MultiCultClassics

7259: Looking For A Few Good Minorities.

2009-11-21T21:04:00.001-06:00

Actually, only one good minority is eligible to win a scholarship.

Keith Reinhard Scholarship of Excellence: Berlin School of Creative Leadership at Steinbeis University

A Creative CEO in Every Creative Business
For an agency to thrive in today’s ever-evolving global landscape, creative leadership must be at the core of the business. Yet, many talented creative executives ascend to top positions without the opportunity to hone the leadership and management expertise typically developed through more traditional business roles. The Executive MBA in Creative Leadership at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership equips creative leaders with the skills and sensibilities needed to effectively lead themselves, clients, partners, teams and the industry at large.

The EMBA Program
Run by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering creative leadership in business and operated in partnership with the School of Management and Innovation at Steinbeis University Berlin, the Executive MBA in Creative Leadership delivers superior leadership training for executives in creative industries including advertising, media, entertainment, design, journalism and marketing.

Designed for busy professionals, this part-time MBA program is built on Six Pillars of Creative Leadership:

• Leading Yourself
• Leading Business Partners
• Leading People
• Leading the Enterprise
• Leading the Product and Innovations
• Leading the Industry

These pillars are brought to life through five two-week modules spread over 12 to 24 months, depending on one’s study schedule. Three modules take place in Berlin, while an additional one is held in Asia and another in the United States. In each location, the school works with leading educational institutions to help give their country’s perspective on leadership and the creative industries. Each two-week module is designed to provide participants with effective tools that can be implemented immediately on the job. (For detailed information about the program’s pillars and modules, visit www.berlin-school.com.)

Program Requirements
In addition to formal classroom work, participants research and write a thesis of their own focused on challenging the status quo of communication today. The master’s thesis must be rigorous, original and have the potential to improve the quality and standards in an industry. Progress on thesis projects is reviewed by Berlin School faculty in each module, and upon program completion outstanding research is recommended for submission to leading journals or for other professional publication.

Over the course of the program, participants also work together in small teams on close analyses and action-oriented projects, aimed at developing a deeper understanding of leadership, strategy and organizational design in the creative industries.

Program Benefits
Executive MBA participants are exposed to a vast range of ideas, insights and lessons. Through the program participants will:

• Understand the complexity of their organization and how its various elements affect one another.
• Learn to formulate a vision, align their team(s) and implement plans successfully.
• Learn to build the proper structure and company culture that fosters innovation and creativity.
• Gain new insights and inspiration that will help them transform and lead themselves, their organization and their industry.

The Executive MBA program is already having a tremendous impact on the lives of alumni and participants, who have been been promoted to new positions such as chief executive officer, managing director or chief creative officer, and have won prizes for Agency of the Year or multiple Gold at festivals such as Golden Drum, Cannes Lions or Dubai Lynx.

Keith Reinhard Scholarship of Excellence
Through the Keith Reinhard Scholarship of Excellence, one multicultural advertising professional will receive full-tuition for the Executive MBA program (a $71,500 value). The scholarship is named in honor of advertising legend Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide and class “godfather” at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. Reinhard is one of several creative industry leaders who have donated their time and energy to this unique global program.

To be eligible for scholarship consideration, an applicant must be:

• Asian/Asian American or Pacific Islander, Latino/Hispanic, Black/African American, American Indian/Native American, Multiracial or Multiethnic (e.g., Hispanic and Black)
• A mid- to senior-level advertising professional with at least eight years of experience
• An employee of a 4A’s member agency
• A bachelor’s degree recipient

To apply for the scholarship, one must submit:

• The scholarship application form and essay
• The completed Executive MBA in Creative Leadership application form
• A current curriculum vitae
• A thesis proposal

The scholarship recipient will be selected based on professional and academic achievements, career objectives and leadership potential in his or her company and industry.

The next Executive MBA in Creative Leadership program begins in February 2010. To apply for the full-tuition scholarship, application materials must be submitted by Thursday, December 10, 2009.

7258: Brainless Seeks Noseless.

2009-11-21T19:16:00.002-06:00

Actual craigslist moron, meet Charla Nash.

missing nose model

Date: 2009-11-21, 3:01PM CST
Reply to: gigs-zyqvj-1476536801@craigslist.org

I need to photograph a person without a nose for a series of art photographs, not for the purposes of publication or advertisement. It is an odd request, I know, but I am willing to pay you the price of your asking.

7257: Suicidal Stereotypes…?

2009-11-21T15:44:00.003-06:00

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

‘Black people don’t commit suicide’
Social stigma helps to explain reaction to Michael Scott death

By Mark Brown Sun-Times Columnist

There’s an old saying in the African-American community, passed down from generation to generation, that goes a long way toward explaining some of what transpired here last week after the death of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott.

It goes like this: Black people don’t commit suicide.

“We’ve all heard that growing up,” acknowledged the Rev. Marshall Hatch, pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in West Garfield Park.

Not being an African American, count me among those who had never heard that stated before this week.

But it helped me understand the wide cultural disconnect that’s taken place in recent days as a large portion of Chicago’s black community has taken great umbrage with the initial finding that Scott committed suicide—a determination that only appears logical to most people on the other side of the racial divide.

The saying is not true, of course. Blacks do commit suicide, although they are much less likely to do so than whites.

The rate of suicide among blacks is about half the rate for the U.S. population as a whole. Up until the 1980s, the disparity was even wider with the black suicide rate at only one-fourth of the overall population’s.

The belief that African Americans don’t commit suicide may not be as much about statistics as about cultural identity.

It’s rooted in the concept that descendants of a people that survived the horrors of slavery—“the strongest of the strong”—would not choose to take their own lives, said Hatch. In that vein, “black people don’t commit suicide” is as much an admonition as a statement of fact.

One result is that the stigma that has long been attached to suicide across all cultures remains particularly strong in the African-American community, practically to the point of denial.

Don’t take my word for it. Just ask Donna Barnes, founder and president of the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide.

It’s something she’s been dealing with ever since she started her organization 11 years ago in response to an anomaly that saw the suicide rate among young black males spike during a three-year period in the 1990s, suddenly equalling that of young white males. It’s since dropped back down, although Barnes is among many who believe black suicides are underreported.

