Though employment discrimination has sharply diminished in America in the last 40 years, systemic barriers to equality in the $31 billion a year advertising industry have not budged. In 1978, for example, the New York City Human Rights Commission found that limited minority employment "was not simply the result of neutral forces, but emanated directly from discriminatory practices." Those practices continue today.
The study found the primary source of discrimination to be agencies' implicit assumption that the cause of Black under-representation is a shortage of "qualified" Black job seekers. In reality, the problem is not a shortage but a "persistent unwillingness by mainstream advertising agencies to hire, assign, advance, and retain already-available Black talent."
Moreover, the study found, the industry's response to long-running charges of discrimination has consisted of "token efforts. The industry's primary response has been extremely modest expansions in training and entry-level hiring." At today's rate of progress, Black numbers among advertising managers and professionals will not reach their expected level for another 71 years.
An appropriate response, the study concluded, "will require fundamentally transforming the workplace culture of general market advertising agencies." Specifically, agencies must root out the stereotypes that make race, not ability, determine employment potential; halt the "buddy system," in which personal relationships and social comfort often count for more than job performance; and eliminate the assumptions that racial minorities can't succeed in non-ethnic markets.
The Madison Avenue Project is led by the NAACP and attorney Cyrus Mehri, of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, who has won several multi-million dollar discrimination settlements against such corporations as The Coca-Cola Company, Morgan Stanley and Texaco Inc.; with the cooperation of Sanford Moore, a former advertising executive, current New York City talk radio co-host, and longtime advocate for racial parity in advertising.
"Today we are sending a message to the advertising industry: this conduct is unacceptable and must change," Mehri said today.
"I have witnessed first-hand the mendacity and machinations that have kept African-Americans invisible on and to Madison Avenue for over four decades," Moore said. "Madison Avenue has created and perpetuated a 'separate and unequal' marketing paradigm which is reflected in their advertising, their workforce and among their executive ranks. Even though our dollars provide the profits, the industry is still afraid of the dark."
Angela Ciccolo announced, on behalf of the NAACP, that "we are going to circulate the report not just to our units to inform our members, but also to Fortune 100 companies to urge them to stop aiding and abetting widespread discrimination by this industry."
The study, entitled "Research Perspectives on Race and Employment in the Advertising Industry," was conducted by a leading research firm, Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants.
