And Now, a Job From a Sponsor

Derrell Angelo knew that she absolutely, positively had to find a better way to make a living than by listening to earfuls of customer complaints at Federal Express.

No doubt a master’s degree in negotiations management qualified her for the job. But her undergraduate degree was in advertising--and that’s what the African-American resident of Lawndale always wanted to do. Yet at 27, she had all but given up hope of an ad career.

“I spent two years going door to door looking for an advertising job,” Angelo said. “It didn’t work.” But today--less than one year later--Angelo is an assistant media buyer at DDB Needham, one of the largest ad agencies in Los Angeles. What happened? In a word: progress.

With the city of Los Angeles on edge--awaiting a verdict from the racially charged Rodney King civil rights trial--the local advertising industry can, for the first time, point to some tangible signs of progress in minority employment. It is sorely needed. Ad executives estimate that minorities account for fewer than 5% of the skilled jobs at Southern California ad firms--and hold less than 2% of the management and creative posts.

But just four months before the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Jay Chiat, arguably the West Coast’s top ad man, gave $100,000 of his own money--and another $100,000 of his agency’s money--to found the Minority Advertising Training Program. Chiat declined to return phone calls for this story. But since the program began, it has sent 79 minority interns to local agencies--13 of whom have been hired full time. Among the people who found jobs through the program: Angelo.

While the gains are tiny, agency executives point out that if every industry in the area did the same, several hundred thousand additional young minority members could be linked with the area’s mainstream employers. And ad executives note that their very survival dictates that they assemble diverse work forces tuned in to trends popular among an array of consumer niches.

“The number of minorities in the ad industry in Los Angeles doesn’t come close to reflecting the diversity here,” said Ester Ramirez, executive director of the job placement program, which is co-sponsored by the Western States Advertising Agencies Assn. and the Advertising Club of Los Angeles.

The program is operated out of ad agency Chiat/Day’s headquarters in Venice. Deadline for applications for the group’s 13-week summer internship program is April 30. Interns are paid $200 weekly for 30-hour workweeks.

But money for the program is fast being depleted, and sponsors say that after this summer they will need to find additional funds.

Minority advertising hiring is particularly abysmal in Southern California. “We are way, way, way behind in hiring people of color,” said Joe Muse, chairman of the minority-owned Los Angeles ad firm Muse Cordero Chen. “Most of the agencies on the West Coast are homogeneous enclaves of white people--with a few Asians sprinkled in. That creates a situation where we don’t understand the values and interests of the people who buy the products.”

Change may be coming. One agency, DDB Needham/Los Angeles, eventually hired three of its four minority interns into full-time posts. “I call it fair play,” said Alan Pando, president of the agency’s western division. Pando, who was raised in Argentina and whose father is Peruvian, said he may be a little more sensitive to minority hiring than most ad executives. “We did not create jobs for them. These are jobs that had to be filled.”

Angelo was an intern at the agency for four weeks before she was offered a full-time post. She now buys TV advertising ad time for clients such as Universal Pictures.

But things don’t always work out so nifty for the interns. Manuel Gonzalez--who was a minority intern at DDB Needham--was also hired by the agency, where he worked in print production. But when one of the agency’s big clients switched its account to another DDB office, Gonzalez was laid off along with some other employees. “That’s a part of the ad business,” Gonzalez said. “You have to be flexible.”

Top ad executives note that the program helps the agencies as much as the interns.

“This program is not charity,” said Brian Morris, chairman of Western States Advertising Agencies Assn. and general manager at the ad agency Dailey & Associates. “We’re only helping ourselves to get better by having a more ethnically diverse industry.”

Indeed, Dailey has also taken on several minority interns. And less than three months after Rose Bush, a 26-year-old African-American, was brought on as an intern, she was hired full time as a research assistant.

Bush, who has a degree in journalism from Cal State Northridge, helps gather and analyze research on consumers, “from what colors they prefer to what they like their deodorant to smell like,” she said.

Bush says other agencies could help themselves by hiring minority interns.

“As advertising budgets shrink, companies are increasingly targeting individual market segments--including people of color,” Bush said. “But if agencies don’t have people of color on their staffs, such actions can appear to border on exploitation.”

A growing number of agencies agree with that assessment. And that’s why one national ad group, the Washington-based American Advertising Federation, has recently hired a consultant to put together a program--on a national scale--similar to the Los Angeles project.

“It’s not just a social issue anymore--it’s an economic issue as well,” said Beverly Steele, who helped set up the Los Angeles training program and is now consulting for the AAF. The national program will eventually attempt to interest minorities in the ad trade by sponsoring ad competitions for minority youths in middle schools and high schools.

Said Steele: “We at least want to make more minority kids aware that the career exists.”

Briefly . . .

Space Marketing Inc., the Roswell, Ga.-based firm that put an ad for the film “Last Action Hero” on the side of a rocket, now says it is seeking a major advertiser to put its name on a mile-long billboard visible from space as it orbits Earth. . . . After a strained, two-year partnership, Paul Keye has left the Venice agency Livingston & Keye, where he was chairman, but will continue consulting on anti-smoking ads for the California Department of Health Services.

Minority Programs at Ad Agencies Minority internship programs are relatively new to the advertising industry. At least two national minority training programs are underway, and a third is being established this year. Here are the major players: Minority Advertising Training Program Sponsor: Chiat/Day, Western States Advertising Agencies Assn., Advertising Club of L.A. Types of jobs: Various posts at ad agencies, radio and TV stations, production companies Number of jobs available annually: 80 (13-week internships year-round) Requirements: Must have a legal work permit Pay: $200 per week Deadline to apply for next available slots: April 30, 1993 Contact: Ester Ramirez, program coordinator; Minority Advertising Training; c/o Chiat Day, 340 Main St.; Venice, Calif. 90291; (310) 314-5996 Minority Advertising Intern Program Sponsor: American Assn. of Advertising Agencies Types of jobs: Agency jobs (copywriter, artist, media planning, research, account planning) Number of jobs available annually: 42 (10-week summer internships) Requirement: Must be U.S. citizen and enrolled in university at time of application Pay: $300 per week (undergraduate students), $450 per week (graduate students) Deadline to apply for next available slots: Jan. 15, 1994 Contact: Karen Proctor, vice president of development; American Assn. of Advertising Agencies; 666 3rd Ave.; New York, N.Y. 10017; (212) 682-2500. Minority Advertising Planning Program Sponsor: American Advertising Federation Description of program: The program is still being devised but could be off the ground later this year. It will focus on reaching out to middle school and high school students, but will also involve college students. Contact: Mary Ellen Woolley, vice president, education services; American Advertising Federation; 1101 Vermont Ave. NW, Suite 500; Washington, D.C. 20005; (202) 898-0089.