The Madison Avenue Initiative...

Here we go again. The general market agencies have been tasked to find AND HIRE African American talent to diversify their typically otherwise all-white group of employees. We've heard that before. Will the outcome this time be different? Will the fact that Cyrus Mehri and the NAACP are involved and are talking directly to the Fortune 100 clients make a difference? Will those clients mandate that their general market agencies finally do what they long ago should have done? How is it that a Fortune 100 client can otherwise entrust his or her global brand to an agency that is not in any way representative of its customer base. And I'm not talking about secretarial or administrative positions. While there is nothing wrong with being a secretary or working in the mail room - areas of employment that undoubtedly over index for people of color - the key is to hire those senior managers who interact with the most senior clients and who can affect strategy and marketing communications so both are more inclusive based upon cultural insights and nuances