AAF Sets Diversity Guidelines

The American Advertising Federation has developed voluntary principles asking advertisers and agencies to increase diversity in the workforce and promote fairness when buying and selling ethnic media, according to an AAF internal memo.

The principles, which will be adopted at a White House ceremony next month, also call on industry executives to provide the AAF in Washington, D.C., with data to measure results. They are a response to the Federal Communications Commission’s report questioning advertisers’ minority media buying practices, as well as to FCC Chairman William Kennard calling on the industry to create guidelines.

“After years of working on this issue, a consensus has been built,” said AAF president Wally Snyder, referring to adopting the principles.

Efforts to gauge multicultural marketing practices have met with little success in the past.