From Diversity News
THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: The American Advertising Federation, based in Washington, recently named the winners of its annual Mosaic Awards, designed to honor companies breaking ground in marketing to people of color and working toward diversity in the advertising industry.
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As reported in the New York Times, the Vidal Partnership, New York, was honored for best multicultural media usage. The client was Mastercard. In the multicultural campaign category, those cited include Anderson DDB, Toronto, Johnson & Johnson's Procrit; Kang & Lee, New York, Allstate Insurance; Accentmarketing, Coral Gables, Fla., Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich., and GlobalHue, Southfield, Mich., the United States Navy; Grey Worldwide, New York, and Carol H. Williams Advertising, Oakland, Calif., Procter & Gamble's Pantene. Winners in other categories included the Cox Media division of the Cox Corporation, DaimlerChrysler and the Screen Actors Guild. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the New York Athletic Club on Sept. 22.
The awards are nice, certainly, and we appreciate the demonstration of good sense shown by companies that understand the value of marketing to people of color. Still, it bears mentioning that the advertising industry has a historically lousy track record of hiring and promoting people of color. Hiring practices are under scrutiny in New York City now -- home of the legendary Madison Avenue -- as the American Association of Advertising Agencies seeks negotiate with the New York City Human Rights Commission over hiring practices at city ad agencies in the city. Meanwhile, agencies owned by people of color are seldom tapped to create general-market campaigns that would have a multicultural appeal. That's the category we are waiting to see.