? I don’t want Filipinos to only play the nurse in a hospital show or the straight-A student in the high school show. Yet, I was giddy with excitement at the casting of Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy and Harry Shum, Jr. on Glee.

My kids are growing up with The Wonder Girls, Phineas and Ferb and Suite Life, all with active Asian characters. When I was growing up, there were no Filipina nurses on ER or Asians at all in Head of the Class. So my kids feel more included. Asians aren’t invisible anymore. Of course, the Wonder Girls are trying to assimilate, Baljeet in Phineas and Ferb is super-smart with a thick Indian accent that borders on caricature, and London Tipton of Suite Life has her riches from her white dad (her mom’s side is Asian and of course they work in the fields). So my kids are included, but stereotyped. Is that good enough?

When I was younger and fawning over my movie, TV, and magazine idols, I would have loved to see Asians in mainstream media, even stereotypes. So I’ll take Baljeet and Mike Chang’s Asian F (as in getting an A- instead of an A) as a sign of progress. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a co-founder of SixFigureStart and a stand-up comic with Comic Diversity.

9854: Madison Avenue Manifesto…?

The New America series brought to you by Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau closed out February with a Black History Month perspective from Draftfcb President and CEO Laurence Boschetto titled, “Dignified Intolerance: Creating a diverse and inclusive world is not something that should be debated but embraced.” Following a lengthy gushing over Black women in American history, Boschetto dropped the gauntlet:

I recently proclaimed at Draftfcb that by 2014 we will be an organization that no longer uses the term “diversity and inclusion.” We are working tirelessly, from the C-suite to the intern ranks, to foster an atmosphere of inclusion, where everyone is empowered to reach great heights.

As an industry, we all need to embrace diversity and make sure inclusion becomes our rallying cry. A new generation is already recognizing that the “new mass” rejects outdated stereotypes regarding color, gender and sexual orientation. They are cross-cultural and cross-behavioral. Our industry needs to follow suit. It’s not just the right thing to do; it will also boost our bottom line. Companies that don’t mirror the dramatic shifts in our population simply will not survive.

To my fellow CEOs and C-suite executives, change starts with us. We must work together to start a joint uprising that will not tolerate discrimination and exclusion. We must lead by example and mentor our future leaders, instilling in them the knowledge that they should pursue paths they might have thought closed to them. We must tirelessly practice what we preach and prove to the marketplace that we are current, relevant and represent the diverse constituents in the New America we are trying to influence.

That is my stake in the ground. Please add your stakes to mine. Let’s get this movement rolling. It would be an achievement that might just prove to matter most.

In some ways, it’s easy for Boschetto to make such a bold statement, as his agency—or at least his role as Draftfcb President and CEO—will probably be gone by 2014.

But seriously, is it sane for the man to claim his agency will achieve within two years what the industry has failed to accomplish in over 70 years—especially when his own company has demonstrated an absolute inability to simply stop producing offensive and culturally clueless advertising? Boschetto also hollered Draftfcb was “The Agency of the Future” a few years ago, and the world is still waiting for that label to be realized.

Give Boschetto credit for making perhaps the most revolutionary declaration on diversity by a White man in the industry. Too bad that few people will have read his words, as the perspective only appeared in a self-promotional section of a third-rate trade publication. The majority of Madison Avenue leaders can just admit they never got a copy of the memo-manifesto.

9816: Draftfcb Fails To Show Manliness.

Another entry in The New America series from Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau—Man Down—is shameless self-promotion for the advertising agency. Draftfcb Director of Strategic Planning Matthew Wilcox shows how Census findings led to male insights that inspired a Dockers concept. The research was likely also repackaged to sell the hideous Miller Lite “Man Up” work. Yo, Draftfcb, real admen don’t brag about shitty campaigns.

9806: More Draftfcbullshit.

Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau are still churning out questionable content for The New America series. The latest press release publishing—A Racial Melting Pot?—was authored by Draftfcb Strategic Planning Director Luiz Salles. The piece opens with, “For over 200 years, Americans have proudly referred to our nation as a ‘melting pot’—the intimation being that America is a shining example of the prosperity that can result from divergent cultures coming together to form a homogeneous and (hopefully) more harmonious common culture.” The statement displays a certain sense of revisionist history. According to Wikipedia, while the melting metaphor has been around since the 1780s, it didn’t become popular in America until the 1908 play titled, “The Melting Pot.” Native Americans, Blacks and other non-White citizens have not “proudly” used the term for over 200 years. Indeed, many minorities have rejected the phrase, favoring metaphors like “mosaic” and “salad bowl” to identify the nation. Don’t know where the cross-cultural advocates at Draftfcb might stand on the matter. Regardless, it boggles the mind that a concept such as “melting pot” would be addressed by an agency from Madison Avenue, where non-Whites have been systematically rejected for over 70 years. And the outrageous factor is compounded when considering the agency, Draftfcb, remains among the most culturally clueless in the industry. It’s a wonder the piece didn’t cite Schoolhouse Rock as its primary reference source.

9784: Draftfcbullshit.

The Adweek-Draftfcb-U.S. Census Bureau publishing partnership is more extensive than a Black History Month list of factoids. The New America is labeled as sponsored content—which is actually code for advertising. Or self-promotional pap.

There are already a dozen entries producing a growing pile of editorial excrement that can only be described as airheaded, arrogant and asinine.

Additional inane press releases include The Multiracial Native American and The End of the Segregated City? However, the original perspectives are particularly annoying.

Has Webster’s Redefined Urban? is the title of an essay allegedly authored by Draftfcb Global Chief Talent Officer Cindy Augustine. Criticizing Urban Outfitters for excluding Blacks from its catalogs, Augustine remarked, “We Black Americans do not see this as a marketing oversight. Marketers are savvy and they certainly know their stats so it’s either a deliberate signal that we and our trillions of dollars are not welcome (don’t want the ‘urban’ brand to become ‘Black’) or they hope that the word ‘urban’ is enough of a signal for us to come shop, but hope we’re blind to our own invisibility—the best of both worlds and a sweet ROI.” Wow, that’s a mouthful for someone who admitted having zero advertising agency experience when she took the job in 2011. Now she’s a spokeswoman for Black America. The budding thought leader should know that multicultural marketing professionals are cautious to position themselves as experts by essentially declaring, “I am; therefore, I know.”

Draftfcb EVP Group Management Director Jeff Tarakajian proclaimed, “I officially predict the fall of multicultural advertising and the rise of advertising that’s multicultural.” Can’t help but recognize the inherent ignorance and latent racism in the bold vision. The truth is, as the country becomes increasingly diverse, the exclusively White advertising historically produced by agencies like Draftfcb is what has really fallen. In short, traditional “general-market” messages are irrelevant and obsolete. So how do the White guys respond? By stealing the work usually handled by minority shops, whispering to the clients that segregated efforts are no longer necessary. What makes Tarakajian’s statement most outrageous is the fact that Draftfcb produces perhaps the greatest amount of offensive, culturally clueless campaigns in the industry. These morons have not earned the right to execute “advertising that’s multicultural”—they are woefully unqualified for the task.

If anything, it’s safe to predict the fall of Draftfcb, especially considering the recent and impending account losses. The agency remains proof positive that the mergers of past decades—coupled with the hubris of out-of-touch, outdated and financially obsessed leaders—have created a lumbering dinosaur representing everything that’s wrong on Madison Avenue today. The Agency of the Future is history, and it does not deserve to be part of The New America.