Do We Need More Women and Minority Hiring in Advertising?

I just love a good old fashioned-brawl.

New York City Human Rights Commission Vs. Madison Avenue........The issue - diversity hiring.

I must admit, I was really looking forward to seeing the Madison Ave. suits climb into the ring with their ultra cool designer eyeglasses and "I'm too sexy for my cellphone" credit card size gadgets going off every 3 seconds.   

But  it didn't happen.   As New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook so elegantly put it, the advertising agencies....

"ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean"

How do you really feel, Larry?

There have been so many interesting editorials and sound-offs about the issue I couldn't possibly quote them all.

What's really going on here?   Is Madison Avenue still just a bunch of good old boys?  Sure you have characters like Neil French mouthing off and getting themselves in hot water.  But I don't think it's nearly as simple as that.

Would I personally love to see more women and minorities in higher positions in agencies?   You bet I would.    But honestly?   I don't think you're going to see a lot of change.    Part of the problem is these agencies are public.  They have to cater to Wall Street.   

Maybe it's truth, maybe it's just perception, but if you were on the board of a major company, would you have the guts to hire a female CEO?    Let's take a real world example....

Xerox was struggling badly in 2000.  They needed to make drastic changes.  They announced Anne Mulcahy was taking over as CEO.   In Anne's own words...

the day I was announced as CEO, I think the stock dropped another 20%

Was that because the market didn't have faith in Xerox?  Or was it because the market didn't have faith in Xerox's choice for CEO?    If she had been a man, would the stock have dropped 20%?    We'll never know.   For the record, Mulcahy turned the company around.

Xerox is growing again, the stock price has quadrupled on her watch, and this month, Forbes named Mulcahy the fifth-most-powerful woman in the world.

But this had to have a chilling effect on other public companies. Who wants to risk a 20% drop in their stock price by appointing a woman to lead the company?  Wall Street aside, what else could be going on?  Why the lack of women and minorities in high positions in advertising agencies?   

If your target audience is women, wouldn't it make sense to have women at the top of your marketing decisions?   Wouldn't that increase your chances for success?  I think it can, but not in all cases.  Take the case of Revlon.

Even with female heads, their new line of Vital Radiance products failed miserably - and as a result...

the roles of Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, held by Stephanie Klein Peponis, and Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, held by Rochelle Udell, will be eliminated.

So what's going on?  It does not guarantee success, but I still stand by my view that having more women and minorities in higher positions in advertising agencies will be beneficial.   The more diverse the backgrounds, the less likely you are to have "group think".   And that's always a good thing. 

But I don't think you're going to see much progress in that arena.  Many of the best and brightest minority talent find the only way to succeed is to leave.   Look at the huge number of smaller marketing shops budding up everywhere.   This is where much of the true innovation is happening.   

I say, let the Madison Avenue types stick with their outdated, antiquated ideas, hiring practices and advertising theories.    Smaller more innovative, more diverse agencies are kicking their asses.   

I worked in Corporate America for 18 years.   I got absolutely nowhere.  Nowhere.   Not only was it killing my pocket book, it was killing my soul.  It was almost impossible to get anyone to listen to you.

I will always and forever be grateful to Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg for saving me from that fate and bringing me in to Future Now.   I work in an atmosphere where my co-workers have confidence in me.  There is no "that's the way it's always been done."   

Have an idea?  Unless it truly sucks, the answer is almost always - "Go - do it - what do you need?"   We have a diverse staff with several minorities represented.   And how is Future Now doing?   We're growing so fast it's almost scary.

I'm not here to toot Future Now's horn.   My point in all of this is twofold...

One - if you're talented, you're in advertising, and you're a minority - go the big agency route if you want - but also look at the smaller shops that are doing amazing things and blowing away the competition with their insight and successful track records. 

Two - I want to hear from you - what do you think about the whole minority in advertising debate?    Good or bad - bring it on.   Do you think the whole thing is just a misguided "affirmative action" for advertising that will force agencies to lower their standards in order to hire minorities?    Is the attitude of Neil French one that is actually held by many advertising executives - that women are too busy with mommy responsibilities to work as hard as their midnight oil burning male counterparts - is this a view that is more widely held than we think?   Is the glass ceiling still firmly in place for women and minorities?  Is that why so much advertising aimed at women doesn't work?  because too many white men are making the decisions and doing the creative - creating ads that they like?   

Or is this just more political posturing by those damn minorities and feminists with nothing better to do than whine and complain.

Speak up!

   

Comments

[Mary Schmidt]

Holly,

Advertising has the same problems other industries - entrenched bureaucracies and hierarchical, hide-bound cultures.

