MultiCultClassics has a knack for putting diversity issues in front of white people who are otherwise oblivious to the matter except when Outlook reminds them about the annual update meeting. At this year’s 4A’s Transformation Conference in San Francisco, the blogger was one of 8 winners in a contest for “Transformers” — each was awarded five minutes to present their idea at the conference. MCC had 4A’s SVP Comms Kipp Cheng present his idea — in Cheng’s defense he’d never seen the deck before.
The goal: “Create a Diversity Recruitment Campaign for Madison Avenue.” MCC’s idea was simple — the only way agencies are going to understand the problem of diversity in advertising is if it becomes a business issue. Therefore a solution would be to have general market agencies tackle a campaign aimed at increasing the industry’s lack of diversity. The catch: only general market agencies can participate. The better part of the catch: only white people can develop the campaign.
See the video for a wobbly look at how the presentation went off. A source who attended the conference called it “the whitest thing he’s ever seen.” This is in regard to speakers, which seems to say that “there’s no people of color in advertising that can talk about anything other than diversity issues.”
We’re pretty sure MCC’s idea didn’t win.
More: “Diversity in Advertising Career Day: The Winners, The Losers, The Posturing”