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If you love AMC's Mad Men as much as we do, you may be interested to meet the real women (and men) who ran the advertising industry during the '50s and '60s. As a video on AdAge's website explains, the One Club, a non-profit that focuses on advertising, has curated an exhibit called "The Real Men & Woman Of Madison Avenue" which attempts to dispel the Mad Men myth that ad agencies of the era were all about drinking and partying. Strangely, disappointingly, the exhibit is completely quiet on the topics of sexism and racism. Sure, its features women who were working in the advertising world at that time, like Phyllis Robinson, who was the chief copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach, but the racism portrayed in the show — like the complete absence of any people of color working in the main office beyond the snack cart — is neither refuted or explained. [AdAge, NYPL] More »
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All this week, NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams has been running a series called "African- American Women: Where They Stand." So far, on blogs and in e-mail blasts, the series has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, according to Advertising Age's Carol Watson. "Some were enthusiastic about uncovering the struggles and issues that are often the topics of conversation by black women already and others have been skeptical about NBC motives and divisiveness," writes Ms. Watson. "The journalists covering the stories are incredibly talented black women that I am sure had to fight hard to get even these 2-minute segments running for five consecutive days. But the debate on the value and context of the information still creates a storm among black consumers." I saw one segment of the series, about women and business. According to the reporting, (which focuses on a 39-year-old single mother and Stanford grad who has her own PR/marketing business) the number of businesses owned by black women (in a five year period) is up 75%, yay! But the number of businesses owned by black men is only up 29%, sigh. More »
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