lifestyle MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017 FEATURES Failed Pepsi, Nivea ads show industry’s diversity problem

ecent high-profile advertising missteps by Pepsi and skin-care company Nivea underscored anew RMadison Avenue’s awkward relationship with racial diversity at a time when the United States is becoming less white. PepsiCo’s ill-fated “Moments” spot, featuring model Kendall Jenner, was quickly pulled with an apology after being vilified for trivializ- ing the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Nivea also apologized and withdrew an ad for a deodorant after A woman its “White is Purity” pitch was embraced by white walks towards supremacists. the entrance of Social media had a field day with the botched cam- The Summer of paigns, which seemed to suggest scant progress from Products are seen on display for sale at The Summer of Love Love the white male bubble of the 1960s depicted in the Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll, an art exhibit. Experience: popular television series “Mad Men.” “Between Nivea’s Art, Fashion, ‘white is purity’ ad and Pepsi’s ‘Black soda matters’ ad, I and Rock & think it’s time to open my ‘Ask a Black person’ consulting Roll, an art firm,” comedian Travon Free said on . In fact, data exhibit. shows a diversity deficit in a sector that both reflects The Summer and molds public sentiment. Only 4.1 percent of adver- tising industry employees in the country are African of Love Americans, well below their 13.3 percent of the overall Experience population. Latinos account for 12.3 percent of the Art, Fashion, and industry, compared with 17.6 percent of the population. Nearly half of respondents among advertising employees said the industry was “terrible” or “not great” at hiring diverse professionals, with another 25 percent describing it as “mediocre,” according to a survey released last September by the American Association Rock & Roll, an art exhibit of Advertising Agencies. The trade group’s outgoing president Nancy Hill made publicly calling out “racist and misogynistic behavior” her New Years resolution for 2017. “I have realized given the current climate in our country and our industry, that doing that privately is tantamount to condoning the behavior,” Hill said in a column on a marketing industry website. “Others involved need to know that this industry does not tolerate this kind of thinking and its resulting behavior any longer.” Some major advertisers, such as Verizon, General Mills and Hewlett-Packard have threatened to fire firms that aren’t diverse enough.

Pepsi misfires The demise of the Pepsi spot has especially pro- voked intense discussion throughout the industry. The company is led by Indian-born chief executive Indra Nooyi, a vocal proponent of diversity. A poll by PR Week showed 40 percent on respondents blamed the debacle on lack of diversity or diversity of thought, while 25 percent said it reflected an overzealous approach to attracting millennials and 13 percent blaming the fact that it was made by Pepsi’s in-house creative team and did not involve an outside firm. The spot follows Jenner as she is stirred from a fash- ion shoot by a handsome Asian cellist to join an unspec- ified but peaceful street protest with people of all eth- Juleano Wade (left) dances during The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and A man takes a photo of poster art during The Summer of Love Experience: Art, nicities, including African American street dancers. The Rock & Roll, an art exhibit, at the deYoung museum in San Francisco, California on Fashion, and Rock & Roll, an art exhibit at the deYoung museum. two-and-a-half minute short film culminates with April 06, 2017. The exhibit and event celebrates 50 years since the famed San Jenner handing a Pepsi to a handsome grinning police Francisco summer of 1967 that birthed activists, artists and a blossoming hippie officer, a move that draws wild applause from the movement. — AFP photos crowd, including from a hijab-wearing photographer who nods in agreement as she records the moment. The spot spurred instant ridicule, most witheringly from Bernice King, who posted a picture of her father, Martin Luther King, being apprehended at a civil rights by police. “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi,” King wrote on Twitter.