African Americans have difficulty believing one of their own has committed suicide “because that’s not something we have been socialized to accept,” said Barnes, a sociologist at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

“It makes us look like we are weak,” she said.

On the other hand, “the dominant culture is very much aware of suicide,” Barnes said. “They talk about it. They seek help.”

Let’s stipulate right here that the “dominant culture” has a long way to go, too, in dealing with suicide, but it’s true whites have started talking more openly about suicide. That makes a big difference.

Barnes said that when a prominent member of the black community like a Michael Scott dies under these circumstances, people are shocked. That shock often translates into a sense of disbelief.

She said she has seen the same reaction many times in other situations across the country.

“They can’t process it, so they deny it,” Barnes said. “… They’ll say, ‘Oh, it was foul play. Oh, it was murder.’”

I would emphasize that Barnes was making no judgment on the Scott case, which she has followed only from a distance, although she said everything she has read is consistent with what she has seen in other suicides—including the absence of some obvious explanation for why Scott would have killed himself.

Last week, a group of ministers and community activists held a news conference to demand an outside investigation into Scott’s death. Some of them went so far as to call his death a murder, a most irresponsible accusation in my opinion given the facts as we know them.

I was surprised to hear that Hatch was among those in attendance, having always found him to be responsible and forthright in his community activism.

In our phone conversation, Hatch sought to distance himself from the murder allegation, saying he only wants an outside investigation “to clear the air” because of doubts and fears in the black community created in part by the early public clash between Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner.

I suggested another approach might have been to clear the air about black suicide. He didn’t dispute that.

“There’s a social stigma [about suicide] in the black community, if we’d be honest about it,” Hatch said.

That’s always a good place to start.

7256: What’s Happening?

2009-11-20T10:57:00.000-06:00

Rerunning the news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Twitter has changed its format to ask, “What’s Happening?” Looks like another example of Whites hijacking Black culture. Roger and Rerun deserve royalty payments.

• Oprah announced plans to end her show in 2011 and start her own cable network, inspiring intense speculation over a potential successor. The list of contenders confirms a cold reality: there is no talent on daytime TV.

• AOL announced plans to dump one-third of its workforce. Ex-employees with cable experience are encouraged to forward their resumes to Oprah.

• Philip Morris was ordered to pay $300 million to an ex-smoker in Florida. Break out the celebratory cigars.

• A dad in Minnesota claims he originally taught his son to speak Klingon when the kid was 3 years old. The son is now 15, and probably wants to plunge a Daqtagh into his old man’s heart.

7255: Racial Recession.

2009-11-19T22:27:00.001-06:00

From The New York Times…

A Racial Divide Is Bridged by Recession

By Shaila Dewan

McDONOUGH, Ga. — During the housing boom, Henry County, a suburb of Atlanta, had its share of racial tension as more and more blacks joined the tens of thousands of others pouring in, creating a standoffish gap between the newcomers and the county’s oldtimers.

But the recession has begun to erase those differences.

Blacks and whites have encountered one another in increasing numbers recently in the crowded waiting rooms of the welfare office and at the food pantry, where many of both races have ventured for the first time. Struggling black-owned businesses are attracting the attention of white patrons. Neighbors are commiserating across racial lines.

At the Division of Family and Children Services, Keasha Taylor, 36 and black, helped explain the system recently to a white mother. Ms. Taylor, who was there because her family had been evicted, told the mother, who was in line for food stamps, that a child with acute asthma might be eligible for Social Security.

“Right now, a lot of white people are in this situation,” Ms. Taylor said, recalling the conversation later. “We’re already used to poverty; they’re really not.”

Denese Rodgers, the county director of social services, who is white, has held several lunch meetings at A J’s Turkey Grill, owned by Diane Walker, a black woman, in hopes of helping business.

“It was in one of our abandoned strip malls, a forlorn looking kind of place, but when you walk in, it’s just pristine,” Ms. Rodgers said. “She’s doing everything right, it’s just not full.”

Peggy Allgood, a 54-year-old black woman who lost her job and four-bedroom house and is now living in a trailer park, said she had noticed the recession obliterating racial differences up and down the economic scale.

“It’s gotten to the point where everyone I talk to, their hours have been cut, their jobs have been cut,” Ms. Allgood said. “My neighbor, she’s white, she’s trying to find a job. She hasn’t had any luck.”

The recession hit Henry County, for years one of the nation’s fastest growing areas, at a time when it was already struggling to come to terms with startling demographic change. In 1990, the county was almost 90 percent white. Now, as its population has more than tripled to 192,000, according to 2008 census estimates, the white percentage of the population has shrunk to 60 percent.

The county’s elected government is still all white and Republican, and some leaders and newcomers alike have tried in various ways to make local board and governments more diverse. But nothing else has worked to remove barriers as quickly as economic hardship.

“There used to be a lot of racial tension here, but everybody knows that we need each other to survive this recession,” said Eugene Edwards, the president of the Henry County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “People now, they seem to be starting to care for one another.”

Once fueled by construction, the county has been left by the recession with a blighted crop of abandoned white utility hookups, meant for new subdivisions, sprouted in the woods.

Last year, the Chamber of Commerce took a multiracial group of leaders to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but such officially sponsored efforts at bonding have slowed.

“The recession has pretty much tied folks down to survival mode,” said Steve Cash, the executive director of the Henry Council for Quality Growth, who is white. “A lot of things that were happening before aren’t happening now.”

And a lot of things that were unheard of before are happening now. Women in Jaguars pull up to the local food pantry, and former millionaires hunker down in grand, unsellable homes.

One reason blacks have not gained more political power is that they are not heavily concentrated in any single area in the county — the cul-de-sacs carved out of farmland and pastures in the last decade became racially mixed enclaves for the upwardly mobile. Now, the foreclosure notices and uncut lawns in those same subdivisions reinforce the notion that everyone is in the same sinking boat.

Statistics also suggest that the recession’s burden is falling with similar force on both races. In June 2006, 55 percent of the families receiving food stamps were black, and 44 percent were white. Those percentages remain the same today, although the size of each group has increased by about 50 percent.

Unemployment claims follow that pattern: in January 2008, 49 percent of those who filed for unemployment were white, and 45 percent were black. In August 2009, 49 percent were white, and 48 percent were black.

