Friday, July 22, 2011

Summer's Eve Controversial Ad Campaign

PHOTO: An clip from a commercial for a new product from Summer's Eve is shown.

In 1972, the late comedian George Carlin released an album that contained a skit called the Seven Words you Can't Say on Television. The skit contains the seven words, still pretty much considered obscene and not printable here. Carlin was pressing the idea of free speech and caused quite a controversy.

He was arrested after performing the skit live on stage and when he performed the skit on radio it became the basis for a case that wound up in the Supreme Court. There are few topics in our society that are as divisive as obscenity; one of them arguably is race. So, in light of a recent campaign for Summer's Eve dubbed "Hail to the V" (yeah, that "V") that are being called racist and sexist by many and borderline obscene by others; I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about racism, obscenity and advertising. Hide the children and hold on to your hats!

Watch The Summer's Eve Ad: "Hail to the V"

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/summers-eve-controversial-ad-campaign-stereotypes-racist-14116160

The ads in question were created by the Richards Group, an advertising agency based in Dallas that lists among its clients Bridgestone, Home Depot and Motel Six. There are three ads, each targeting a racial group. How do I know? Because in each ad there is a hand, ala Senor Wences and Johnny, but instead of horizontal to simulate a mouth, these hands are vertical to simulate a vagina. (OK, I know I've lost half of the readers just now -- but for the rest of you, stick with me, it gets worse.)

In an attempt to differentiate based on insights into each ethnic group, each spot suggests a slightly different rationale for using the products. The black hand explains to African American women that you spend a lot of time on the hair on your head, why neglect the hair down there while showing the drawing of a cactus. (Okay, I've lost my African American readers, let's move on.) The Hispanic hand starts off by saying "Aye, Aye, Aye" and then in a heavily accented voice mentions the "trashing the tacky leopard thong" -- need I say more? (Hasta luego Hispanic readers) The Caucasian hand starts off by welcoming viewers with a hearty "Hello from Vagina Land". (Please! Dear reader, come back next week)

As my mother would say when I just went off the deep end: "Have you lost your mind?" Okay, that's enough about the ads because we want to spend some time addressing how ads like these get produced. One look at the portfolio of the Richards Group and you realize they are a very talented agency whose work has given us a lot of pleasure and likely sold a lot of product for their various clients. So what caused them to miss by a nautical mile with this campaign?

You have to first understand there is a battle being waged in the advertising industry. It is about race, demographics and representation. But above all, it is about money.

Large advertising agencies are powerful fiefdoms that largely control the advertising spending for the major corporations in the United States and abroad. The industry, in people, is relatively small, about 172,000 and overwhelmingly white. (To my last four readers, the going really gets tough from here) With virtually no representation from people of color in the management ranks of the industry, the proper filters don't exist to create advertising that has the right balance of insight and information to credibly speak to the growing percentage of the population that is ethnic.

That's why you see so many black, Hispanic and Asian stereotypes in ads. There are very few black, Hispanic and Asian chief creative officers to say: "Hell, no!" The singer Nat King Cole had a critically acclaimed variety show in the '50s that died for lack of advertisers, prompting Nat to exclaim, "I guess Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

There is a different problem now. Advertisers for the most part want to -- need to -- sell to everyone. They have created budgets and initiatives to reach consumers that are best reached with cultural relevance. The problem is they too often spend those budgets with agencies that do not have the makeup within their ranks to develop credible advertising for these groups. Even if the work is written by a Hispanic copywriter, he still has to sell the work through a management system and many times a client as well who don't have the ability to judge its effectiveness or even appropriateness to an ethnic target.

So in the end you have an ad that can be perceived to be racist, sexist and tasteless and the scapegoat will probably be the female product manager who in this case was working with what she had. Advertisers: It should not be acceptable for you to have agencies that get A's for creativity but failing grades for insight. Make your agencies prove they have cultural competence and are representative all the way through the management ranks particularly at the sign-off levels. Or, risk alienating your target consumer or embarrassing your company with major gaffs like this one.

This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.

Larry Woodard is a director on the Advertising Week board and chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' New York Council.

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3 Races of Dolls Required at All Day Care Centers?

The state of Colorado has proposed a long list of new regulations for day care centers, including a requirement that they provide dolls of at least three different races (not to mention other rules governing issues that include the amount of juice and snack served, and providers' shoulder coverage).

Some child care providers in the state aren't too happy about it. One day care owner told a local news station why she's against the proposal: "They are infringing on a lot of our rights. [...] We're not giving parents a choice. We're not giving children a choice. We're not giving caregivers a choice."

