By some accounts, and rightfully so, Multicultural advertising is going the way of the leisure suit. And except for my Uncle Bo, most are fine with the disappearance of the built-in belted bell-bottomed grown folks one-piece. However, the wealth of culture that is the ethnic experience in America should not so quickly be put aside and the accounts thrust into the hands of inexperienced and under-equipped shops just for the sake of easier brand management. While it’s becoming increasingly apparent that brand management no longer feels that way. I feel the onus is completely on multicultural agencies to prove they’re not to be reduced to sardonic footnotes in the annuls of advertising history. Here are some suggestions on how to avoid becoming Black history ahead of your time.
Think like Malcolm act like Martin.
Malik El-Shabaaz aka Malcom X was an intensely critical thinker. He could rapidly and incisively discern the times and situations, in which he lived. Agencies need to do the same. Martin Luther King had the distinct ability to make messages plain, and to deliver them in a fashion that rode a positive emotion directly into your consciousness where it would only flourish. These are two historical perspectives MC shops should apply a lot more of. I know it’s not easy to do, but it’s damn worth the effort.
Get off the Amistad.
In the movie Amistad, based on the true story of a slave revolt, the captives figured out a way to turn the tide. Sometimes you’ve got to rock the boat and then get off the boat. Leave the plantation even. Multicultural shops will need to create new systems of servicing clients. Methods that are data based and quantifiably culturally-based. There is an established way of doing things in most agencies. If you have a vision for a better way and you are allowed to execute it, move on. Get your own shop (fully loaded computer), and a client or two and make it happen. Small general market shops are popping up daily freeing themselves from the plantation mentality and making new models. If there is anything minorities in America know how to do; it is how to create a niche that becomes world renown and very desirable.