Across the country, there have been many reports about the recession’s racial divide, as blacks have lost their jobs and houses at far higher rates than whites. But Henry County, about a 30-minute drive south of downtown Atlanta, has a very different profile from the rest of the nation. In Henry, the median income of black families, $56,715 in 2008, approaches that of whites, $69,728 (nationally, the average income gap was $20,000). Blacks in Henry County, many of whom are retirees from the North or professionals who work in Atlanta, are more likely than whites to have a college degree.

That does not mean that Henry County is a perfect laboratory of equality. Blacks made up a disproportionately high number of those seeking government assistance both before and after the slowdown. Since 2006, the number of blacks on Medicaid has more than tripled, outpacing the increase among whites.

And as in the rest of the country, blacks in Henry were more than twice as likely as whites to take out risky sub-prime mortgages, meaning more black families than white are struggling to keep their homes.

Keith and Kenya Rucker, who are black, recently declared bankruptcy in an effort to keep the home they bought for $155,000 with an adjustable-rate mortgage when they had two incomes, before Mr. Rucker lost his job as a restaurant manager. Both said they could not rely on family members for help with their ballooning payments.

“I’m not racist, but it’s harder for black men,” Mr. Rucker said, as his wife huddled with their 8-year-old daughter, KéUnica. Mr. Rucker, who is from Orlando, Fla., echoed many experts who say that middle-class blacks have fewer resources, either financial or social, to fall back on if they get into trouble. “Where I’m from,” he said, “every friend that I had is a drug dealer, locked up, on drugs or dead.”

But Dennis and Jenny Duncan, a white couple who once owned millions of dollars in real estate assets as former developers, felt equally stymied. Interviewed in the lavish home they built for themselves, they said the sheriff had just come to call and told them their belongings would soon be seized to satisfy debts. Unlike Ms. Rucker, neither has a college degree, making work difficult to find.

The idea that the recession is an equalizer has become accepted in Henry County. Both black and white residents were hesitant to say that either race had taken a greater hit. But Ms. Taylor, the black woman who dispensed advice at the county food stamp office, said there were some notable distinctions between blacks and whites.

“They’re a little weaker than we are at handling things like this,” she said, adding without rancor, “but I know they get more sympathy than we do.”

7254: The Going Rate for Digital Writers.

2009-11-18T21:30:00.004-06:00

This actual craigslist ad seeks a digital writer who is brilliant, capable of creating catchy content and ready to collect up to $9.00 for services rendered. Seems a little high for a digital writer.

marketing copy writer (anywhere)
Date: 2009-11-18, 10:11AM CST
Reply to: gigs-r554k-1471136604@craigslist.org

I am looking for someone who is good in internet copywriting. I do internet marketing and need someone to write for me: articles, website content correction and reformatting, writing short email auto responder ads, marketing ads, etc. (mostly correcting and reformatting my poor writing creations).

As you can see this is not a racket science, but I am looking for someone brilliant, who can come up with catchy content for my marketing projects, and website content as well. I am on the tight budget, but I don’t want you to work for free. I will pay you cash. I think best would be if we could meet at Starbucks and talk about the details. At this moment this is just going to be occasional writing gig, but if my marketing takes of, it might create steady part/or full time job for you. If you think this is something that you could do well? Please let me know …At this moment I could pay about $8-9 cash, I know I know it is not much, but I am struggling just like most of us right now.

John P

7253: Supreme Court Laterals Redskins Case.

2009-11-17T08:30:00.001-06:00

From The Washington Post…

Court won’t hear Redskins case
Justices decline to review ruling on team nickname

By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer

A nearly two-decade legal challenge by Native American activists to the nickname of the Washington Redskins came to a close Monday when the Supreme Court declined to review the group’s last loss in federal courts.

The justices declined without comment to reconsider a lower court’s ruling that the activists waited too long to bring their assertion that the nickname is so racially offensive that it does not deserve trademark protection.

“Obviously, we’re quite pleased; it’s been a long road,” said Robert Raskopf, a lawyer for the team since the suit was first filed in 1992. “We’re not surprised the court didn’t see any issue worthy of review.”

Philip Mause, who represented the challengers, said the activists were “disappointed” by the court’s decision but not yet resigned to accept defeat. A new group of challengers has filed the same trademark cancellation suit in hopes that their slightly different circumstances can avoid the procedural bar that halted this case.

Raskopf said the team is not worried about the new complaint. “I think we’re very confident with our likelihood of success,” he said.

Through the years, the team has steadfastly defended the use of the Redskins nickname as honoring Native Americans, not disparaging them. When based in Boston, the team was known as the Boston Braves and was renamed in 1933 as the Redskins. The team said in its brief to the court that the new name was “in honor of the team’s head coach, William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz, who was a Native American.”

The team became the Washington Redskins in 1937, when it moved south.

Native American groups have persuaded scores of high school and college teams to rename their mascots. The National Congress of American Indians told the justices in a friend-of-the-court brief that the Redskins name is “patently offensive, disparaging, and demeaning and perpetrates a centuries-old stereotype.”

But despite vociferous protests, the team has not budged. Under both former owner Jack Kent Cooke and current owner Daniel Snyder, Raskopf said, there has never been “even a whisper” about changing the nickname.

For the most part, though, the battle has been fought on the more mundane grounds of legal procedure, and even a victory by the activists would have cost the team only trademark protection and would not have forced it to abandon the name.

The battle began in 1992 when seven activists, led by Suzan S. Harjo, challenged Redskins trademarks issued in 1967. They won a decision seven years later from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which said the name could be interpreted as offensive to Native Americans.

Trademark law prohibits registration of a name that “may disparage … persons, living or dead, … or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.”

Pro-Football Inc., the team’s corporate owner, appealed to federal court.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided with the team, ruling that the activists had not produced enough evidence to show the name was so insulting that it could not be protected by a trademark. She also said the trademark-cancellation claim was barred by the doctrine of laches, which serves as a defense against claims that should have been made long ago.