We'd hope that day care providers would want to make doll choices reflecting what the country actually looks like. Really, why wouldn't you? And is it that hard? But we all know that that's not where inclusion and equality begin or end. (Remember the Kenneth Clark doll study, which has been re-created in recent years? Most of those black kids didn't seem particularly inspired by the black doll. In fact, other parts of their experience in the real world made them dislike it.)

And any discussion of race and ethnicity issues in the context of playtime feels almost silly, given the ongoing educational disparities faced by kids of color in this country.

As this story develops, we predict a sideshow of a debate about the government "infringing on rights," and a backlash against multiculturalism that distracts from real issues of equality that have nothing to do with the toy corner.

Studies map key spots on African Americans' genomes

The first detailed maps of the places where DNA is likely to be reshuffled in their genomes provide a tool to help find genes that cause disease.

The knowledge will help researchers uncover the genetic underpinnings of illness in all people but particularly in African Americans. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune / MCT)

By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

Two independent research teams have used a new method to develop the first detailed maps of the places where DNA is likely to be reshuffled in the genomes of African Americans, creating a tool that will help find genes that cause disease, scientists reported Wednesday.

The new maps pinpoint thousands of "hot spots" on chromosomes where recombination — a gene-swapping process that is crucial to creating genetic diversity but is sometimes linked to disease — is likely to occur.

The knowledge will help researchers uncover the genetic underpinnings of illness in all people but particularly in African Americans, said Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich, the senior author of a study published online by the journal Nature. To date, medical genetics studies have focused almost exclusively on people of European descent.

"African Americans have a unique gene structure," he said. "If they're not studied, we won't find the genes that cause disease."

Reich's team, co-led by University of Oxford statistician Simon Myers, looked at DNA data collected from 29,589 unrelated African Americans who had participated in various genetic studies around the U.S. With so many subjects, Reich said, the map is the most accurate available for any population.

The team found about 2,500 hot spots that were active inpeople of West African descent but scarce among Europeans.

The second team, led by UCLA geneticists, looked at DNA from 2,864 African Americans and African Caribbeans and also found significant differences from European DNA. The UCLA researchers published their results online in the journal Nature Genetics.

To construct the maps, both teams took advantage of a unique characteristic in African Americans: Their genes are a relatively recent blend of European and West African DNA.

Reich likened the blending of genetic heritages to editing film.

Individuals produce eggs or sperm containing long sections of DNA from each of their parents. Much like reels of film, those sections are cut and spliced together. The splices are the locations where recombination occurs.

Since the mixture of African and European DNA in African Americans has taken place over just six generations, on average, each person's reel of film has only broken up a handful of times.

That leaves "a mosaic of large, unbroken chunks of genetic information" in African Americans' genes, Reich said. The scientists compared those long chunks to known sequences of African and European DNA and figured out where the recombination hot spots were located.

In populations where genetic mixing took place further in the past, such as South Asians, the DNA has been cut and spliced more times, Reich said. This results in smaller chunks of genetic information that are too short to compare to reference genomes.

In such populations, scientists building recombination maps will have to rely on the same methods used in Europeans. These include comparing an individual's DNA to that of his or her relatives to figure out where recombination has occurred.

UC Davis geneticist Graham Coop, who was not involved in either study, praised both for their statistical elegance. "What's nice is the replication," he added. "You're getting two groups independently coming to similar conclusions."

The human genome is more than 99% identical in humans of all backgrounds. But, Coop said, "there are some differences — and those differences are biologically interesting."

Until now, scientists have had to rely on maps built with DNA from people of European descent. Having more-accurate maps for African Americans should help scientists plot the genes that cause them to develop diseases — both common conditions like heart disease and cancer, as well as yet-to-be-identified ailments that are unique to the group.

"More and more we're appreciating the importance of diversity in doing medical studies," said UCLA geneticist John Novembre, coauthor of the smaller study. "It's not always a one-size-fits-all approach."

Both Reich and Novembre said they would next like to map the recombination hot spots in Latinos, who have a mix of European, Native American and African ancestry, stretching back about nine generations.

eryn.brown@latimes.com

The Good Ol’ Days of 20 Years Ago

Nickelodeon/Viacom

Kel Mitchell, left, and Kenan Thompson of "Kenan & Kel," which ran in the 1990s.

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By BRIAN STELTER

Are 18- to 34-year-olds too young to be nostalgic?

