The end of tokenism?

By Gonzalo López Martí – creative director, etc etc     / LMMiami.com

“People rarely change when they see the light. People change when they feel the heat.”
Anonymous

• The token Latinos in the room are taking over.
• The folks whose role was to smile and acquiesce sheepishly in order to afford a veneer of diversity to business as usual in corporate America are starting to make themselves heard.
• There are dozens of examples out there but let’s focus on Madison Avenue.
• After a serious shake-up not one but two Latinos have been promoted to run Saatchi’s emblematic NY office.
• A she and a he.
• More and more minorities are climbing up to leadership positions.
• For a number of reasons.
• It is not that white Protestant straight monolingual males suddenly became magnanimous, inclusive and egalitarian.
• No, no, no.
• It is a case of badly needed reinvention.
• Survival.
• Rugs are being pulled form under the status quo as we knew it.
• Madison Avenue is right at being nervous and overeager to shed its wrinkled pasty skin at a time when, for instance, disruptive new media outlets with purely digital DNA such as Vice or Buzzfeed create marketing campaigns and branded content for paying clients.
• Not to mention Facebook, Snapchat and Google.
• The elephants in the room.
• Thinly veiled yet full-fledged ad agencies.
• With a massive and wildly effective business model at that.
• Is marketing a zero sum game?
• Does growth in Silicon Valley mean, conversely, shrinkage in Madison Avenue?
• Who knows.
• In any case, the American business model based on growth growth growth might be over.
• There’s no more room to grow.
• Americans simply can’t drink a gallon of soft drinks a day.
• Let alone a gallon of coffee.
• We’ve seen the results: obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, tons of trash in the form of dubiously recyclable aluminum cans and plastic bottles.
• How bigger can our cars get?
• How much more made-in-China Walmart & Costco stuff can we store in our garages, sheds, pantries and closets?
• The big box logic is losing steam.
• It’s got to.
• Speaking of China, the only remaining pockets of growth are in emerging communities and emerging markets.
• Hence the appointment of “people of color” to higher managerial positions.
• To be sure, Madison Avenue felt the heat first and it is scrambling to change but diversity in Silicon Valley sucks (unless you are cheap engineering labor from India, that is).
• They don’t need to “change” yet.
• See, the only Latino entrepreneurs in Northern California seem to be the owners of landscaping companies.
• Hey, to judge by the manicured lawns in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Mountain View and surroundings they are doing a great job.
• To be continued next week.