She revisited the issue after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia returned it to her, saying the youngest of the plaintiffs might have standing to pursue the case. But Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the challenger, Mateo Romero, waited eight years after he reached the age of majority to file the complaint. She said the delay unfairly penalized the Redskins, who invested millions of dollars marketing the team during that eight-year span.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court agreed that eight years was too long to bring the claim.

The Supreme Court was being asked only to review whether the claim was brought too late, not whether the nickname was offensive.

Mause had argued that the justices should take the case to decide whether disparaging trademarks can be challenged at any time. He cited a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which was written by then-judge, now-Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., that he said supported that view.

The case the court declined to hear is Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc.

7252: Baby Got Back Surgery.

2009-11-17T01:03:00.002-06:00

Stock Photo + Band-Aid® Brand Adhesive Strip via Photoshop® = Back to the drawing board.

7251: Nauseating Ad.

2009-11-16T11:49:00.002-06:00

If this ad makes you sick—and you wind up chomping a few Nauzene® Chewables—was it ultimately effective marketing?

7250: Six Million Dollar Bailout…?

2009-11-16T10:32:00.002-06:00

This is sad.

7249: No Diversity In Hiring Trends.

2009-11-15T15:25:00.002-06:00

Advertising Age published the story below about industry hiring trends. Despite allegedly speaking to over a dozen recruitment agencies—including Tangerine-Watson—the report makes zero references regarding diversity. Nice.

Recruiters Say Hiring Is Coming Back to Life, Slowly
Searches Rise for Talent Across Most Categories and Experience Levels

By Natalie Zmuda

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Since the start of the recession, the advertising industry has whittled away more than 11% of its workforce. But some good news is on the horizon. September job data released this month showed a slight improvement, with the industry adding 800 jobs, the first increase since October 2008. Industry recruiters say that after months marked by plenty of candidates and few jobs, business is picking up.

Ad Age interviewed nearly two dozen recruiters to compile a picture of what the market looks like today. While some areas are proving hotter than others, hiring is bouncing back, albeit slowly, across most categories and experience levels. A number of recruiting firms report that even though the fourth quarter is a typically slow time of year, they are actively involved in multiple searches.

“It’s a slow build, but we’re seeing activity we didn’t see 90 days ago,” said Jennifer Carroll, client partner at Korn/Ferry.

Recruiters repeatedly noted areas such as digital, mobile and social media, shopper marketing, interactive agencies, health care, financial services and multi-unit retail as those that are seeing more traction right now. Smaller, upstart agencies or media ventures and venture capital-backed companies are also looking to bring in new talent.

Emerging from the recession, companies are looking for those with an analytic approach or international exposure, as well as “hybrids,” or “people with multiple perspectives,” said Elizabeth Zea, a partner at Gilbert and Co.

The unemployed
The majority of companies also are willing to look at talent that’s either unemployed or employed. Several recruiters, however, admitted that certain companies prefer to look only at candidates that are employed, reasoning that they must be the best of the best, if they survived cuts.

While David Wiser, managing principal at Wiser Partners, called that “old-school thinking,” Erika Weinstein, president at Stephen-Bradford Search, said that “companies are not using me for people out on the street. They’re looking at us for corporate raid of competitors, to look for the stars that weathered the storm, so to speak.”

And while some recruiters say companies are primarily focused on $100,000-and-under talent, others point out that companies can only go so long without filling empty, pricey senior-level roles.

“We’re getting more phone calls and queries from potential client companies thinking about doing a search,” said Susan Denison, managing director at Cook Associates. “The bulk of activity is in revenue-generating positions: heads of ad sales, chief revenue officer, head of business development.”

Several firms also noted that they have recently conducted talent-mapping exercises. Korn/Ferry said it is in the process of mapping out the market in digital media, highlighting top players in agencies that have built a more rigorous analytic approach to digital marketing. The second phase involves identifying a team to surround that person.

“[It’s] essentially a ‘lift-out’ strategy, as an alternative to the costly, slow and rather complicated—given the current economic climate—acquisition of an entire agency,” Ms. Carroll said.

Shallower pool
All of this could mean that the buyer’s market of the last few months is showing some early signs of shifting in favor of job hunters. “Up until August, the talent pool had been very deep with a lot of great people looking for opportunities,” said Carlos Cata, regional managing partner at Heidrick & Struggles. “Starting in Q3, Q4 this year, it’s getting shallower. Clients that are being opportunistic in picking up good talent, that window is closing.”

Mr. Wiser argues that companies don’t have as much leverage as they may think. Because of the implosion of the housing market, it’s become “almost impossible” to convince people to relocate, he said. And few employers are offering assistance in buying or selling a home or relocation. That’s forcing more companies to entertain flexible work schedules and telecommuting, he said.

“There’s a mobility and relocation issue, there’s a feeling of appreciating where you are and not wanting to risk a change. And today, if you’re last in, you might be first out,” Mr. Wiser said. “For those reasons, companies that think they’re in the driver’s seat should rethink that.”

Still, it’s certainly too early to herald a complete recovery. Although most recruiters were optimistic, some said that business remains soft. “I don’t think we’ll see any return to great hiring until the second half of 2010,” said Anne Ross, founder of her eponymous firm.

7248: Grampa Graffiti.

2009-11-15T10:27:00.001-06:00

From The Los Angeles Times…

73-year-old man is arrested in L.A. vandalism
Sheriff’s deputies say they saw the suspect posting ‘Who is John Scott?’ stickers in a downtown subway station. They say he is the oldest alleged street vandal ever captured.

By Andrew Blankstein

For months, a mysterious vandal has been slapping hundreds of “Who Is John Scott?” stickers on buses around Los Angeles.

Authorities expected the vandalism to be the work of teenage “slap taggers,” who hit buses, street signs and light poles with stickers advertising shoes, skateboards, music bands and sometime their own hand-drawn monikers.

But the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s anti-graffiti detail got a surprise when it finally tracked down the man allegedly behind “Who Is John Scott?”

The suspect is old-school — 73 years old to be exact.

On Friday, detectives arrested John Scott on suspicion of felony vandalism, making him the oldest alleged street vandal they have ever captured. Scott, suspected of causing several thousand dollars in damage, was being held in custody on $20,000 bail.

“Up until this year, the oldest guy we had arrested was 36,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Erik Ruble. “We knew our guy was older, but not [73].”