History repeating? Kelly O’Keefe, a professor of brand strategy at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the spot was shockingly heavyhanded in its constant hawking of cola. It reflected a “cloistered view of the world and dis- torted view of diversity,” he said, adding that the spot A woman walks towards the entrance. has dominated discussion in class this week. Jake Beniflah, executive director of the Center for Multicultural Science, thought the ad was a spoof when he first saw it because of the omnipresence of the product and in its creation of “utopian” world where every race is shown. “Perhaps they thought diversity on camera was enough, but obviously it wasn’t,” Beniflah said. “In fact, it backfired.” For Judy Davis, a marketing professor at Eastern Michigan University, the controversy stirred memories of Barbara Gardner Proctor, one of the women she profiled in her book, “Pioneering African A man walks by a sign at The Summer of Love American Women in the Advertising Business: Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll. Biographies of MAD Black WOMEN.” Proctor was fired in the 1960s from a large firm when she refused to work on a campaign that showed black women clam- oring in the street for a hair product. The ad was a The Summer tasteless allusion to the civil rights movement, she of Love said. “It was the same kind of trivialization of a serious Experience: social movement and taking that to promote some Art, Fashion, brand,” Davis said. “You would think in 2017 things and Rock & would be different. But here we are seeing some of the Roll, an art same problems that were present 50 years ago, and I exhibit, is seen think that’s pretty amazing.” — AFP Mannequins donning 1970’s garb are seen on display as part of A women looks at art pieces at The Summer of Love at the deYoung The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll, Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll, an art exhibit. museum. an art exhibit. Thousands pack Europe’s first VidCon for online stars

housands flocked to from to as YouTubers, and fans. Although small com- nected world people are craving those ele- around Europe this weekend to meet their pared to the 26,000 who travelled to Anaheim in ments. They’re craving engagement, and TV just Tonline video heroes and mingle with 2016, organizers said it was a good debut and doesn’t talk back to you.” young fans, eager to learn how they too can the crowd was three times larger than the first become a YouTube star. They were taking part in VidCon in the US eight years ago. The power of the first VidCon Europe, an off-shoot of VidCon “Authenticity” is the key to success for new Many of the stars use their platforms to help US set up in Anaheim, southern California, eight YouTubers, Gardner said. “These online video advocate for gay rights, greater equality or to years ago and now a hot venue amid an online stars, they’re not on script, they’re being them- end the stigma of mental illness. Founded by revolution. While such YouTube stars as Tyler selves.” “It’s like having a real good friend, who American author John Green-who wrote the Oakley, or may not be household talks to you every day.” bestselling young adult novel “Fault in our names to most, they have built up a huge fan Stars”-and his brother , VidCon is a base among children and young adults with TV doesn’t talk back forum for self-confessed nerds. Known online as their funny, often anarchic videos. YouTube’s biggest star, PewDiePie, was the , the two are now in their late Though sometimes dealing with serious absent amid a row over a few videos he posted 30s and describe their channel launched in 2007 issues, they are filmed mostly with a tripod or containing anti-Semitic remarks and Nazi refer- as “raising nerdy to the power of awesome”. “I webcam from their own kitchens or living rooms. ences. A 27-year-old Swede, real name Felix want kids to value passion and excitement, and Amsterdam is VidCon’s first foray out of the Kjellberg, he has 54.5 million online followers on not to disguise it through irony because people United States. Organizers are hoping it may the Google-owned service. He is also YouTube’s will think it’s lame,” John Green told an audience become an annual event, and are also looking top earner making roughly $14.5 million (13.6 in Amsterdam. towards the first VidCon in Melbourne, Australia, million euros) last year through revenue-sharing Starry-eyed fans not only get a chance to later this year. “The European place for online and sponsorships, according to estimates from meet their favorites, but can gather in meet-ups video is a few years behind the US one, but social media data firm NeoReach. Gardner said to hang out with others who share the same it is approaching it. Every day another kid fast technological advances and expanding interests. “I was always an oddball,” confessed starts a channel and wants to be famous,” bandwidth meant online video was an “equal Hailey Knox, a singer and YouNow star, hangs out in the Instagram lounge for talent at pink-haired British star Lizzie Dwyer, who as Michael Gardner, chief operating officer, told AFP. opportunity for everyone to have their voice VidCon, a convention for online video, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, LDShadowlady has amassed almost three mil- Some 3,500 people from as far as Latvia, Serbia heard, to tell their narrative.” California, June 23, 2016. — AFP lion followers, who watch her play and comment and Estonia trekked to Amsterdam for the three- Every VidCon “I see two people come togeth- sudden this bond forms.” Asked if television is between its stars and their audience such as on video games such as Minecraft. “But it’s great day event, where industry figures also mixed er, and they say, ‘Wait, you like this? I like this dead, Gardner joked: “I wish it was.” Online video comments, likes and dislikes, he said. “TV doesn’t there are people on YouTube who appreciate with creators, or video producers often referred too. I thought I was the only one’. And all of a was more active, involving engagement have those factors and in an increasingly discon- the weirdness about me.” — AFP