IMITATION BLACK

The Boomerang Effect

Movie character inspires one man to promote change in the advertising industry

Early last year, the NAACP, in conjunction with Washington, D.C.-based law firm Mehri & Skalet,  issued a sounding cry about the advertising industry: African Americans were grossly underrepresented. Sixteen percent of large advertising firms had no black managers or professionals, a rate 60% higher than in the overall labor market.

That finding came as no surprise to Lincoln Stephens. When the University of Missouri-Columbia graduate started his first advertising job at the Dallas-based agency TracyLocke in 2004, “I was one of only a few black males at a company of about 300 people,” he says.

The lack of African American advertising professionals has broad ramifications, says Janelle M. Carter, an associate with Mehri & Skalet. Last year, the law firm and the NAACP launched the Madison Avenue Project, which fights racial discrimination in the ad industry. “If ad agencies were more inclusive, they could take advantage of a broad ranging diversity in talent and greater creativity,” believes Carter. And so does Stephens.
After four years working in advertising, Stephens decided to channel his energy and expertise into helping the next generation of professionals by creating The Marcus Graham Project (www.marcusgrahamproject.org), a national initiative based in Dallas that provides training and mentorship to African American men in the advertising industry.

Named after Marcus Graham, the fictionial ad exec played by Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film Boomerang, the organization is designed to spark interest in the industry as the movie did for Stephens. “I remember seeing Boomerang, and there weren’t that many images of successful blacks in the media,” says Stephens, who is now 29. “The thing most prevalent in our country is advertising, but there aren’t a lot of places where one can get exposed to these careers.”

Last year, Stephens launched a boot camp, an 11-week program in which a team of African American men between 18 and 34 created real-world marketing and advertising campaigns. In last year’s inaugural run, the seven participants created campaigns for clients such as the City of Dallas and Los Angeles-based eco-friendly clothing manufacturer Broccoli City.  Besides the program, Stephens launched an online mentoring community (www.marcusgrahamproject.ning.com).  Today, the Internet forum boasts about 150 members who network, discuss industry trends, and share career advice. “Essentially, we’re building a strategic army to go out and lead,” say  Larry L. Yarrell II, a co-founding member of the program. “We’re preparing young men for a change in the industry and allowing them to use their raw talents to affect change.”

o fund the dream, Stephens relies on donations and personal savings. He shares office space with other media professionals to keep costs manageable, and boot camp participants used in-kind donations to produce their marketing campaigns. When the team needed to build a counter for a green awareness event, for example, they used leftover Styrofoam donated by a local construction facility. Stephens hopes the program’s initial

success will inspire larger donations since he’d like to offer boot campers stipends, and he estimates programming costs at $13,000 per participant. He’s also in the process of filing for 501(c)(3) status and choosing a board.
And although in the early stages, Yarrell says The Marcus Graham Project is gaining interest within the industry. “We’ve gotten calls from CEOs, young and old, who have heard or been affected by the program and they’re not just saying good job, but calling to see how they can be involved. It’s very positive. It’s very forward thinking.”
“You’re running full speed ahead, completing projects from start to finish,” says Quinton Wash of Dallas. After last year’s boot camp, the 25-year-old scored freelance advertising gigs from CBS Radio and TracyLocke, and this year he’ll create a Website for the upcoming play Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family.

Stephens aims to have The Marcus Graham Project serve as a breeding ground for companies seeking top talent. “Employers say, ‘I don’t know where to find diverse talent,’” Stephens says. “We’re giving them a place that they can go to see that we exist.”

This article originally appeared in the February 2010 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

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Healthy, public discourse: Where has it gone?

Listen to the story on NPR February 5, 2010

Katrina vanden Heuvel has been the editor of The Nation since 1995 and publisher since 2005. She is the co-editor of Taking Back America — And Taking Down The Radical Right and, more recently, editor of The Dictionary of Republicanisms.

"We live in a world that increasingly demands more dialogue than monologue." Those are words from the founding manifesto crafted and issued earlier this week by a diverse group of bloggers, commentators, techies and politicos, calling for more question sessions with the president and the opposition party. I am one of those, along with Grover Norquist, who signed on. Here's why: These are times when unfiltered, unfettered public debate — rigorous, substantive, candid and civil — are rare and hard to find. I believe that "Demand Question Time" will help us to nurture a smart and vibrant democracy.

Last week we witnessed a rare event — President Obama met with GOP House members, and their debate was as riveting as the best reality show. It made us all remember that political exchange can be compelling, even entertaining! This project will enhance civic engagement — the winners will be the American people. At a moment when so many lament our hyperpolarized politics, here's something to celebrate: a cross-partisan coalition of new/old media and political folks who may not agree on everything, but who do agree that we can do better when it comes to encouraging unfettered and unmoderated discussions and debates.

That's why, along with my colleague Grover Norquist, I'm hoping "Question Time" could become the Americana equivalent of the British version of "question time" in their Parliament. I am a believer that more open dialogue can only enhance our democracy.

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association and the American Conservative Union.

Katrina, one reason politics in the United States is so uninspiring and uninteresting is that it consists of long speeches by party leaders. Speeches allow one to go on and on at length, unchallenged, possibly inventing facts and certainly presenting only one side of the argument. In a debate, both sides make their case in real time. Debates are better than speeches; debates are competition. Speeches are monopolies. Debates are Macy's and Gimbels, roughing it up; speeches are the Department of Motor Vehicles. Notice that dictators like long speeches — there is no other side; there's no alternative view allowed. Debates are alive: Arguments are tested and honed. Debates, like the question time the British have in Parliament, promote politicians like Winston Churchill. Speeches get you politicians like George W. Bush and Barack Obama — and there are no teleprompters in the debates. Coaches and speechwriters — that works for politicians giving a public speech, but they do very little to prop up the incompetent in a debate.

This has happened in America: In the 1960s, Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan debated the Vietnam War. No one who saw that debate then, or on tape since, would have been surprised in later decades by Reagan's political abilities. He wasn't just a speech reader; he was an original thinker and a debater. This is why Katrina and I and many others are calling on President Obama and the Republican leaders in Congress to organize a regularly scheduled question time where the American people can watch our political leaders engage in debate, ask each other questions, and let us know what they're thinking and where they hope to take America.

I'd love to see more question time.