Madison Avenue Project - Ending Racial Discrimination in America's Advertising Industry
Press Release
January 8, 2009
Contact: Deb Colbert, 301-565-5329 (O) or 301-332-0813 (C), daccomm@aol.com;
Richard J. McIntire, NAACP Communications Department, 202-463-2940 x1021,
rmcintire@naacpnet.org
NEW DATA EXPOSES DRAMATIC RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN U.S. ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
NAACP, MEHRI & SKALET ANNOUNCE MADISON AVENUE PROJECT
NEW YORK, NEW YORK --- An exhaustive new study of America’s advertising industryreleased today has found dramatic levels of racial discrimination throughout the industry. Bias against African-American professionals was found in pay, hiring, promotions, assignments, andother areas.The study was initiated by a coalition of legal, civil rights, and industry leaders who created theMadison Avenue Project. The Project was created in 2008 to address advertising’s deep-rooted racial bias and today, Cyrus Mehri, Project leader and prominent civil rights lawyer, called thefindings “absolutely astonishing in this day and age.” Angela Ciccolo of the NAACP, anotherProject partner, commented that “the time has come to stand up to change this industry.”Overall, the findings reveal that racial discrimination is 38% worse in the advertising industrythan in the overall U.S. labor market, and that the “discrimination divide” between advertisingand other U.S. industries is more than twice as bad now as it was 30 years ago.
Specific findings include:• Black college graduates working in advertising earn $.80 for every dollar earned by theirequally-qualified White counterparts;• Based on national demographic data, 9.6% of advertising managers and professionals shouldbe African-Americans. The actual percentage in 2008 is 5.3%, representing a difference of7,200 executive-level jobs;• About 16% of large advertising firms employ no black managers or professionals, a rate60% higher than in the overall labor market;• Black managers and professionals in the industry are only one-tenth as likely as their Whitecounterparts to earn $100,000 a year;• Blacks are only 62% as likely as their White counterparts to work in the powerful “creative”and “client contact” functions in advertising agencies;• Eliminating the industry’s current Black-White employment gap would require tripling itsBlack managers and professionals.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. In1978, for example, the New York City Human Rights Commission found that limited minorityemployment “was not simply the result of neutral forces, but emanated directly from discriminatorypractices.” Those practices continue today.The study found the primary source of discrimination to be agencies’ implicit assumption that thecause of Black under-representation is a shortage of ‘qualified’ Black job seekers. In reality, theproblem is not a shortage but a “persistent unwillingness by mainstream advertising agencies tohire, assign, advance, and retain already-available Black talent.”Moreover, the study found, the industry’s response to long-running charges of discrimination hasconsisted of “token efforts. The industry’s primary response has been extremely modest expansionsin training and entry-level hiring.” At today’s rate of progress, Black numbers among advertisingmanagers and professionals will not reach their expected level for another 71 years.An appropriate response, the study concluded, “will require fundamentally transforming theworkplace culture of general market advertising agencies.” Specifically, agencies must root out thestereotypes that make race, not ability, determine employment potential; halt the “buddy system,” inwhich personal relationships and social comfort often count for more than job performance; andeliminate 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 suchcorporations as The Coca-Cola Company, Morgan Stanley and Texaco Inc.; with the cooperation ofSanford Moore, a former advertising executive, current New York City talk radio co-host, andlongtime advocate for racial parity in advertising.“Today we are sending a message to the advertising industry: this conduct is unacceptable and mustchange,” Mehri said today.“I have witnessed first-hand the mendacity and machinations that have kept African-Americansinvisible on and to Madison Avenue for over four decades,” Moore said. “Madison Avenue hascreated and perpetuated a ‘separate and unequal’ marketing paradigm which is reflected in theiradvertising, their workforce and among their executive ranks. Even though our dollars provide theprofits, the industry is still afraid of the dark.”Angela Ciccolo announced, on behalf of the NAACP, that “we are going to circulate the report notjust to our units to inform our members, but also to Fortune 100 companies to urge them to stopaiding and abetting widespread discrimination by this industry.” "The Madison Avenue Project isdesigned to send a special wake up call to the advertising industry. It's time for Madison Avenue towake up to civil rights and to the meaningful inclusion of African Americans in this highlysegregated industry," she continued.
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. http://www.findjustice.com/UserFiles/File/Madison%20Avenue%20Project%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
The complete study can be found at www.findjustice.com (Mehri & Skalet), www.naacp.org (NAACP), and www.bendickegan.com (Bendick and Egan).
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