Page 5 - HCMO-2018

Hispanic CMO, presented by López Negrete Communications 2018 Edition
attention, energy and action around being fair in how we choose our media partners. This diversity and equality issue surfaces from time to time, and it is important that we remain cognizant of unfair treatment and not let it let affect industry practices or societal perception. This is a great step toward raising the bar in the media community.”
But is the charter, which can be viewed here, enough?
Two university scholars with roots in the media buying world argue that discrimination is taking
place based on one simple fact: program genre.
New research published in the Journal of Advertising Research contradicts prior studies that the researchers believe undervalued multicultural audiences, leading to reduced spending within the ethnic broadcast media landscape.
It is the shared view of Dr. J.P. James of Salem State University in Salem, Mass., and Dr. Tyrha M. Lindsey-Warren of Baylor University in Waco, Tex., that requests for minority discounts for
Dr. J.P. James
ethnically targeted platforms is tantamount to discriminatory action.
Drs. James and Lindsey-Warren spoke to Hispanic CMO about their report, and first shared their respective backgrounds. James was an account executive at Young & Rubicam in the greater Los Angeles area from 1998-2002. For the following three years, he
was an Account Supervisor at Burrell, the leading African American
agency in the U.S. In 2005, he joined the New York office of UniWorld Group as Director of Strategic Planning. Two years later, he took the Brand Planning
Director job at GlobalHue. From 2009-2011, James was Director of Account Planning at SpikeDDB. That’s when he called it quits, and entered the academic world.
For Lindsey-Warren, a stint at UniWorld as Director of Public Relations was seen from 2010- 2012, following nearly six years at L.A.I. Communications.
James says, “Tyrha and I were both practitioners before we became academics. For me, it was always a challenge. Whenever marketers want to go after these ethnic groups, there is often little thought and a knee-jerk approach. You need Black audiences? Go to BET and TVOne and call it a day.”
But, if one were to think rationally, ethnic audiences don’t solely tune to BET or TVOne, nor to Hispanic audiences only tune to Univision and Telemundo. “Obviously we live in a real world where we are exposed to many different types of programming.”
Dr. Tyrha M. Lindsey-Warren