(T)he NAACP … said they focus too much on the idea that African Americans themselves are the problem and need training—not that there are systemic problems within the agencies themselves.
New York may be the most diverse city in the world, but Madison Avenue is whiter than snow, according to backers of a new campaign aimed at improving hiring, pay, and promotions for African Americans in the advertising business.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the lawyer who spearheaded a massive class action against Coca-Cola (KO) 10 years ago are now targeting the advertising industry, citing “dramatic levels of racial discrimination” against African Americans throughout the industry, in such areas as incomes, recruitment, and promotion. Called the Madison Avenue Project, the plan, announced Jan. 8, is designed to apply public pressure on advertising agencies and expose what the NAACP and law firm Mehri & Skalet say are systematic biases against African Americans within the industry. The group’s plan is to follow that effort with a lawsuit against major advertising groups and to seek class-action status.
“Forty-fiveyears after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, [advertising]is still a closed society,” attorney Cyrus Mehri said at a Manhattanpress conference. “We’re not going to let go until this industry makesa giant step forward.” Mehri’s Washington (D.C.) firm won race-biassettlements of $192.5 million from Coca-Cola in 2001 and $176 millionfrom Texaco (CVX) in 1996.
Disturbing Results
The project was launched with the release of a damning study of race and employment on Madison Avenue commissioned by Mehri & Skalet. Among the study’s findings: African Americans in advertising make 80¢ for every dollar earned by whites in similar jobs. Meanwhile, only 5.3% of all professional managers in the advertising industry are African American, below their representation in other industries. In addition, the study says, too many are assigned to jobs related to their race, such as marketing products aimed at African Americans.