Evidently not.

Starting next Monday, TeenNick, part of the Nickelodeon family of cable channels for children, will start rebroadcasting old series from the 1990s that are considered classics by young adults. That's right: classics from the 1990s.

That generation, after all, represents some of the original children of Nickelodeon. The channel says it is responding to the demands of former viewers who joined Facebook groups about the shows - and to the suggestions of some of its interns, who pulled together a presentation last summer to pitch the programming block.

The repeats will run between midnight and 4 a.m. under the title "The '90s Are All That," a reference to one of Nickelodeon's most popular shows in that decade, "All That." That sketch comedy show (1994 to 2005) is one of the first to be featured in the block, along with the sitcoms "Clarissa Explains It All" (1991 to 1994) and "Kenan & Kel" (1996 to 2001) and the cartoon "Doug" (1991 to 1994).

The channel says that Facebook feedback will influence which other shows it rotates into the block. Research has convinced Nickelodeon executives that the Web - a repository of cherished childhood memories - "is allowing young people to be nostalgic, probably sooner than other generations," said Cyma Zarghami, the channel's president.

That rings true to Kenan Thompson, a star of "All That" and "Kenan & Kel" and now a "Saturday Night Live" cast member, who said in an interview, "Ever since I left Nick in 2000, it's been like a daily thing: 'Are they going to bring the shows back?' "

Mr. Thompson, who has filmed commercials for TeenNick about the '90s comeback, added, "It's an absolute compliment that people want to see that era again."

The '90s block on TeenNick is a bit like "Nick at Nite," the prime-time and overnight programming block that made its debut on the main Nickelodeon channel in 1985 and became known for repeats of sitcoms like "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Bewitched." The difference this time is that Nickelodeon is recycling its own shows.

Ms. Zarghami said in an interview last week that viewer interest in the repeats had been "bubbling up" for four to five years, largely on the Internet, where Nickelodeon noticed nostalgic blog posts and YouTube videos.

The videos are notable because Nickelodeon's parent, Viacom, sued YouTube in 2007, asserting widespread copyright infringement of its content; a judge dismissed the suit last year. Asked whether Nickelodeon had been inspired by seeing clips of its old shows on YouTube, Ms. Zarghami said, "It wasn't so much about our stuff, it was their take" on it - homemade homages like "one guy that sang a great rap song about wanting his old Nick back."

Facebook, too, had proof of the fan interest, in the form of the groups created by college students complaining that Nickelodeon had been much better when they were 12 or 13.

A group of Nickelodeon interns last summer added up the Facebook pages and groups and found then that there were nine million apparent fans of the old shows. (Now, Nickelodeon says, the total is up to 15 million.) During an annual opportunity that some interns are given to pitch programs or projects, the group presented the Facebook fan data and pitched a reruns block. Ms. Zarghami said the pitch influenced the eventual scheduling change.

TeenNick has dabbled in repeats once before: back when it was called Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids, or GAS for short, the channel ran old game shows. But when it was turned into a channel for teenagers and tweens in 2008, the old shows stopped. Unlike those repeats, the '90s block is "very specifically for fans that are not in the Nickelodeon demo."

For that reason, TeenNick is relying heavily on outside word of mouth about the programming block. Ms. Zarghami noted that for Nickelodeon, there is very little risk involved, because it already owns the shows that it is recycling, and it is doing so at a low-rated time of day for TeenNick.

If the classics cause a ratings increase, it's easy to foresee the '90s block's becoming as permanent as "Nick at Nite." When Ms. Zarghami returned to her high school in Englewood, N.J., for a presentation earlier this year, the questions, she said, were: "What happened to 'Hey Arnold!'? What happened to 'The Wild Thornberrys'? What happened to 'Legends of the Hidden Temple'? "

"I said, 'We're thinking about bringing all that stuff back,' and there was literally a resounding cheer in the room."

And the questions persisted, she said: "Are you going to include 'Rocko's Modern Life'? "

Ms. Zarghami said the network would continue to monitor comments and conduct polls on Facebook. "We'll have the audience pick where we go next," she said.

African-American Mother Faces More Jail Time than Drunk Driver Who Killed Her Son

Mother faces jail for killing son, four, after they crossed road in the wrong place - and he was struck by hit-and-run driver

By FIONA ROBERTS

A mother has been convicted of killing her four-year-old son after he died in a hit-and-run - because she and her children crossed the road in the wrong place.

