Constitutional Law

Study Shows Significant Racial Discrimination In Advertising Industry

A new study on the American advertising industry reveals major obstacles to advancement for African-American advertising professionals. The study by the research firm Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants for the Madison Avenue Project found that African-American advertising employees face discrimination in pay, hiring, promotions, assignments and other areas.

Overall the study reveals that racial discrimination is 38 percent worse in the advertising industry than in the overall U.S. labor market. According to the study African-American college graduates earn significantly less than their white counterparts, black managers are less likely to earn what their white counterparts do and that about 16 percent of large advertising firms employ no African-American managers or professionals.

The Madison Avenue Project was launched by a coalition of legal, civil rights and industry leaders in 2008. Cyrus Mehri, the Project leader and a founding partner of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, at a press briefing today called the study’s findings “absolutely astonishing in this day and age.”

More on the study is available here.  

Full post as published by ACS Blog on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).