Brand Noise

Advertising is Getting a New School

According to Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz, The High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media is slated to open in September 2008, and will occupy a building on the Canarsie High School campus.

The DOE plans to enroll about 108 ninth graders to start and in each of the next three years, which means that within four years, the school's total enrollment will reach 425-450, according to a DOE representative.

"The buying power of African-Americans is expected to exceed a trillion -- yes, trillion -- dollars over the next several years, yet they represent less than five percent of the advertising industry workforce," Markowitz said today, in a statement. "This school will go a long way in preparing our very talented and creative communities of color for exciting and very lucrative careers in advertising and marketing."

Read more.

Expectations of trained kids are so high. When these kids get out of school, we better be ready. By the time they reach their first jobs, they’ve already spent years creating ads, or so that's their story. What we need them to do in the workforce makes them take a few steps back to everyone’s chagrin. And then no one is happy. Their well-roundedness will be critical. It’s no good if the ad community does not get involved. If we want their first out-of-school thoughts to be “Who do I want to learn from?” We best step up to the plate.

(Photo: Mammoth Advertising.)

Whites Get Food Stores, Blacks Get Liquor Stores and Fast Food

Some alarming data in a recent study gives some insight into how flaws in urban planning can impact consumer behavior negatively. CNN's Keith Oppenheim looks at the dearth of quality food choices in some American urban areas.

Watch video here

BET Premiers The Real DMX

On Wednesday, July 12, BET premieres the six-part reality series DMX: SOUL OF A MAN. When a move from the tough, gritty streets of New York to peaceful Carefree, Arizona does not free rap artist Earl Simmons (DMX) of the demons he feels plague him, he realizes his life may warrant more than just a change in geography.

"Many networks have wanted to do a show with 'X,' but he decided to go with us because we have been able to produce a show that exhibits who he really is," explains Tracey Edmonds, executive producer for Edmonds Entertainment. "One thing you'll notice immediately is how 'X' lets you completely into his world in a way that most artists won't. There is no vanity with him, no pretense, no self-editing; which in turn makes for a very entertaining, water cooler show that the viewers will appreciate."

DMX recently moved from Def Jam to Sony.

Not All Greeks Have Houses

Last semester, the seven historically black fraternities and sororities at the University of Virginia became united under the National Pan-Hellenic Council -- a national umbrella organization for historically black Greek letter organizations. University black fraternity presidents said being part of a uniform national council has made a world of difference to their organizations.

Historically black Greek letter organizations at the University have significantly fewer members than other fraternities and sororities on Grounds.

Only one NPHC fraternity has a house, in part due to small membership at the University.

Alpha Phi Alpha is the one black fraternity that has a house. Collins added that it is not an official fraternity house -- just an unofficial residence where a group of brothers live.

Read more.

For some, Krispy Kreme Paves the Road to Chris Brown

In the hit song, “Run It,” Chris Brown challenges a girl to hit the floor and show her best moves. But that’s exactly what he did when he hit the Crown Theatre stage Sunday night. More than 2,000 people attended the sold-out concert. And from the screams of teenage girls, Brown was worth the ticket price and the wait.…To raise money to see the singer that some are calling the next Usher the girls sold boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.…Whether he’s the next Usher is debatable, but parents who attended the concert said Brown’s music is something they feel comfortable with their children listening to.

Read the whole story.

According to MTV, Brown is in talks to join the cast of upcoming film Steppin'.

"It's like hip-hop dance meets, like, steppin' in college," Brown said, referring to the black fraternity and sorority dancing style Kanye West referenced in his Grammys performance in February. "My character will be a young brother of the lead character. I know a couple of other artists will be doing parts."

Reuters offers a reality check: Maybe, just maybe, in a year or two -- or five or six -- he'll start to reach his creative potential, which, with better material, could equal or even surpass his already healthy commercial achievements.

Case in point: The Xbox 360 Presents Chris Brown tour, produced by House of Blues made its way to House of Blues New Orleans where Chris took part in the ‘Game with Fame' session hours before he hit the stage. Read more.

MLK: Get into his head

Every year since 1992, DDB Seattle has created a public service campaign honoring MLK.

This year’s theme: Remember Segregation. The campaign includes a segregated newspaper ad in the Seattle Metro area, a segregated black-and-white direct mail piece sent to prominent public figures and local high school civics teachers and a segregated web site: www.remembersegregation.org.