The arrest caps an investigation that began when orange-and-black “Who Is John Scott?” stickers began popping up on buses in Baldwin Hills and on the Westside seven months ago (though some bus passengers insist that they have been around for more than a year). In recent months, the stickers began showing up on light standards and street sign poles.

Then, on Friday, a special graffiti “saturation patrol” was monitoring the 7th Street and Metro Center subway station downtown when they noticed an older-looking man. Ruble said deputies saw him placing stickers on the transit hub’s main stairwell. Authorities said Scott had stickers in his pockets as well in a black briefcase he carried with him.

Detectives spent the rest of the day interviewing Scott, who will be 74 next month. The stickers urge readers to go to a crudely designed website that sells “Who Is John Scott?” T-shirts and hats. It shows a man with his face covered holding a briefcase with one of the stickers on it.

The site also includes some intriguing clues about the man. One is a clipping from a 1976 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that includes a small item about the arrest of a John Scott for illegally selling T-shirts to tourists on a city street. It noted that Scott carried a briefcase with a “Who Is John Scott?” sticker on it.

One bus rider told The Times that he saw Scott in action last winter while taking the No. 780 bus home to Hollywood. The witness said he noticed an older man with gray hair reaching into his briefcase and pulling out orange stickers. The man quickly posted one of the stickers as some other riders looked on, according to the witness, who asked that his name not be used.

The rider said he videotaped the incident. And when the older man noticed it, he and a woman he was with abruptly got off the bus.

Ruble said detectives are still trying to figure out Scott’s background. But he said they believe Scott allegedly was driven to vandalize by the same motivation as his younger cohorts: “fame and notoriety.”

“It just goes to show, the graffiti culture in Los Angeles is not age-specific and is very diverse,” Ruble said.

Scott was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. It is unclear when sheriff’s deputies will present their case to prosecutors. Whatever the motive, Ruble said detectives think the “John Scott” riddle has been solved. “The mystery exists no more,” he said.

7247: Rough Landings.

2009-11-14T15:31:00.000-06:00

No bailout cases in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Ex-Congressman William Jefferson will spend 13 years in jail for accepting bribes for political favors. Jefferson is the dude who stashed $90,000 in his freezer. Looks like he’ll be put on ice—and he’ll sit around longer than the Maytag repairman.

• General Motors announced plans to close 37 percent of U.S. Saab dealers as part of the automaker’s sale of the Swedish vehicle brand. Guess the “Born From Jets” campaign went into a tailspin.

7246: Tuskegee Airman On The Air.

2009-11-14T15:29:00.002-06:00

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Tuskegee Airman lands on the South Side
WWII | Shelby Westbrook’s famed unit will be featured in a 5-part History Channel series starting Sunday night

By Stefano Esposito, Staff Reporter

Shelby Westbrook—a decorated fighter pilot who flew 60 missions over Europe during World War II—went to get a passport the other day. He was turned down for lack of the proper paperwork.

As the 87-year-old South Sider tells it, the “young man” at the post office said Westbrook’s 1945 military papers weren’t proof he’s a U.S. citizen.

Westbrook isn’t just an American citizen. He was part of the famed African-American unit, the Tuskegee Airmen. And the small part he played in history is about to be told in the History Channel’s five-night series “WWII in HD,” which airs Sunday through Thursday.

Westbrook—who grew up in Arkansas and Ohio but has lived in Chicago since the war—is one of 12 Americans featured in the series, which tells the story of the war through their eyes.

He flew P-51 Mustang fighters out of Italy. On one mission, he was forced to belly-land his fighter in a Croatian field after being hit by enemy fire while returning to Italy from a bombing mission over Germany.

“It was just like taking a sled ride,” Westbrook recalled in an interview.

He walked away from the destroyed airplane and later encountered soldiers loyal to Yugoslavian resistance leader Marshal Tito who handed him over to British intelligence officers including Randolph Churchill, the only son of Winston Churchill, and writer Evelyn Waugh.

The soldiers couldn’t possibly have mistaken him for the enemy, Westbrook said: “They knew there were no black Germans.”

Some of his missions took him to the 2,500-year-old Parthenon.

“It was impressive, but my wingman and I used it as protection from anti-aircraft fire,” he said. “The Parthenon sits on a plateau, and right beside that was an airfield. We strafed that airfield two or three times to slow the German evacuation out of Greece.”

Six decades later, Westbrook seems underwhelmed about his inclusion in a TV documentary that the History Channel boasts will show the war “as it has never been seen before.” For one thing, Westbrook isn’t thrilled at the choice of rap star/Hollywood actor LL Cool J to narrate his story. Scott Reda, one of the series’ producers, said the hope is to attract a younger demographic.

“I disapproved of that because I don’t like rap—I like good American jazz music,” Westbrook said.

7245: Staging A Holy War Against Gap.

2009-11-13T20:29:00.002-06:00

From Adweek…

Christian Group Calls for Gap Boycott
AFA claims Crispin-generated ads that ‘downplay’ the word ‘Christmas’

By Elena Malykhina

The American Family Association is calling on consumers to boycott Gap Inc. and its brands, which include Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, this holiday season. The Christian organization alleges that the retailer’s ads downplay the word “Christmas.”

The boycott, according to the AFA, is in response to Gap’s holiday advertising and in-store promotions over the years, which have stayed away from recognizing any specific religion. For instance, last year’s campaign was themed “Merry Gap-mas,” substituting the chain’s name for Christ’s. The AFA—which had boycotted other retailers like Sears and Target in the past for their holiday ads—is singling out Gap this year. The AFA is planning to release a “Naughty and Nice” list of retailers who address Christmas and those who don’t.

Randy Sharp, a rep for the AFA, said that a Gap rep sent the group an e-mail alerting them to this year’s campaign, via Crispin Porter + Bogusky, that does use the word “Christmas,” but Sharp said the ad, which features the line “Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanzaa, Go Solstice,” and beckons consumers to “86 the rules,” is offensive. “It looks like an attempt to patronize people,” he said. “What they did was almost make a joke of it.”

The boycott is running from Nov. 1 through Christmas Day, and the AFA is urging consumers to sign a Gap pledge on its site. Gap was not available for comment at press time.

