DIVERSITY STUDY BLASTS AD INDUSTRY OVER SUPER BOWL ADS

A study prepared for an advertising industry diversity watchdog has found that the creative directors for 58 commercials broadcast during this year’s Super Bowl were overwhelmingly white males. The study, headed by Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, was prepared for the Madison Avenue Project aimed at fostering diversity in the advertising industry. It has filed complaints against ad companies with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The study found that 92 percent of the creative directors were white males, 7 percent were white females, and one was Latino (who was not an agency employee but the winner of a Doritos consumer contest.) As reported by Advertising Age, the TIDES news conference on Thursday was attended by Nancy Hills, head of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), who complained that TIDES has not sought to “have a conversation” with ad companies about the issue.