Ad Firms Embrace Diversity, Albeit Slowly
By Charlene O'Brien
September 24, 2008
Keywords: advertising, underrepresented groups, Blacks, Madison Avenue, New York, Civil Rights Commission, diversity, civil rights, ads, multicultural marketing
Although the advertising industry is lagging behind other industries in hiring Blacks, Latinos and people from other traditionally underrepresented groups, the chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights says she is cautiously optimistic that positive changes are being made.
Speaking before the Committee on Civil Rights Sept. 23 in City Hall, Patricia Gatling, commissioner and chair of the Commission on Human Rights, described the traditional makeup of Madison Avenue executives as "unconscionable," especially considering the amount of spending power underrepresented groups wield in the marketplace.
"With minority buying power estimated to reach $1.5 trillion nationwide in 2008, it is unconscionable that so few people of color are creating the ads or deciding where all these advertising dollars are spent," she says.
However, she notes, strides are being made as the result of an investigation launched in 2003. In the initial research, the commission found an incredibly insular industry. "The advertising industry is the third-largest in the city, yet there did not appear to be any usual pathways for entry into the field: no typical high schools or colleges that feed the industry and no courses that explain the industry and prepare students for work," she says. "We learned that most firms do not have job descriptions for titles, mentoring programs, performance reviews or even a set corporate structure."
The commission met with the 16 largest agencies in New York to devise a plan for expanding the ranks of underrepresented groups in management and professional positions. The agencies each signed three-year agreements that required them to establish and report hiring goals at the beginning of each year and report the results of their efforts at the end of each year. The Sept. 23 meeting revealed the results of the first year under that agreement.
Of the 16 agencies, 12 met or exceeded their goals--which were set by the agencies themselves--of increasing the ranks of underrepresented groups. In particular, agencies of the WPP Group USA (Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy and Mather, G2 Direct and G2 Interactive) exceeded their goals significantly. The four agencies of the Omnicom Group (BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide Communications Group, Merkely + Partners and PHD Media) did not achieve their set goals for hiring. The agencies have, however, met other goals in establishing paths to entry into the industry through educational institutions, including committing $1 million over five years to help Medgar Evers College to create and implement a curriculum in advertising and communications.
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