When asked if retailers might have a legitimate business reason to avoid using the word Christmas in ads, Sharp replied that he thought it was a valid concern, but cited polls showing very few people are actually offended by the use of the term. “The problem lies when you try to be politically correct and offend 80 percent or so of consumers,” he said. “The reality is, most people are shopping for Christmas gifts.”

7244: ANA Masters Of Cluelessness.

2009-11-13T16:43:00.002-06:00

Wanted to briefly comment again on the ANA 2009 Masters of Marketing conference held last weekend in Phoenix. At The Big Tent, conference attendee Rochelle Newman-Carrasco posted a perspective on the event, focusing her remarks on the speech delivered by Mickey D’s CMO Neil Golden. Worth highlighting is the excerpt below from Newman-Carrasco:

In fact, a polling question fielded by [Bob] Liodice following the morning’s presentations asked the audience to choose where their organization was in terms of multicultural marketing commitments and the use of specialized agency partners. The majority of the audience responded that they had not engaged any specialists of this nature.

This revelation goes to the heart of the advertising industry’s diversity issue. It seems fair to make the following overreacting presumptions:

• Most advertisers are culturally clueless. This wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t also partnering with White advertising agencies whose exclusivity and ignorance makes it highly likely that irrelevant images, idiotic stereotypes and insensitive messaging will ensue.

• If advertisers are not engaging minority firms, it begs the question, “Are advertisers engaging minorities with their brands at all?” Perhaps advertisers recognize what Dan Wieden admitted: “… like it or not, in this business I essentially hire a bunch of White, middle-class kids, pay them enormous, enormous sums of money to do what? To create messages to the inner-city kids who create the culture the White kids are trying like hell to emulate. But if you go into the inner city, odds are these kids aren’t even going to see advertising as a possibility, as an opportunity for them. Now that’s fucked up.” It appears that advertisers are essentially mirroring Wieden’s actions by hiring White agencies to create messages to minority audiences. Now that’s fucked up.

• It seems like Liodice missed a golden opportunity to ask his peers to join The Army.

7243: GLBTV.

2009-11-13T08:44:00.003-06:00

From Newsweek…

Kings of Queens
Gays on TV once helped promote tolerance. Now they may be hurting it.

By Ramin Setoodeh | NEWSWEEK

Even if you’ve never seen glee, the Fox dramedy with show tunes in its veins and opera in its nervous system, you probably know that it’s TV’s gayest product since Richard Simmons. Last week’s episode centered on a singing contest of “Defying Gravity,” the anticonformity anthem from Wicked, every tween girl’s favorite musical. The contestants: Rachel the glee-club diva vs. Kurt the, um—what’s the male version of diva? Kurt (Chris Colfer) wears fluffy Alexander McQueen sweaters and sings notes high enough to make your fillings hurt. He can belt Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and thrust his hips better than Ms. Knowles herself. Yet he can also melt your heart with his fortitude and frankness, especially during his fraught talks with his dad, a mechanic who still remembers when his son wore high heels—as a toddler. That’s the thing about Kurt: he can be endearing, but he’s also confusing. In one episode, the glee club split into a boys’ team and a girls’ team. Guess which side Kurt went for? If Kurt were transgendered, all that would make perfect sense, but he’s not. Instead, he’s that oldest of clichés: the sensitive gay boy who really wants to be a girl.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Really. If the gay community has stood for anything in the 40 years since Stonewall, it’s the freedom not just to love who you want but to be who you are: we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it. For a while, TV got with the program. In 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres came out on her sitcom, she paved the way for gay characters of every stripe. The next year, Dawson’s Creek introduced a studly jock named Jack (Kerr Smith), who became perhaps the first teen to come out in prime time. TV’s other Jack (Sean Hayes), from Will & Grace, swung the more flamboyant way, while lawyerly Will (Eric McCormack) could have been just another “Friend.” Over time, the image of gay people on TV became less lavender and more gray—as multifaceted as the five men on Queer Eye for the Straight Guyor the ladies of The L Word. By bringing all these diverse folks into America’s living rooms, TV helped bring gays into the mainstream. A survey by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of the people who say their feelings toward gays and lesbians had become more favorable in the past five years, about one third credited that in part to characters they saw on TV.

In the past year, however, the public-acceptance pendulum seems to have shifted back, at least for what is arguably the biggest test of equality. Two weeks ago, the people of Maine followed the people of California in reversing existing laws that had legalized gay marriage. In fact, when gay marriage has been put before the voters of any state, it has failed every time. Is TV to blame for this? Of course not. The mission of popular culture is to entertain, not to lecture. But if we accept that Will, Dawson’s, and the rest once fostered acceptance, it’s fair to ask if Gleemay be hurting it, especially because the Kurt model is everywhere. There’s Marc (Michael Urie), the flaming fashion assistant on Ugly Betty; Lloyd (Rex Lee), Ari’s sassy receptionist on Entourage; the gay couple on Modern Family (one guy still pines for his ice-skating career; the other wears purple in every episode). The fey way extends to nonfiction, too, from the dozens of squealing contestants on Project Runwayto the two gayest words in the English language: Perez Hilton. Next week American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert’s new album, For Your Entertainment, arrives: that’s Lambert on the cover, wearing heavy mascara, black nail polish, and perfect lip gloss. Lesbians face a different problem. They are invariably played by gorgeous, curvy women straight out of a straight man’s fantasy—Olivia Wilde on House, Sara Ramirez on Grey’s Anatomy, Evan Rachel Wood on True Blood—and they’re usually bisexual. How convenient.

Minority groups have long struggled to balance assimilation and extinction, self-expression and alienation. Some African-Americans are complaining that the poor, uneducated girl in Precious perpetuates stereotypes; others say she represents a part of the community and deserves to be celebrated. For gays, that schism falls along generational lines. Older gays who spent their lives fighting for civil rights continue to want to stand out, to argue that acceptance means nothing if it doesn’t apply to the most outré members. Younger men and women, for whom society has been more tolerant, think of themselves as “post-gay,” meaning their sexual orientation is only a part of who they are. Last month, gay groups held a march on Washington for marriage. The older folks gave speeches. The younger ones seemed more interested in snapping a Facebook picture of Lady Gaga.

