Hall of Shame

One of our key goals as a company, apart from getting rich, is to champion the cause of better marketing to ethnic minority consumers.  With that in mind I'm planning to put together a Hall of Shame to demonstrate when the so-called joined up thinking between strategy, planning, creative and buying doesn't ... 'join up' and the resulting ads.  Here's a taster: http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Digital/News/929847/Microsoft-caught-race-row-editing-black-man-photo/. In this ad, somebody at Microsoft had used old creative for a campaign in Poland and substituted the a black man with a white man.  This harks back to the famous Ford recruitment campaign in the early 90s when they changed the Asian workers in the ad to all white workers.

I'll post more examples soon.  Like the Subway ad placed in The Muslim Weekly News proudly announcing the launch of Subway's range of 100% Halal products, except the creative agency had used an image of a sub containing pepparami and ham.

JAY RAI

do names matter?

What's in a name?  Could Kamaljit Singh Jhooti have got to number one in the US?  No is the answer according to Jay Sean, the overnight RnB sensation who spent 7 years working on his 'overnight' success.  Names do still matter in the UK.  I'm all for people keeping 'true to their roots', but sometimes making it easier for the mass market open doors that would otherwise remained shut.   That's why Jatinder Pal Singh Rakraiya became Jay Rai.  

Diabetes and ethnicity

BBC One: Inside Out, 16 Nov 2009

Did you see this programme?  It was trying to raise awareness amongst all communities, of what’s known as a killer disease – Diabetes.  It reinforced the need to be tested and interviewed a cross-section of the public highlighting those most likely to contract this illness.  Yes, you guessed – black and Asian residents are 6 x’s more likely to contract Diabetes leading to CHD.  Now, all you planning & buying for low sugar, low fat products really should get in touch with us.  Take a look at the link……

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=Inside%20Out%20London

KAREN NEEDHAM

new site launch

Finally, after months of planning, meetings, looking at media websites, and hours of talking to Nabi (our web design team in Hyderbad), the new look Indoor Media site is live.  There's still a few more things to do, but it's 90% done.  Tell us what you think.  If there is more info you'd like us to post, let us know.

Jay Rai