Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bother writing about Super Bowl ads, but there’s one coming up this Sunday from Volkswagen that is a good “teachable moment.” The Volkswagen ad in question features a white guy (we learn in the ad that he is from Minnesota) who speaks in what sounds to me like a mashup Rastafarian/Jamaican accent and who is inanely happy.

The controversy over this ad is not a small matter: In the CNN roundtable discussion below, Jamaican-born Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher John Farley objects strongly to the commercial, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow calls it “Blackface with voices.”

The Internet is replete with white people opining that this ad isn’t racist, but there’s another Volkswagon ad that I find more troubling. It features a Pied Piper-singing guy who is the only featured Black person in the ad—and he’s dressed like a street person. It backs up my sense of the chief marketing officer and the ad agency being completely out of touch.

In my opinion, Volkswagen’s Super Bowl commercial is more creepy than racist in the sense that it’s troubling that a big car company can do something which appears to me to be so 20 years ago. This isn’t a mistake by a local business putting an ad in the Pennysaver; a 30-second ad in this year’s Super Bowl costs an average of $3.8 million.

When I first saw the ad, I thought it must have come from the minds of middle-aged white people who don’t get out much—and sure enough, the interview with Tim Mahoney, Volkswagen’s CMO, shows him to be a roughly 50-year-old, goatee-wearing white (American) man. The ad agency is Deutsch; here’s an article that has interviews with the agency people who did this. Not a nonwhite face in sight. No women in any position of authority were interviewed on the set of the commercial shoot (see the video). Here’s the agency’s leadership—all apparently white. I could not find a nonwhite face on the company’s website. Deutsch is owned by IPG. Here’s IPG’s senior management—five apparently white men and one white woman.

Deutsch and IPG are headquartered in New York City, which is 33.3% non-Hispanic white. There are almost 700,000 descendants of Caribbean immigrants. There’s simply no excuse for being out of touch—or having that little diversity.

The bottom line is that I don’t think the publicity is a “win” for Volkswagen. Our country is rapidly becoming more diverse, with more nonwhite births than white births for the first time in our history. The diversity of our country increases as age decreases, and that’s producing more new family units that are diverse. The end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the growing number of states with legalized same-gender marriage rights increase that here-and-now diversity. And let’s include the millions of veterans returning from combat zones of the past decade in that mix; they are accelerating the issue of inclusion for people with disabilities.

How this plays out for corporate communications can be seen in the last presidential election: Despite spending more than $1 billion, Governor Romney’s largest demographic was people over 65 years old, and 88 percent of the people who voted for him were white. President Obama’s largest demographic was 18-to-26-year-olds, and 56 percent of the people who voted for the president were white. If you were selling cars, which demographic would you prefer? If you were on Volkswagen’s board of directors, how could you be pleased with this foolish, out-of-touch ad that is clearly upsetting many people? What does it say about your marketing department? Or your ad agency?

Other articles I think are worth reading include “Volkswagen teases Super Bowl ad, explains why it doesn’t star Jar Jar Binks” from Entertainment Weekly and ‘It’s like blackface with voices’ from London’s Daily Mail that uses Charles Blow’s “Blackface with voices” line.

I think it’s always been true that you are more likely to make a bad decision with a homogeneous group. In our multicultural country—in our hyperconnected world—your bad decision will reach millions far more quickly. Further, nonmajority people feel more empowered than ever, and more white families have taken on diversity internally through marriage, adoption and awareness of LGBT relatives.

Volkswagen, you can do better than this.

The post Video: Is the VW Super Bowl Ad ‘Blackface With Voices’? appeared first on DiversityInc.

“Wonder of travel?” More like, “I wonder what the diversity of the creative team and the diversity of the marketing department that approved this commercial was?” And if you’ve had to fly on American lately, the real question is, “I wonder if the plane will take off within a day of when it’s supposed to?” What baloney.

–Luke Visconti

The post Asians, Chop Those Vegetables! Women, Serve Those Men! The Baloney Meter Returns! appeared first on DiversityInc.

Just two weeks shy of the presidential election, a series of state-sponsored billboards reading “Si Quieres Votar, Muéstrala” (If You Want to Vote, Show It) were erected in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. The wording of the signs is highly misleading given that implementation of the law requiring photo IDs at the polls was postponed until 2013.

Sign this petition to tell Pennsylvania state officials and Clear Channel to stop intimidating Latino voters.

