DISQUS

curiouslatino · 4 months ago

When did diversity become defined by how many black people you employ?

Sub-question: Do Mexicans count towards diversity anymore? If so, please hire me.

Chris Campbell · 4 months ago

You've got to be f'ing kidding me. It was a video. A dumb parody, but fairly well done. When I was an intern we made a video too. People in the agency thought it was great. But outside the office it was lame.

Also, there were no black people in our video. Just two white boys. An Indian chick. And a Croat.

zb · 4 months ago

FAKE CONTROVERSY

CroatianMN · 4 months ago

Check out 2:51, 2:58, and 3:51 of the CP+B video. Plenty of black kids. People are retarded.

Swimmer · 4 months ago

Yummy, I love tuna. Why don't you come over?

jocy89 · 4 months ago

This is ridiculous. Pulling the racist card for something that is not even racist is just as bad if not worse than being racist, oh and more irritating too.
The interns were clearly just having some fun Andy Samberg style like every other teen/college student finds themselves doing from time to time. I'd like to believe that this year's top Agency would only hire the top applicants for internship positions. So what if the handful of interns that created the video were white.. did you not see the 50 cent clearly presented in the beginning and credits? He was black and obviously had no problem being a part of the video.
Diversity includes all races. Stop trying to make the world feel bad for black Americans, when they have the exact same opportunities as everyone else, if not more.

Just Sayin · 4 months ago

Umm... spoken by a true non Black. I have no problem with the parody and the future may be better for the younger generation- but to say Blacks have the exact same opportunities as everyone else is naive. Many of the people that judge a person the minute they see they are Black are still running the businesses. These people take one look at you and make assumptions about the type of music you enjoy, about how well you read and write, your ability to relate to non Blacks, etc- things that most other races do not have to prove. So if YOU haven't walked a mile in a Black person's shoes- don't judge.

bigwheelz · 4 months ago

You're making a lot of assumptions about people are making assumptions about you.

Just Sayin · 4 months ago

And you just assumed I was referring myself. So there.

georgeeparker · 4 months ago

Kiran...
Good for you. CP+B are a bunch of wannabe wankers. See my post on AdScam.
Cheers/George

Ann · 4 months ago

I am sick of this whole diversity quota crap. Skin color DOES NOT equal competence or talent. The interns were not making fun of black people. I wonder if people who cry racism want to bring back segregation. Idiots.

Gmoney · 4 months ago

This is the reason American companies are going down hill fast. Too many PC police worried that some race will get left out of the work world. Maybe we should all wear signs with our ethnic background on it.

"Hey, I'm the token black kid. Or Hey, I'm the English-Irish-Cherokee-American." What a bunch of crap.

John · 4 months ago

Just some kids having fun. Get over it, not like they made a parody of a KKK rally.

ohwell-hahaha · 4 months ago

95% of the people who work in advertising could care less about diversity. Name one GM agency that's diverse. Everybody does it. Really who cares about diversity?! I don't. Having a mostly all white staff doesn't bother me at all. --this isn't a controversy.

Im also sick of this whole diversity quota crap. Having 1 or 2% black folk work at the agency doesn't bother as long as they dont touch the creative but there allowed to pick up a broom and sweep and mop our floors, im fine with that too. If they want to work in creative they better have a great portfolio or just shut up! Im fully aware that this is a big problem, but it isnt mine, HR has their hand full with layoffs etc, ill be real pissed if some black kid gets the job not being qualified.

Bill · 4 months ago

The only thing i would change about the spot was the add more tits and ass.

guest · 4 months ago

this is fucking stupid. it was a bad parody video. embarrassing, yes. offensive, no.

why not leave this comment alone in the bottom of a feed instead of creating a story out of it and creating a pseudo controversy?

this site is going downhill. stop posting stories about shitty pharma ads no one cares about. and stop creating fake cp+b controversies.

come on peeps. this was one of the better ad blogs a year ago. what happened?

curiouslatino · 4 months ago

Until someone comes along and proves that having a huge staff filled with minorities is beneficial to the client, all of this talk is worthless.

Mark Trueblood · 4 months ago

Parody rap videos are beyond cliche. But If you like parody rap videos, i suppose you'll like that one. Kudos?

I don't know whether Crispin is diverse or not, I don't work there.

But in general it still pains me I happen to work in an industry so deeply blind to their own prejudices. When people say "talent is all that matters" I find it deeply disingenuous, because I think it's well known how much favoritism, politics, and nepotism goes on in hiring and promotion practices.

Any halfway honest appraisal of the past 80 or so years of popular culture would conclude that it came from the talent and passion of cultural minorities. Yet some are going to claim that that talent and passion can't make good advertising? Yikes!

If we want to communicate compellingly, we need to avail ourselves of as many different perspectives and cultural backgrounds as possible. Tolerance, inclusiveness, and a multiplicity of perspectives generates empathy, creativity, and innovation.

Given the desperate state our industry is in, I would hope by now agencies would be willing to re-think their hiring and promotion practices. If we want to evolve this business, we need to bring in people who are going to give us unique perspectives, because the same old, same old isn't serving us anymore.

gods bless,

Mark Trueblood

adrianh · 4 months ago

Great response Mark. There are some truly stupid closed minded people out here and over half of the posted responses prove just this.

Mark Trueblood · 4 months ago

thank adrianh,

I wish the attitudes on display here were the exception in this business, but sadly they are very common...Recognizing the cultural bias in advertising was a learning process for me too. The change won't happen overnight but little by little it will improve, I believe.

AmericanStandard · 4 months ago

I'm a minority and I work in advertising. I'm half Mexican. Half North Korean. I'm a Mexi Nor Kor.

I'm not interested in working for Cripin though. Seems kind of fruity there. A bit childish and high school like. I'm all about marketing and advertising, the business of selling products.

LIAR · 4 months ago

Your not interested in working for Crispin! LMAO. You're not Mexi or Kor. You're a fat old grey gay Ad Hack and you could never get a job at Cripsing. So shut the fuck up already.

dyketyson · 4 months ago

who gives a sh!t, who gives a F*ck