Ed Crayton got his start in the mailroom of the then Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein (now Goodby Silverstein & Partners), San Francisco, in 1987. He asked Jeff Goodby if he could try writing some copy. By early ’88, Crayton was on staff as a writer at the agency.
Crayton, an African-American, recalls how difficult it was for him to get up the nerve to ask for a chance to show his talent. He felt that ethnic minorities generally were struggling with how to best break into the business—and, for that matter, many African-Americans weren’t even considering career opportunities in the advertising industry to begin with.
While at Goodby, Crayton became involved in Spectrum, a fraternity of African-American agency professionals in the Bay Area. The group was formed in ’91 to help open up opportunities for African-Americans at agencies, particularly in creative departments. After leaving Goodby in ’93, Crayton embarked on a career path that took him to Boston, Los Angeles, and then Irvine, Calif., before he relocated to Dallas in ’99, becoming a staffer at DDB. At that time, he initiated Spectrum Speakers, an offshoot of Spectrum. He has since left DDB, becoming a freelance copywriter in the Dallas area, spending a considerable amount of time helping to build Spectrum Speakers.
Crayton is now making a national push for Spectrum Speakers, hoping to get more agencies involved in promoting racial diversity within their creative ranks—and in other ad shop departments, as well. While he was at DDB Dallas, the agency created a pair of Spectrum Speakers spots, designed to run at ad clubs and industry-related events throughout the country (see story, p. 1). The jarring, though-provoking, spots are tagged with a phone number—(972) 596-2258—for those agencies and individuals wanting to bring more people of color into the business. Spectrum Speakers offers mentoring programs whereby agency pros are available to African-American students—and to older people looking to make a career change—for guidance and advice.
Via Spectrum Speakers, agency pros also visit schools to make kids and young people aware of career opportunities in the advertising field. Among those involved in Spectrum Speakers are such artisans as Dana Satterwhite and Tim Vaccarino, associate creative directors at Arnold Worldwide, Boston, and noted creative Jimmy Smith of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., who’s perhaps best known as the writer on Nike’s lauded "Freestyle" spot.
Thus far the aforementioned Spectrum Speakers spots, "Whites Only" and "One Percent," have been screened at such venues as the Orange County (California) Ad Club and the Cleveland Advertising Association.
Rick Squire, executive director of the Cleveland Advertising Association, said that his group has screened the ads three times over the past several months, twice at monthly luncheon meetings and once during its local ADDY Awards Show. "The feedback has been pretty positive, though I don’t know if it’s translated into any action on the part of our members," he related. "Our leadership is very supportive of the cause, and wants to help raise awareness of the fact that there aren’t a lot of people of color in advertising."
Meanwhile, Crayton is seeking production companies, directors, editors and other industry artisans who are interested in donating their talents to the making of PSAs that would air on TV, directly targeting African-American kids and young adults. The message: Consider a career in advertising.
That way, Crayton reasoned, more African-Americans will think about the value of landing an entry-level position or internship at an ad agency—maybe even a mailroom gig, which was his personal entrée into the business.