The problem with the Glee club is that Kurt and the rest are loud and proud, but their generation has turned down the volume. All this at a time when standing apart seems particularly counterproductive. Marriage (and the military) are sacred institutions, so it’s not surprising that some heterosexuals will defend them against what they see as a radical alteration. But if you want to be invited to someone else’s party, sometimes you have to dress the part. Is that a form of appeasement? Maybe. It’s not that gay men and women should pretend to be straight, or file down all their fabulously spiky edges. But even Rachel Maddow wears lipstick on TV. The key is balance. There’s so much more to the gay community than the people on TV (or at a gay-pride parade). We just want a chance to live and love like everybody else. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, we won’t get there until the post-post-gay generation.

7242: Photoshop Is Not Brain Surgery.

2009-11-13T00:14:00.001-06:00

Anyone else think they attached the same neurosurgeon’s head from the upper photo to the lower right figure via Photoshop?

7241: Knockouts.

2009-11-12T09:29:00.000-06:00

Scuffling through the news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Mike Tyson and a photographer were arrested after scuffling at Los Angeles International Airport. Has anyone ever thought about posting a camera crew at LAX and turning it into a celebrity reality TV series?

• AT&T is dialing up the pressure in its lawsuit against Verizon, demanding that the competitor pull commercials that denigrate AT&T’s network coverage. Verizon is standing firm behind its messages. Apparently, the iconic Verizon guy is not hearing AT&T’s calls.

• Lou Dobbs has resigned from CNN. Don’t look for him to resurface on Univision. Or Lopez Tonight.

7240: Not Ladies’ Night.

2009-11-12T09:27:00.001-06:00

From The New York Times…

Among Late-Night Writers, Few Women in the Room

By Bill Carter

In many ways, television today is about women more than men.

More women watch television than men; female producers and writers have had huge success in prime time and daytime; in January, women will occupy two of the three seats as anchors of network evening newscasts.

But there is one glaring exception: very few women make it inside the writing rooms for late-night television hosts, despite that women make up a larger proportion of their audience than men.

There are no female writers on the new “The Jay Leno Show,” none on “Late Show with David Letterman,” none on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

The lack of women in late-night writing positions was pushed again to the forefront by David Letterman’s confession of sexual relationships with his staff members.

In an article for Vanity Fair’s Web site, a former writer for Mr. Letterman, Nell Scovell, described her experiences in the late 1980s, citing what she called a “hostile work environment,” including Mr. Letterman’s romantic relationships with women on the staff.

“Writing for late-night talk shows is a great entry-level TV job, and if you deny women that opportunity it reduces the chance for them to pursue careers in comedy,” she said in an e-mail message. Her article was cited in motions filed with the court this week by the lawyer defending the man accused of blackmailing Mr. Letterman.

In the 1980s, Mr. Letterman pioneered the kind of college-age male humor that dominates late night. But now, his audience is almost 55 percent women; Mr. Leno’s is more than 53 percent, and Mr. O’Brien’s just over one half. Yet the writing room and sensibilities of the show itself remain largely male.

Steve Bodow, head writer for “The Daily Show,” conceded that the preponderance of male writers had not changed much in recent years, although his show hired two women writers in September.

“We shook the trees a little,” Mr. Bodow said of the special efforts the show made. “Women have a different perspective, which we like on the show.”

But perspective is not the same as sensibility. Some women in the business argue that, as long as the hosts remain almost exclusively male, so will the writers.

“When you’re writing for late night, you’re writing through one person’s prism, and that person at the shows you’re looking at is always a dude,” said Hallie Haglund, one of the new writers on “The Daily Show. “ Allison Silverman, who has served as the only woman writer first on “The Daily Show” then on Conan O’Brien’s staff, said she had no trouble assuming the voices of male hosts. But she added, “I don’t think the issue of sensibility is off base. The hosts and the staffs I worked on often resembled one another. Have you seen how many tall Irish people are on Conan’s staff?”

Read the full story here.

7239: The Marcus Graham Project Explained.

2009-11-12T00:14:00.002-06:00

Advertising Age presents a nice video featuring Lincoln Stephens discussing The Marcus Graham Project.

Eddie Murphy’s Long-Term Effect on Ad Agency Diversity
Story of Dallas’ Marcus Graham Project

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — How is Eddie Murphy playing a role in a new push to diversify ad agencies? Former agency account exec Lincoln Stephens is both an example and an evangelist of the “Boomerang” effect. A year ago Stephens abruptly quit his Chicago agency job, moved back to his hometown of Dallas and, on a shoestring budget, launched a program to recruit, train and motivate talented young African Americans for advertising agency jobs. Execs at The Richards Group, Imaginuity, Tracy Locke and other Dallas organizations volunteered to mentor participants in his first boot camp sessions.

7238: A Carl’s Jr. Offer You Can’t Refuse.

2009-11-11T14:44:00.002-06:00

Carl’s Jr. set aside its typically sexist advertising for stereotypical depictions offensive to Italian Americans. Note the response from the corporate director of public relations—it’s pretty clear that Carl’s Jr. does not see a problem with perpetuating ethnic stereotypes in an effort to amuse “young, hungry guys.” The campaign was touting the chain’s Chicken Parmesan Sandwich; hence, the need to push mafia imagery. Good thing they weren’t promoting fried chicken or Asian chicken flavors.

Fuggedaboudit: Carl’s Jr. Stops Mob Ad Campaign

by Jennifer Lawinski

Fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. has stopped the ad campaign for its Chicken Parmesan Sandwich after Italian-American groups complained about the mafia-themed commercials.

The California Italian-American Task Force and the National Italian-American Federation praised Carl’s Jr.’s parent company CKE for its decision not to buy more TV slots for the ads, which feature mobster and garbage man characters that critics said showed negative Italian-American stereotypes, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

In the ad, a man sits in his car eating the Carl’s Jr. Chicken Parmesan Sandwich as marinara sauce drips out of his mouth and down his shirt. When two mafia goons approach the car, the man plays dead. Fooled by the sauce dotting his shirt like blood, they leave him alive assuming someone else killed him before they arrived.

“NIAF was pleased to see the positive steps taken by Carl’s Jr. Restaurant to remove negative, inaccurate and unfair characterizations in their recent commercial advertisements,” Jeff Capaccio, the group’s regional vice president for the Far West, told the paper. “These advertisements only fuel further incorrect assumptions about an entire ethnic group.”