Former city councilman Juan Ramos is furious, say local news sources. Ramos now works for the Delaware Valley Voter Registration Education Project, a nonprofit that focuses on increasing voter registration in Philadelphia’s Latino communities. “This is a very slick attempt by the state government to carry out voter suppression,” he said.

But the Pennsylvania Department of State has no plans to remove the deceptive billboards. Officials say the campaign is the result of a court order to educate all voters that poll workers will ask for photo identification, although it is not yet a legal requirement.

Coincidence? You Decide

The state was slow to remove voter ID requirements from its websites: The Bucks County, Luzerne County and Borough of West Chester official websites stated until Oct. 9 that photo IDs were necessary to vote. Pontealdia.com points out that Luzerne County coincidentally has one of the fastest growing Latino populations in the nation, increasing 85 percent from 14,500 in 2000 to 26,782 in 2010. Read more data about the Latino demographic.

This intimidating billboard tactic, also has been used in Ohio, as reported by Mother Jones. Watch this video below, which shows a billboard on voter fraud in a predominantly Black community in Cincinnati.

Pennsylvania historically leans Democratic, but the state has become more of a battleground for Republicans in the 2012 election. Currently, President Obama holds an 11-point lead over Governor Romney. Other swing states include Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

For more on voter ID laws and the election, read:

Are Voter ID Laws Racist?

The Voter-Fraud Myth: What Racist Voter ID Laws Are Really About

Are Obama & Romney Ignoring Latinos?

Why Obama & Romney Aren’t Connecting With Women

Racist Obama Facebook Pages & Your Office: What Do You Need to Know?

The post Purposely Inaccurate Billboards Terrorize Poor Blacks & Latinos appeared first on DiversityInc.

Diversity management is the key to preventing multicultural missteps like this week’s fiasco—a video of Ashton Kutcher in “brown face” portraying an Indian as part of an ad campaign to sell Popchips. 

After a hugely negative social-media response, Popchips removed the ad from Facebook, Twitter and its own website. However, unofficial versions of it remain everywhere. 

The original ad, which you can watch below, was part of Ashton Kutcher’s series of dating-video spoofs, in which he is portrayed as various characters looking for a date. In one scene, he pretends to be a Bollywood producer named Raj. Kutcher has his face painted brown and a bad sing-song accent. Indian Americans on social media were incensed about the portrayal. For example, Anil Dash even wrote a blog demanding Popchips, Kutcher and Alison Brod PR fix the racist ad campaign. 

Kutcher, who owns a minority stake in the privately held Popchips and is its “president of pop culture,” developed the $1.5-million ad campaign with the help of ad agency Zambezi, a Venice, Calif.-based youth-oriented agency as well as Popchips CEO Keith Belling. Kutcher’s previous ad for Popchips, which was featured online in 2011, portrays racial stereotypes against Blacks and Latinos. 

Here’s how to avoid similarly embarrassing and potentially costly mistakes, based on our experience examining the diversity-management success and failures of companies applying to The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list over the past 13 years. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 1: Use Your Resource Groups as Focus Groups 

As Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, No. 13 in the DiversityInc Top 50, demonstrated at DiversityInc’s first Innovation Fest! in February, resource groups understand their communities and what works – and what’s offensive. Novartis saved more than $1 million in marketing research by asking its motivated resource-group employees to vet its materials. 

Our diversity web seminar on resource groups, featuring Procter & Gamble, No. 5 in the DiversityInc Top 50, and American Express, No. 14, showed exactly how valuable their resource groups were to examining marketplace ideas, including ad campaigns. American Express, which has 16 groups, used its Latino and Asian groups to develop holiday cards that were culturally competent and brought in significant revenue. 

Membership in resource groups of DiversityInc Top 50 Companies has increased dramatically in recent years because these groups are proving their value to the business goals. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 2: Ensure Moral Values Are Clearly Communicated 

Organizations with clearly stated values, including diversity & inclusion, are less likely to have ambiguous decisions made on any level. Popchips’ website does not include any statement about values and/or diversity. By contrast, all of the DiversityInc Top 50 companies have mission statements mentioning values and diversity on their corporate websites. 

A good example of a company that espouses and lives up to its values is jcpenney (No. 35 in the DiversityInc Top 50). The retailer, and CEO Ron Johnson, stood firmly behind its decision to have Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson, even after a protest from an organization that called itself One Million Moms but really had only about 40,000 followers. Read our coverage of this news in Lessons on Values From Ellen & JCPenney. 

For its Mother’s Day catalog, jcpenney is featuring a lesbian couple (one of whom is an actual employee) to make the point that it is an inclusive company. View this photo on Huffington Post. 

