Why do black shops suck at the funny?
The commercial above was done by McCann Erickson, NY. I had hoped it was the African American effort in the Verizon "Maps" campaign. When I initially saw the spot I actually chuckled a bit. When I saw it the second time and paid better attention I laughed even more. Which for most African American targeted advertising is a very rare occurrence. The actor's response at the end is well executed and just funny.
The irony is one of the few things African Americans have been allowed to do fully in this country is be funny. Some might even say be buffoons to the delight of others. That is another blog post and maybe even another blog all together. But when you think of humor in America -- and I mean well heeled, prodigious comedic out-put, you gotta look at the African American canon of work.
So why the big disconnect when it comes to any African American amusement in advertising? (ah, appropriately accommodating assonance). My first thoughts, as always, goes to budgeting limitations and the lack of experimentation allowed in multicultural advertising period. But I still believe the right kind of "funny" goes a long way toward cementing a campaigns message in the mind of the consumer.
I also know some (not all) of the people in multi-cultural have an unfair weight of responsibility of disproportionate expectations of budgeting to sales results. The AA conundrum of being "twice" as good to get the same acknowledgement remains. But still we don't produce that many truly "funny" commercials.
Now of course we are not a people built entirely of Richard Pryors, Wanda Sykes and Dave Chappelles, but I know some insanely funny black people who work in advertising. Why doesn't it translate? It may be a matter of the best work going through a filter of brand managers who are "culturally clueless." I have been a part of teams who have presented to non-black brand managers who couldn't begin to grasp the concepts and contextual resonance of the simplest of ideas. Yet those persons could not only kill our ideas they could also dictate what we "should do." But I can't leave the blame there.
Why do African American Agencies struggle with humor in commercials? Why do black shops suck at the funny?
Agency: McCann Erickson, NY
Chief Creative Officer: Joyce King Thomas
Executive Creative Director: George Dewey
Group CD: Chris Quillen
Group CD/copywriter: Jesse Potack
Group CD/art director: Benjamin Vendramin
Executive producer: Michele Ferone
Producer: Jessica Coccaro
Production Company: Furlined, NY
Directors: Speck / Gordon
DP: Anthony Wolberg
Exec Producer: David Thorne
Editing House: Cut and Run
Editor: TG Herrington
Special Effects: Charlex
Music: Thwak Music, NY and Ramblin' Man, NY
Audio Post: Steve Rosen, Sonic Union, NY https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png
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11 comments:
Well, methinks you answered your own question. Much has to do with the clients and the way Black agencies have come to appease them. Clients prefer to show Blacks in a respectful fashion. Hence, you’ll see far more graduation/family reunion/responsible father scenes versus comedy. Or if humor is shown, it’s usually brought by the safe comedian of the hour: 1970s-1980s/Cosby; 1990s/Sinbad; 2000s/Steve Harvey. It wasn’t until his FOX sitcom that Bernie Mac was deemed safe. For whatever reason, folks are hesitant to show commercial comedy with Blacks unless it’s coming from a prominent comedian. Otherwise, you run the risk of showing a Black person looking buffoonish. It’s OK for Steve Harvey to be a clown; it’s not OK for a standard SAG actor to do so.
Anon, feels ya.
What about the few that get through? What's their excuse for same shame lameness??
The same reason black shops suck at being heart warming or shocking or creative... because black shops suck!
Not because the talent is bad but because the management is horrible - they lack the heart and conviction to the creative product to stand up for what they know is right.
Yes, the clients are to blame too. But there are plenty of bad clients on the general market side who agencies manage to convince to do better work.
We can keep pointing at the clients and the general market shops but when you point one finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you. When was the last time any of the black shops won a major award for any client, big, small or made up?
Whose fault is that?
Because Americans with black skin don't think, 'how to be funny' but are trying 'to be funny to americans with black skin'.
They keep keeping themselves in the box; isn't it tough enough that the white and asians are against those with dark skin?
Yawn.
From the islands I am
Wow, Anonymous 2, I’m gonna hazard a guess you’ve spent little time in any Black shops. Regardless, there are some legitimate nuggets in your rant. For starters, most Black agencies don’t lack the talent to create the concepts. But they often lack the skills to sell the concepts. As anyone who has ever worked for the big clients will attest, presentation is a major key to success.