Raquel Nelson, 30, could now spend more time in jail than the driver because she didn't use a crosswalk when she walked her three children over a busy street from a bus stop to their apartment in Marietta, Georgia.

As they crossed, a van ploughed into them, killing her four-year-old son and injuring Nelson and her youngest daughter.

Tragic death: Police cordon off a road in Marietta, Georgia, after a little boy was killed in a hit-and-run. His mother now faces jail for vehicular homicide

The driver, Jerry Guy, pleaded guilty and served six months in jail before being released in October to serve the rest of his five-year sentence on probation.

He already had two previous hit-and-run convictions before he drove into the little boy last April.

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On Tuesday Nelson was also convicted, after a jury found her guilty of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, crossing a roadway elsewhere than at a crosswalk and reckless conduct.

Driver: Raquel Nelson could spend more time in jail than Jerry Guy, who pleaded guilty to the hit-and-run

During the hearing, Nelson claimed she and her children were waiting on the median to cross the busy four-lane road when her son ran out into traffic.

Residents at the family's apartment block have long complained that the road is dangerous, saying the nearest crosswalk is half-a-mile away.

When she is sentenced on July 26, Nelson could be given as much as three years in jail.

Guy was released in October after spending six months in prison.

He confessed to having had 'a little' alcohol in the day, said he was on pain medication and was partially blind in one eye.

Guy had already served time in jail for two previous hit-and-runs, both on February 17, 199 - and one of which was on the same road as the incident last year.

Unscathed: Police lead away Nelson's eldest daughter, the only member of the family who wasn't injured in the hit-and-run

Complaints: Residents at Nelson's apartment building claim the four-lane road is dangerous because the nearest crosswalk is half-a-mile away

After knocking over one pedestrian he fled the scene, only to hit another car, injuring its driver and passenger.

His attorney said the little boy's death last year 'still affects [Jerry] to this day', the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

He added: 'It is tragic all around.'

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Educate black kids about obesity risks

Adrienne Hicks-Lillard, M.D.

Written by

Adrienne Hicks-Lillard, M.D.

ZOOM

Educating young African-American males, and their parents, about healthy eating and exercise are big steps toward battling obesity-related health problems and bad behavior as young adults. / McClatchy-Tribune

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Is your child going to be fat? Chances are that if your child is an African-American male from inner-city Davidson County, Tenn., the answer is yes.

African-American boys are considered the biggest threat to society. Today’s youth are overweight and under-exercised. They spend most of their days in school, doing homework, playing video games or surfing the Internet. There’s hardly any time during the day for exercise, except if participating in organized sports. Obesity is the second leading cause of disease in United States behind smoking. We must protect our youth and teach them early our expectations to prevent them from falling into temptations of bad behavior and poor health.

Who do you feel is to blame, the child or parent? Statistics prove it’s actually the parent. The National Institutes of Health and National Council of Negro Women did a study showing that parents are 77 percent to blame; eating fast foods at 9 percent; playing video games and watching television at 7 percent; with other factors and advertising at 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. So what do we do?

Performance Academy of Nashville (PAN) has researched and studied the behavior and comments from 10- to 14-year-old African-American males throughout Davidson County. They randomly selected inner-city youth of Nashville, and gave consent forms to parents and questionnaires to youth to answer about diet and exercise. Participants listed they ate three meals a day, plus snacks that included foods from each basic food group. PAN discovered even though parents included healthy eating options, the bulk of caloric intake came from fatty foods and sugary snacks throughout the day, either on-the-go or as quick meals.

Genetics plays a huge factor of obesity because some disorders are inherited and others are acquired by learning poor eating habits from family. The goal of PAN is teaching children and their families healthy eating options but also incorporating exercise into their daily lifestyle. PAN discovered while reviewing questionnaires that a majority of students don’t like to exercise, unless in activities they really enjoy. They also learned youth don’t believe eating fast foods cause obesity. PAN measured blood pressure, blood glucose, and waistlines of participants and diagnosed 50 percent of them as either borderline hypertensive, diabetic, or overweight. The majority of African-American males selected have families with hypertension and diabetes.

PAN’s mission is finding ways to fill the gap between being overweight and healthy. Their exercises will not only cause African-American males to lose weight, but lower their chances of acquiring hypertension and diabetes.

The first step is changing each student’s lifestyle with inclusion of more physical activity and reducing caloric intake to promote weight loss. These exercises will strengthen males and define their bodies. PAN educates youth about proper diet by introducing foods within each basic food group and explaining to their parents about appropriate food portions at meals throughout the day.

