This isn’t really news, but, Ad Age has a pretty long article about yet another public meeting questioning why the big ad agencies are whiter than a Clorox ad on a black and white TV from the 50’s.

While the article focuses on the black/white thing, there is the subgroup of “Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses” SDVOB’s. The large agencies who have government ad contracts are mandated to spend 3% of their budget with SDVOB’s, yet not a single one does. Think about the $300+ million dollars that both McCann and GSD&M have to recruit for the Army and Air Force respectfully. Not only are they not meeting the goal, they find ways to make excuses on why they can’t.

(Yep, you guessed it, The Next Wave is an SDVOB and HUBzone certified advertising agency)

Read the whole article-

Agencies Have Funny Way of Showing ‘Commitment’ to Diversity - Advertising Age - The Big Tent
The New York City Commission on Human Rights held a public meeting Monday night regarding the issue of diversity in the advertising industry. A rough count of those sweltering in the close quarters of a conference room on Rector Street showed 27 people in attendance. It’s hard to say what was more discouraging: that of the 27, three were members of the commission, two were lawyers and three were journalists; that of the six white people in attendance, two were members of the commission, two were lawyers and one was a journalist; or that in an industry this size, on an issue this public and this important, a turnout of 20-some-odd people was considered a success. (And before anyone starts griping about other representation, there was one Asian-American woman in attendance and no Hispanics. But let’s be honest: From the start, this has been predominantly a black-white issue.)

More embarrassing and much more troubling? Of the 16 New York ad agencies that have had their dirty laundry aired by the commission — and of those many, many other agencies that hide behind the other 16, thinking “Better them than us” — exactly two, Arnold and Saatchi, had representatives in attendance…

Kudo’s to Arnold and Saatchi for at least sending a representative.

We’ll sit by the phone waiting for the call…. (not).