Debra L. Lee, chairman & CEO of BET Networks, has been elected to serve a one-year term as the new chair of the Ad Council’s board of directors. The nonprofit Ad Council is the United States’ largest producer of public service advertising
Ms. Lee joined the Ad Council Board in February 2008. She became vice chair of media and joined the executive and nominating committees in July 2011. She succeeds Marc Pritchard, global brand building officer of Procter & Gamble (P&G), as Ad Council board chair.
Media outlets donate approximately $1.5 billion in time and space to Ad Council PSA campaigns annually. The Ad Council’s current partnerships with BET include two campaigns targeting young adults (ages 18 – 24): GED achievement and unplanned pregnancy prevention. Since 2007, BET’s parent company, Viacom, has supported the Ad Council with more than $40 billion in donated media.
“The Ad Council does such important work across so many critical issues, and I have been proud to work with them over the past four years. I am so honored to be elected as the new chair of the Ad Council board of directors and look forward to continuing the Council’s legacy of creative, ground breaking and impactful work,” said Lee.
As chairman and CEO of BET Networks, Lee is one of the highest ranking leaders at Viacom Inc. Prior to her appointment as CEO of BET, Lee served as the network’s executive VP of strategic business development and played a key role in taking BET public in 1991. In 2003, Lee received the Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership from the National Cable Television Association. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2010.
With Lee’s election, the Ad Council will continue its ongoing tradition of rotating board chairs every year between the organization’s founding sectors: media companies, advertising agencies and corporate advertisers. In 2014, Lee will be succeeded by Laura Desmond, global CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, who currently serves as vice chair of agencies.
David Christopher, CMO, AT&T Mobility, has been elected to serve as the Ad Council’s vice chair of advertising, and Steve Lacy, chairman and CEO of Meredith Corporation, has assumed the position of finance committee chair.
Additionally, the Ad Council has elected 24 new Board members, each of whom will serve a three-year term. Among those they will work closely with is Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council.
The Ad Council’s new Board members are:
* Joseph Abruzzese, president, advertising sales, Discovery Communications
* Maryam Banikarim, SVP & CMO, Gannett Co., Inc.
* Dermot Boden, chief brand officer, Citigroup, Inc.
* Linda Boff, global executive director, digital, advertising & design, GE
* Monique Bonner, VP, Americas Marketing, Dell Inc.
* Lee Brown, head of global sales, Tumblr
* Toby Byrne, president, advertising sales, Fox Broadcasting Company
* Paul Chibe, VP, U.S. marketing, Anheuser-Busch
* Harris Diamond, chairman & CEO, McCann Worldgroup
* Paul Edwards, executive director, global marketing strategy, General Motors
* Michele Fabrizi, president & CEO, MARC USA
* Rob Frederick, VP & director, corporate responsibility, Brown-Forman
* Betsy Frost Webb, general manager, media and agency, management, Microsoft
* Todd Goldstein, chief revenue officer, AEG
* Julie Hamp, chief communications officer, Toyota Motor North America
* Tim Jones, CEO, Zenith Optimedia NA
* Michael Kassan, chairman & CEO, MediaLink
* Lesya Lysyj, CMO, Heineken USA
* Tom Noland, SVP, corporate communications, Humana, Inc.
* Steve Pacheco, director, advertising, FedEx
* Jo Ann Ross, president, network sales, CBS Television Network
* Michael Senackerib, CMO, Campbell Soup Company
* Paul Sturman, president & general manager, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare
* Deborah Van Valkenburgh, SVP, strategic brand management, PNC Financial Services
Effie UK and Ipsos Report Concludes Marketing Industry Should Do Its Part To Heal Societal Divisions
Society has never been more divided, according to a new report Healing the Divide in which Effie UK and brand and advertising experts from Ipsos explored brands’ role in shaping society and healing societal divisions.
The report details how instability, inflation, and COVID recovery —the convergence of multiple interconnected crises around the world that coincide with and amplify each other, causing hard to resolve systemic challenges, have become the norm over the past few years. As a result, the use of division as a weapon is now a major theme in today’s culture and politics, and sadly 47% of the UK and 49% of the US agree with the statement that “Within my lifetime, society in my country will break down,” according to Ipsos Global Trends 2024.
While some brands have tried to respond to this, the report finds responsible marketing is now threatened by weaponized division. It points to the World Federation of Advertisers’ decision to shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X, combined with DEI rollbacks, as significant setbacks.
The report says these setbacks underline the importance of marketing in solving collective problems, such as climate change, food security, and harmful online content. It also points to a need for marketers to take more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions.
Research claims marketers are ideally placed to build and rebuild the antidote to division (trust, empathy, a sense of control, connection and collaboration). According to the Ipsos Veracity index of trusted professionals, society is becoming more trustworthy of advertising executives. Additionally, 57% of Britons agree that brands should communicate their... Read More