For more on clarity of values, read Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 3: Make Sure Apologies Come From the Top 

In this case, Popchips gets some credit. While CEO Keith Belling was part of the team that came up with the ad, he has personally apologized for it and seems to get the point. 

On Popchips’ “what’s poppin’” blog, Belling issued this apology: “We received a lot of feedback about the dating campaign parody we launched today and appreciate everyone who took the time to share their point of view. Our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs. We did not intend to offend anyone. I take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended.” 

 CEO commitment is a cornerstone of good diversity management. That also means accepting the responsibility for failures, including multicultural missteps. CEOs who have done this over the years have seen their companies regain credibility.   

For more companies’ multicultural missteps, read ‘I’m Puerto Rican—I’d Be Great at Selling Drugs’; ‘Not Married? She Must Be a Lesbian’ and Lowe’s Muslim Publicity Gaffe Serves as Case Study of What Not to Do.

The post 3 Ways to Avoid Racist Ads Like Ashton Kutcher’s for Popchips appeared first on DiversityInc.

The Florida Family Association (FFA), whose website states its mission as to “educate people on what they can do to defend, protect and promote traditional, biblical values,” mounted a campaign to convince corporate advertisers to stop advertising on TLC’s reality show “All-American Muslim.” Lowe’s and kayak.com were the only advertisers—out of 65 that FFA targeted—that caved in, according to numerous news sources. 

On its website, FFA charges that “the show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.”

After pulling its advertising, Lowe’s remained silent for several days as public outrage regarding its decision increased. Lowe’s then publicly explained its decision in a Facebook post on Saturday, saying: “Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lighting [sic] rod for many of those views … We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.” 

Unfortunately for Lowe’s, the equivocating Facebook comment received more than 28,000 comments—most of them bigoted, anti-Muslim statements or statements supporting the show. 

Shortly after Lowe’s posted its original Facebook comment and allowed the hateful responses to remain on its Facebook page, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)  asked the company to address the furor and to have a meeting with CAIR leaders. Lowe’s did not respond.

Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s national communications director, said in a statement: “If Lowe’s was concerned about spreading hate speech, you would think that they would filter and delete the worst [comments]. It’s hard to tell if leaving them up is intentional or not.” CAIR first sent Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock a letter Monday, noting the “tremendous controversy” that has been caused by its decisions. 

Lowe’s finally took down the offensive comments Wednesday and promised to monitor its page more. Lowe’s posted this apology: “We wanted to get back to you about our last post and the comments that followed. For several days, our Facebook page has become a forum of debate surrounding a TLC program—and to let us know how you feel. Many of the comments are specifically about Lowe’s advertising decision … many more are about broader political and social issues. Some of the comments have been sharp and disrespectful in tone, but out of respect for the transparency of social media, we let the debate continue. However, we have seen a large volume of comments become more pointed and hateful. As a result, we have taken the step of removing all previous posts and will more tightly filter future comments on this topic. You will be able to respond to this post, but in the spirit of social media, please keep your comments on this Facebook page respectful. We appreciate your understanding. Again, we offer our sincere apology to anyone offended by our advertising business decision or posts on this page.”

As of Thursday morning, more than 4,000 new comments were posted, the majority of them offensive to Muslims. 

What Went Wrong?

Lowe’s claims a commitment to diversity and inclusion, stating: “We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers, and we’re proud of that longstanding commitment.” This must be viewed in light of what we can find on its website.

There is no mention of diversity on the Lowe’s homepage, and a search for “diversity” yields no results. Clicking on the “About Lowe’s” link on the homepage returns no information on diversity, and “diversity” does not appear in the corporate-citizenship, corporate-overview or media areas of their website. A search for the word “diversity” in that area also returns no responses. In the careers area, there are three paragraphs describing a “commitment” to diversity in the broadest and least specific ways. No goals, including any on supplier diversity, are mentioned, and there is no quote about diversity from their CEO.

Lowe’s has not participated in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey in the past nine years.

When asked for comment, Lowe’s responded to DiversityInc similarly to what it stated on Facebook. Additionally, Lowe’s said: “Following this development, dozens of companies removed their advertising from the program beginning in late November. Lowe’s made the decision to discontinue our advertising on December 5.” DiversityInc cannot find evidence of “dozens of companies” canceling advertising.