If you’re interested in learning about Performance Academy of Nashville or want to learn more ways to inhibit early-onset Hypertension and Diabetes in African-American males, please contact Dr. Adrienne Hicks-Lillard at adriennelillard@yahoo.com.

Dr. Adrienne Hicks-Lillard is clinical director of the Performance Academy of Nashville.

Slideshow: theGrio's 15 favorite music collaborations

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Joseph 'DJ Run' Simmons, Jason 'Jam Master Jay' Mizell and Joe Perry of Aerosmith backstage at HOB (Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

Everybody has their favorite artist, but there's nothing like a track that combines the best of the current talent out there all on one song. While some were just too good to be true and others were "alright", here's a look at those few that actually did manage to hit.

Twenty-five years after the genre-busting, all time classic "Walk this Way" cover of Aerosmith's 1986 hit by star rap group RUN-D.M.C. the collaboration remains alive and well. The rap game continues to dominate the field, with interesting and sometimes differing hits from "Straight Outta Compton" to "Self-Destruction". The R&B field was also strongest in the 90s with jams like "Not Tonight" (Ladies Night) and "I Wanna Be Down".

Current listeners may look to Kanye West, Jay-Z, or DJ Khaled for the best collaborations today. Whether your favorite collaboration is, genre-busting Walk This Way or Flava In Ya Ear or even All of the Lights, here's a look at the some of the best collaborations of the past 25 years.

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"Walk This Way" - RUN-D.M.C. feat. Aerosmith. This 1986 classic was revolutionary for it's time, bridging rap with rock to create one of the best songs of the 1980s. Fans of both genres loved it.

"Self Destruction" - KRS-One feat. D-Nice, Ms. Melodie, Stetsasonic, Kool Moe Dee, MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Just-Ice, Heavy D, and Public Enemy just to name a few. The song was part of a "Stop the Violence Movement" and directly targeted violence in hip-hop in the black community.

"Straight Outta Compton" - N.W.A. The song features Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, Krazy Dee, and DJ Yella and was one of the biggest rap hits of 1988.

"Flava in Ya Ear" - Craig Mack feat. Notorious B.I.G., Rampage, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhimes. Puff Daddy and Mary J. Blige were also in the video, which is still a classic to this day.

"I Shot Ya" - LL Cool J feat. Keith Murray, Prodigy, Fat Joe, and Foxy Brown. This 90s hit was fit perfectly into the hardening, East Coast rap scene and was quite popular.

"I Wanna Be Down" - Brandy feat. MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Yo-Yo. This collabo was so popular two music videos were shot and hit hit number 1 on the 1994 Billboard/R&B charts.

"Not Tonight" (Ladies Night) - Lil Kim feat. Missy Elliott, Angie Martinez, Da Brat, and Left Eye. Featured on 1997's Nothing To Lose soundtack, this song was truly a song for a girls with the hottest females MCs at the time with cameos by the hottest ebony actors at the time.

"4,3,2,1" - LL Cool J feat Method Man, Redman, Canibus, Master P and DMX bringing together some of the fresh talent of late 90s, LL Cool J had a more rap-centric hit on his hands in 1997.

"So Fly" - 213. Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G, created a West Coast group contributing some of the best songs of the early 2000s, but this remains out favorite.

"Guess Who's Back" - Scarface feat. Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Kanye West. Featured on Scarface's 7th album, this memorable track was a critical hit among fans of the genre.

"Touch It" (Remix) - R. Kelly feat. Mary J. Blige, Rah Digga, Missy Elliott, Lloyd Banks, Papoose, and DMX. R. Kelly knew he had a hit on his hand in summer 2006. The video featured an elaborate dance and step performance by kids and a hard verse by everyone featured.

"Us Placers" - CRS. Child Rebel Soldier was a "supergroup" of Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell and was wildly popular and hyped. Their debut song was listed as the best songs of 2007 by Rolling Stone.

"We Takin' Over" - DJ Khaled feat. Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Lil Wayne. Easily the summer hit of 2007, this song put DJ Khaled firmly at the center of the rap collaboration.

"Forever" - Drake feat. Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem. This was a rap collaboration which pitted four men, each given the title of "Best Rapper Alive" against each other to create the number 1 rap song of 2009

"All of the Lights" - Kanye West feat. Alicia Keys, John Legend, The-Dream, Drake, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, Elly Jackson, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, & Rihanna. This song used West's favorite vocalists and was the #2 rap song of 2011.