White readers are instructed to read one side of the page and Colored readers the other. Whites are asked to enter a web site one way, while Colored surfers must enter differently. Whites can open their mail from one end, while Colored people must open it from the other.

Makes you think. Then, there are those jumping on the MLK bandwagon for change and social justice. Some rightfully so. Others not. Brand co-opting? Brand hijacking? Judge for yourself.

(Martin Luther King Day was declared a national holiday in 1986. And it’s still awaiting mainstream acceptance. I would think getting in sync with the “MLK” brand rather then riding on its running boards would serve all better in the long term.)

Here’s the range of what’s happening today, in honor of MLK, in no particular order:

• Airing on Lifetime: "For One Night," a drama inspired by a true story about a 12th grader (played by Raven-Symone) who risks her social and academic standing to end her high school's long tradition of racially segregated proms.
• Metro Detroit Habitat for Humanity affiliates -- Detroit, Oakland and Macomb counties -- in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International will host a preview build to launch Habitat's upcoming SuperBUILD, scheduled during Super Bowl XL. Their work provides permanent housing for hurricane-impacted evacuee families who have chosen to permanently relocate in those communities.
• Religious leaders from all over South Florida will unite in Miami on behalf of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) workers campaigning for decent wages, affordable healthcare and the freedom to join a union without fear. "As people of faith, we prayerfully support condo workers employed by the Continental Group and other companies as they seek fair wages, health care for their families, dignity on the job, and freedom to join a union without threats or punishment," Rev. Felipe de Jesus Estevez, Archdiocese of Miami.
• CIGNA Corporation is sponsoring the Philadelphia Orchestra's Annual Tribute Concert honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the 16th consecutive year. The community event will be held at the Martin Luther King High School in North Philadelphia at 7:30 p.m. This year's concert marks two big changes. The concert has been moved from the Kimmel Center to the Martin Luther King High School and will now be free to the public. Dr. King spoke at Philadelphia's Barratt—then a junior high school—in October 1967, just six months before his assassination.
• Washington, D.C. area sanitation workers, represented by Teamsters 639 and employed by the Temple Hills, Maryland branch of Waste Management, are charging that the profitable company is attempting to reduce the wages of some of the lowest paid employees and trying to eliminate the current pension plan. Their public pressure campaign begins today.
• Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced a partnership with the National Urban League (NUL) in which Sears will accept customer and associate contributions to advance the NUL mission of helping African American families. Beginning today, Sears will invite customers and associates to make donations at its 926 full-line, Sears Essentials and Sears Grand stores nationwide to benefit the National Urban League and its more than 100 affiliates nationwide.
• Full-figure retailer, Ashley Stewart will commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by donating five percent of each sale today to the Washington, D.C. National Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Project Foundation. The donation will help fund the creation of a monument in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the National Mall of Washington D.C.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be honored and celebrated when more than 10,000 New Yorkers march and rally for quality jobs and quality home health care in the nation's largest MLK Day event. New York's home health aides continue to be among the poorest paid workers in New York, barely earning $7 an hour with very few if any benefits of any kind. The home health aides have united with 1199 SEIU for their strength and voice.

Finally, in recognition of Black History Month, Thomson Gale, launched a site full of historical facts and figures, biographies, relevant Web links and teaching tools. Check it out.

      

The People vs. The People Meter

Since the early spring of 2004, Nielsen Media Research has spent more than $4 million to hire some of the nation's premier lobbyists to counter a savvy campaign conducted by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, a team of longtime Clinton strategists hired by the media conglomerate, and a coalition of black and Hispanic community leaders. Before 2004, Nielsen had not spent a dime on lobbying. Nielsen has also sprinkled more than $200,000 among minority organizations like the National Urban League, the National Council of La Raza, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Dragon Boat Festival in San Francisco, according to Nielsen officials.

Nielsen's wake-up call came in the early spring of 2004. The company, a division of the Dutch company VNU, was in the early stages of introducing a new way to measure local television audiences, and the system had just arrived in New York.

The technology, called local people meters, replaced set-top boxes and paper diaries, and offered advertisers and TV networks something they had never had before: detailed local demographic data every day of the year about who was watching which shows and in what numbers. Read more (NY Times)