Here’s another reality that Anonymous 2 won’t agree with. In order to do outstanding work, you need a client that’s willing to do outstanding work. The sad truth is, most of the clients approving Black advertising don’t want to do great work – regardless of anything they might insist. They will spend time and sweat with the White shops to do outstanding work. But for the Black stuff, they just want to put something out there that won’t gain too much attention and/or get them in trouble. They play it safe. Again, better to embrace graduation scenes and depict Black men as responsible father figures.
Recognize too that despite having been around since the 1950s, Black shops have not been embraced by all advertisers. Think about it. Only the major advertisers have a Black shop – and mostly for project work versus year-round calendars. This is another reason why the work sucks. Most clients are unfamiliar with the category. Hence, they lean toward doing the things that have been done successfully already – i.e., the graduation scenes and responsible Black men. This is no different with Latino and Asian shops, who have to pump out their own clichés and safe scenarios. Can it be that ALL minorities are incapable of coming up with original ideas? Of course not. Sorry, Anonymous 2, but the clients are the bigger issue here.
The problem with comparing Black shops to other shops really does boil down to some economics – although I’m certain Anonymous 2 will not believe it. Specifically, while Black agencies handle the same clients as the major White shops, they do not have similar resources. Most Black shops are small- to medium-sized enterprises. This is largely what makes it all so messed up. It’s like comparing the NY Yankees to a minor league club. Or like comparing W+K to a local ad shop. It would be one thing if the Black shops were handling local-level clients, where they could become boutiques. But they’re not. If you’re going to compare Black shops to White shops, then level the damned playing field. I’ve worked in plenty of White shops. The creatives there wouldn’t last a week in a Black shop, forced to work under those conditions. Take a look at the work that someone like, say, Jimmy Smith did at Burrell or Muse versus W+K. Was Smith any less talented while at Burrell and Muse? Environments and resources matter.
But most importantly, clients matter. This is where I again would be surprised to learn that Anonymous 2 has ever worked in a Black shop. Otherwise, he would be familiar with the scenarios where clients literally admit they don’t want cutting edge work. They’ll literally instruct you to do something musical or they’ll connect with an HBCU and tell you to do an ad with the institution. Black advertising is often not really advertising for these clients – it’s public relations and community outreach.
And to bring this all back to Craig’s original question, it’s tough to be funny when the client really just wants to be a politically-correct, good corporate citizen.
Craig, as someone who knows next to nothing about the black ad business nor has ever heard of black shops, this was a fascinating post along with the comment by Anon 7:28.
Kit, The being black in advertising is literally like madmen meets nip/tuck in black face. It's the screwiest racist pedantic sh*tfest ever in life.
Anon3, you really knock the f*ck out of some hustle don't ya! I dig your brains. It's so true the pot-holes in the lopsided playing field are nearly insurmountable. I still believe there will be an advertising black jesus that will come along and change the game completely and open the floodgates.
I don’t think it’s insurmountable. But it will require some serious effort from the Black shops. One of the toughest things in the business is to reengineer something that the clients have become accustomed to. If I agree on anything with Anonymous 2, it’s that the senior management at most Black shops must step up their games. To be clear, I don’t think that all Black shops lack the leadership. Cliff Franklin is one dude with backbone that immediately comes to mind – he just doesn’t have enough big clients. I also suspect “jesus” will not come from a Black shop. Rather, he’s already walking the halls in the form of guys like Jimmy Smith, Geoff Edwards, etc. That is, the best “Black” advertising will come from Black creatives working in White shops where the shackles and restrictions do not exist.
Anon, Cliff Franklin is a courageous dude. Jimmy is amazing. I don't know that much about Geoff, but I'm watching dude and I'm loving his expansiveness. If he's the dude from the Halo campaign (epic), he aint no joke.
believe there's a happy medium. A black shop with the smarts and tenacity to create world renown delicacies from the pig scraps they've been given. I think the True Agency (Claude Grunitzky) was going there before they were crippled.
To state things more briefly, clients must stop treating black agencies like nothing more than minority vendors; and black agencies must stop acting like nothing more than minority vendors.
Here's a brand that needs a creative agency and could afford an agency the freedom to show their real talent. http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=141075
Why can't ab lack agency take on this account?
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