Controversy is nothing new for Carl’s Jr. Earlier this year, the company launched a racy ad featuring Padma Lakshmi inhaling a Western Bacon Thickburger.

Beth Mansfield, director of public relations for CKE told Slashfood that the company, which is also the parent company of Hardee’s, “adopts a creative approach” to its advertising. “It is intended to communicate the core message of our premium-quality food to our target audience of ‘young, hungry guys.’ We do not aim to exclude or offend any other groups with our efforts, but merely to appeal to and amuse a very specific audience. We understand that not everyone may view our advertising the same way, so we respect all views and welcome comments and feedback.”

The company decided not to extend the media run for the Parmesan Chicken Sandwich, but the campaign formally ended on Nov. 8, although the commercials may still make appearances “infrequently in limited markets,” Mansfield said.

But it’s still offering $1 off coupons on its Web site.

After the Chicken Parmesan campaign, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s will be taking another stab at McDonalds, Mansfield told Slashfood.

Its next ad campaign for Carl’s Jr.’s Big Carl burger and Hardee’s Big Hardee burger will target the McDonald’s Big Mac in “round three of the Premium Burger Wars,” which Mansfield said the company calls “McSmack.”

“The direct comparison worked so well and we got such a great response from them, that’s what we’re looking at doing again,” she told Slashfood. “We just keep kicking the shins of that 800 pound gorilla.”

7237: Holiday Lights.

2009-11-11T09:33:00.003-06:00

Holy cow! It’s another MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The Chicago Sun-Times published a letter to the editor from a reader responding to an Illinois State Lottery campaign by Energy BBDO:

Advertiser should ask Linus

In Monday’s paper, columnist Lewis Lazare notes that Energy BBDO has created a series of holiday television commercials using the song “Joy to the World” to sell—of all things—lottery tickets! The new lyrics and retro music may be captivating and clever, but are the people at BBDO familiar with the original words to this Christmas hymn? Or do they care?

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”

Or is Linus the only one who still understands what Christmas is all about?

Dan McGuire, Bensenville

• Sammy Sosa sought to address his apparent skin lightening during an interview with Univision. Sosa explained, “It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed. … I use [it] to soften [my skin], but [it] has bleached me some. … I’m not a racist. I live my life happily … I don’t think I look like Michael Jackson.” Um, Sosa was never known for his defensive skills.

7236: Disabling Diversity…?

2009-11-11T09:30:00.003-06:00

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

‘Glee’ casting choice hits sour note with disabled
TELEVISION | Putting able-bodied actor in chair sparks debate

By Lynn Elber

LOS ANGELES—The glee club members twirl their wheelchairs to the tune of “Proud Mary” and in joyful solidarity with Artie, the fellow performer who must use his chair even when the music stops.

The scene in tonight’s episode of the hit Fox series “Glee,” which celebrates diversity and the underdog, is yet another uplifting moment—except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates. For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.

“I think there’s a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable,” said Robert David Hall, a cast member of CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

That is nonsense, said Hall: “I’ve made my living as an actor for 30 years and I walk on two artificial legs.”

Increasingly, television is expected to reflect America in whole and not just the so-called mainstream. That was the intent in assembling the cast of “Glee,” said executive producer Brad Falchuk, along with getting the best performers possible.

“We brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair,” he said. “It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV.”

He understands the concern and frustration of the disabled community, he said. But Kevin McHale, 21, who plays Artie, excels as an actor and singer and “it’s hard to say no to someone that talented,” Falchuk said.

“Glee” isn’t alone in using an able-bodied actor for a wheelchair role: “Curb Your Enthusiasm” did it twice in a recent episode.

“There are very talented performers with disabilities,” said Gloria Castaneda, program director of the Media Access Office, a California program that promotes hiring of the disabled in the entertainment industry. “We just don’t know what producers are thinking.”

7235: Best Buy Spins New DJ Club.

2009-11-10T15:55:00.002-06:00

Adweek reported Best Buy is the latest brand to hijack urban culture. The Geek Squad must be comprised of wiggers and wannabes.

Best Buy Spins ‘Club Beats’
Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre to promote chain’s DJ-focused offerings

By Alex Palmer

Best Buy is aiming to become a destination for DJs. The retailer has partnered with Monster Cable and Beats by Dr. Dre headphones to launch its new in-store “Club Beats” area.

The big-box retailer is creating a new section in all its stores where consumers can sample the latest audio, music, entertainment and technology products including DJ equipment, mixing software, turntables, headphones and laptops.

To help promote Club Beats, Best Buy will host a series of events featuring appearances from top music artists including Lady Gaga, Will.i.am and Dre. It will tout the events through local radio and newspaper advertisements. The retailer spent $213 million on advertising in 2008 and $142 million in the first eight months of 2009, per Nielsen.

Best Buy sees a growing interest not only in DJing, particularly with the recent release of DJ Hero, but also in the concern for sound quality. Beats by Dr. Dre—which was co-founded by Dre and Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine—was selected because of its commitment to giving average listeners a professional-quality experience through their headphones. Monster Cable, meanwhile, promises to “make music sound better” in its ads.

“DJs in clubs are now the new rock stars that are sought after because of [their sound]. It changes the whole atmosphere, and our average users are really picking up on that,” said Wendy Fritz, svp of merchandising for mobility at Best Buy.

The services will be tailored to meet a variety of DJ needs, whether for the novice making sure his or her laptop is configured for new software, or professionals seeking something more sophisticated.

Best Buy sees this DJ-focused offering as something brand new for mainstream retail. “It may not be simple to find these products in a mainstream environment—either you have to know what you need, or you have to talk to someone who is in the industry,” said Fritz. “What we’re trying to say is ‘hey you can do this,’ and when they come into the store our Blue Shirts can say ‘these are the three or four products you need to get started.’”

Seven stores will feature a full “experiential” Club Beats area, with a spectrum of products while 300 stores will feature an “interactive” area, with similar options but slightly fewer products to try out. All remaining stores will include a “core” Club Beats area, with a product selection, merchandising signage and customer service assistance but less of a focus on interactivity.