In our opinion, by having no demonstrable understanding of diversity management practices and no stated clarity on its own values, Lowe’s was incapable of making good decisions. By bending to a hate group (the Florida Family Association), Lowe’s became their ally. It’s very difficult to escape repercussions of that kind of association, as Lowe’s learned when allied haters posted thousands of hate-filled comments on its Facebook page. In a misguided attempt to “respect the transparency of social media,” it abdicated its moral responsibility and offended millions of people—both Muslim and non-Muslim.

DiversityInc has two resources that lend clarity to this situation: DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti’s column “Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What Happens When It Goes Horribly Wrong” and a recent DiversityInc panel with two leading experts, “Muslims & Stereotypes: Do They Really Hate Us?“

What are others saying?

Many commentators, civil-rights groups and elected officials also are urging Lowe’s to take more action. Here is what they are saying:

Lowe’s Criticized After Fleeing Muslim Reality Show
The first Muslim elected to Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, condemns Lowe’s for caving to anti-Muslim groups in this Chicago Tribune story.

Conyers Says Lowe’s Has ‘Un-American Values’
Rep. John Conyers, who represents the Dearborn community where the series is filmed, expresses his disappointment in Lowe’s. 

Video: CAIR Director on Lowe’s ‘All-American Muslim’ Controversy
CAIR’s director tells Channel 9 News Now that Lowe’s decision to pull advertising makes way for Muslim hatred to grow among Americans. 

25 Dumbest Comments On Lowe’s Facebook Page About “All-American Muslim”
Buzzfeed.com provides examples of the absurd bigotry that plagued comments on Lowe’s original Facebook post.

Muslims, Supporters Mobilize Against Lowes For TLC Ad Pull
MuslimMatters.org reports on the creation of the #LowesHatesMuslims hashtag on Twitter and ongoing commentary against Lowe’s decision on Twitter.

Don’t Cave to Anti-Muslim Bullies
This is an online petition form to tell Lowe’s CEO to reinstate the ads on “All-American Muslim.”

Lowe’s in Facebook Hell as Racist Comments Pile Up
Adweek reports on the Facebook controversy, providing a handful of examples of the anti-Muslim comments. 

Americans Should Know to Boycott Bigotry
An online opinion column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discusses Americans’ “cultural amnesia” toward Muslims and their contributions to modern society.

Russell Simmons Buys ‘All-American Muslim’ Ad Time Abandoned by Lowe’s
Metrotimes’ blog post discusses how the hip-hop mogul bought up Lowe’s space and is calling for a boycott of the company.

Protest Lowe’s Anti-Muslim Bigotry in Gaithersburg, MD
A Facebook event is being held to rally Lowe’s protesters Sunday in one Maryland town.

Lowe’s Faces Backlash Over Pulling Ads From ‘All-American Muslim’
The Los Angeles Times reports that California Sen. Ted Lieu urged Lowe’s to reverse its “bigoted” and “un-American” decision and actress Mia Farrow urged a boycott of Lowe’s via Twitter.

The post Lowe’s Muslim Publicity Gaffe Serves as Case Study of What Not to Do appeared first on DiversityInc.

Question:
I am an ad exec. Recently, at a company meeting of 12 employees, the president told the staff not to include African Americans in the advertising. He said that the client (Fortune global 50 company) did not like them.

Is this wrong? Is there anything I can do without endangering my family and its finances?

Answer:
Yes, it’s wrong, not only morally but in the best interests of your other customers, your fellow employees and your shareholders. The evidence I see is that companies with superior ethics and integrity are more competitive and sustainable over the long term. My favorite example of ethics in practice is Johnson & Johnson (No. 17 on The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list), which publishes its “credo” on just about every flat surface, including in stone in its corporate-headquarters entrance, and runs the company that way.

On an amoral and pragmatic basis, my answer is the same. Not only is a bigot likely to make other bad business decisions, with 12 witnesses and today’s technology, you cannot expect this kind of thing to stay out of the public’s view.

Since the lack of diversity in your industry recently was the focus of a special commission set up by the city of New York, feeding into bigotry would be yet another reason for other clients to cut your fees as they are paying you for judgment (which your firm’s leadership clearly does not have).

As far as your personal choices, my feeling is that you must find another job. Let’s face it: This is the bone-headed decision you know about. What else is going on behind closed doors? It wouldn’t be a “career-enhancing move” to be named in Ad Age as part of the team that went along with this. Who would hire you for a responsible position with that on your résumé? Even a bigot with a modicum of self-preservation would hesitate.

If this situation becomes public after you leave, you’ll be recognized as a person with superior judgment.

Good luck, and use our career center.

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