In this week’s lead story on the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) reaching agreement on a new four-year commercials contract–which still requires the ratification of DGA membership–an overlooked provision of the pact is that the Guild and the AICP will form a joint diversity committee.
The committee will explore ways to open up more employment opportunities for women and ethnic minorities in the spotmaking industry. DGA Eastern executive director Russ Hollander said that details as to how the committee will function and who will serve on it still need to be worked out. He added that it would also behoove the DGA and AICP to bring ad agencies into the discussion in order to affect positive change.
AICP president/CEO Matt Miller said that the committee’s goal is in line with what the AICP has tried to accomplish through several of its actions, including support for the Streetlights program, which opens up industry employment opportunities for inner city youngsters from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
SHOOT will keep a watchful eye on the diversity committee if indeed the new DGA/AICP contract is ratified. We’ll monitor its findings and its progress.
It’s somehow fitting that news of the DGA commercials agreement started to circulate during Advertising Week in New York. Just as the diversity committee provision didn’t make industry corridor talk, two linked award shows similarly got lost in the shadows–in this case the shadow cast by the hoopla over other Advertising Week proceedings.
But quietly nestled among the festivities was the American Advertising Federation’s Mosaic Awards and District Two Diversity Achievement Awards. The former honors companies that are at the forefront of advertising to the ethnic consumer, as well as those that incorporate the spirit of the AAF Mosaic Principles and Practices into their corporate philosophies.
Topping the Mosaic’s multicultural ad campaign category were Johnson & Johnson via Lowe Worldwide, and In Bev, out of Lapiz, Integrated Hispanic Marketing. The multicultural media usage winner was Tyson Foods from Lopez Negrete Communications. BrownPartners Multicultural Marketing topped student diversity programs. And taking the workforce diversity honor was DaimlerChrysler Corp.
Meanwhile the AAF’s Diversity Achievement Award winners included: corporate leader FedEx; educator Doug Alligood who is senior VP, special markets, BBDO; industry career achiever Dr. Henry McKinnell, chairman of Pfizer; industry influential honoree Daryl Hazel, president, Ford Motor Co.; role model Jerri DeVard, senior VP brand management and marketing, Verizon; and trendsetter Esther Lee, senior VP/chief creative officer, The Coca-Cola Company.
The awards were presented during Diversity/Mosaic Day on Sept. 28 at the New York Athletic Club. Past recipients of the Mosaic Wards include Procter & Gamble and their agencies Carol H. Williams and Grey; Allstate Insurance and its agency Kang & Lee Advertising; Pepsi-Cola of North America; Kraft Foods; McDonald’s; and individuals such as the late John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company, Clarence O. Smith of Essence Communications, and Eduardo Caballero of Caballero Television.
Diversity Achievement Awards have been bestowed in past years upon such people as Carlos Gutierrez (Kellogg Co., and U.S. Secretary of Commerce), Bob Wehling (P&G), filmmaker Spike Lee, Keith Reinhard (DDB) and the late Jay Chiat (TBWA/Chiat/Day).
