Agencies need to do better job of retaining black talent.(Viewpoint)

Advertising Age, February, 2008

We're a month and a half into the New Year and halfway through another Black History month. For the first time in U.S. history, an African-American man stands a very good chance of being elected to the highest office in the land. And ad agencies haven't been publicly smacked around by the New York City Commission on Human Rights. So all must be good, right?

Hardly. One of the most striking things gleaned from early reviews of Jason Chambers' "Madison Avenue and the Color Line'' is how some of the issues involving race and the ad world have seemed intractable from the start.

But there are some issues that can be addressed on a daily basis. The most important of these is the hiring and retention of black talent by general-market agencies. Strides have...