The problems, however, are particularly visible with agencies since advertising is all about (or should be) knowing the target, understanding them, connecting with them. You don't have to be a woman to understand how we buy (Heck, we don't even understand it sometimes) - but it's a sure bet that an old rich white guy that never leaves mahogany row isn't going to "get it." The irony in guys like French dismissing those on the "Mommy track" is that they want to sell to the Mommies! Hello???? Cars, diapers, toothpaste, houses...Mommies make a lot of those decisions.

Marketing in a diverse world requires - well - diversity. And, the companies (advertising or any other) must be willing to mix it up - otherwise, they'll quickly become irrelevant.

From an employee perspective - the big companies are a great place to start - make contacts, learn the industry - and more importantly learn what NOT to do. Then, don't worry about breaking the glass ceiling. Go build your own house and keep those ceilings open! As a client, I much prefer small and micro creative agencies. They're typically much faster, more responsive, and - yes - more fun to work with.

Lastly, us "minorities" need to lose the "victim" speak. Life is unfair, always has been. We should work to change that, for ourselves and others - but let's not whine, waiting for another person or group to step up and fight our battles. The "iron-jawed angels" certainly didn't. They just got busy and stayed committed, over decades, to getting women the vote. They didn't just think outside the box, they burned the damned things.

(Hmmm...can you tell I've been reading about politics again? ;-)

[LauraPosey]

I have to confess that I love the old boy network and the white male dominated world. Because they are so entrenched in the status quo and they have their heads so far up their own asses, they give little businesses like mine (and every other minority owned shop) a terrific opportunity to shine.

I, too, did hard time in Corporate America and know that unless you have some serious connections or are willing to sell your soul and those of several of your closest family members to Wall Street, you aren't going to make a single ripple in the pool of big business. You'll just be out there pulling an oar with the rest of the drudges.

If minorities and women are smart, they'll jump ship and build their own smaller, more nimble ships and outmaneuver and outrun the flagship agencies. When you're not anchored by worry over share prices you can do some really amazing things.

My partner has a sign on his desk that reads, "Don't climb the ladder of success just to find out it was leaning against the wrong wall". There are too many people out there shrieking for a hand up that ladder.

Give it up. The old white guys are not going to give you a hand, other than to slap you. You are a threat to them and they know it.

If you have talent and something unique to the world, then take your time, your energy, your talent and go find another ladder.

If you don't have any talent, go grab an oar and start rowing.

(Note: there are way too many mixed metaphors in that post, but you get the gist of the argument)

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[Surati]

I am a senior, elder able to work part time. I live in San Diego CA. There is no good resoan, if any resoan available to provide jobs for such as myself who can not afford not to work or live in a box. Ignoring the fact we exist and you to will be among this majority, set up a sight for the country to provide these jobs. At the present time and existing for several years, The National Association of Hispanic Elders has provided work/training and real jobs starting with the word Hispanic, here in this country. I was miraculously informed of this organization and as a white American citizen, was accepted in this Hispanic governmental financially funded organization at age 60 something a few years ago. I now need to get a job and don't qualify now, very bizzare.Instead of talking and caring on, please make a sight for all of us real folks get a job.Thanks

[Nai]

60 percent of the deatndfnes were minorities and 40 percent were white, numbers that conflict with the percentages in the general population. African-Americans/minorities commit murder at a far higher rate than whites in America. That likely holds true in Connecticut. Thus it stands to reason that there would be more minorities whose crimes are death-eligible.As for his comment about no rational system, well we don't simply look at the results to make that conclusion. Say what you want about capital punishment it is played by a set of very specific rules, most of which have a reason. Why one murderer gets death and another does not hey Donohoe, here's a clue, it's called a jury system and prosecutorial discretion.

[Asya]

todd g April 15th, 2010 7:46 am joe, very valid point about people haintg ads not just because of the ad content, but because people have been burned or mislead in the past. I run BuySellAds.com and one of the hardest things we deal with is helping people understand that we're not like traditional ad networks. We don't sell remnant inventory and we don't allow 3rd party ad tags (the main sources of malware & crappy ads). What publishers need to fully understand is that putting ANY 3rd party JavaScript on your site opens up vulnerability, and allows ad networks to basically put whatever they want on your site. It is important that publishers work with ad networks that they trust for this very reason. Even if you look at some of the most reputable brand names out there (like very large media companies *cough cough* fox *cough cough*, for example) you will see that they sell plenty of remnant inventory and have some of the crappiest ads out there.Letting profit drive the decions you make while owning an ad network is dangerous that's why you see a lof of the spam and malware that gets into the mix from reputable ad networks.