Not really. It’s Madison Avenue mostly white advertising industry that New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook is investigating. According to a story in Ad Age‘s online magazine (free reg. required):
So far, 17 agencies ? some with more than 1,000 employees and others with a quarter of that ? have been embroiled in the inquiry that began in November 2004 as a fact-finding exercise. Letters were mailed to nearly 20 agencies requesting data on the number of staffers employed in various categories, with a breakdown of employees by race in each category.
This effort has all the earmarks of a show trial or witch hunt. Not only will the ad agencies themselves by grilled but their clients will be guilt-tripped into confessing the error of their ways, after which reparations efforts will surely follow.
Agencies won?t be the only ones called to testify. ?We can ask [clients] for their positions on diversity and how they feel about working with agencies that aren?t diverse,? added Mr. Seabrook.
