{"id":163507,"date":"2021-04-01T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T04:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=163507"},"modified":"2021-04-01T01:24:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T05:24:16","slug":"gm-increasing-ad-spend-in-black-owned-media-by-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/04\/gm-increasing-ad-spend-in-black-owned-media-by-400\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Increasing Ad Spend in Black-Owned Media by 400%"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
GM announced it will increase its ad budget for Black-owned media by 400% between now and 2023..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Facing charges of \u201csystemic racism,\u201d General Motors Wednesday evening announced a 400% increase in ad spending in Black-owned media by 2023.<\/p>\n

The move comes just days after a group of seven Black-owned media officials took out an ad in the Sunday Detroit Free Press to demand an increase in spending to promote \u201ceconomic inclusion.\u201d The group took direct aim at GM CEO Mary Barra suggesting she was racist and demanding her resignation if she didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n

Following the publication of the advertisement, GM agreed to meet with the seven media moguls<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. But the automaker called off the event, which was to be conducted as an online Zoom meeting, late Wednesday. Instead, the automaker said it would hold \u201ca series of meetings … as soon as possible\u201d with a larger mix of Black-owned media publishers and other executives.<\/p>\n

GM expanding meeting invite list<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
GM’s top marketing executive Deborah Wahl postponed a meeting with seven Black-owned media execs, and plans to reschedule it as a series of smaller “conversations” with even more leaders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTo ensure that our conversations are both substantive and constructive, we are going to postpone tomorrow\u2019s group meeting and reschedule it into a series of smaller conversations that take place over the next few weeks,\u201d GM global Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl wrote in an e-mail sent to the executives. \u201cWe also intend to expand the dialogue to invite our existing Black-owned media partners currently in the GM portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of spending to support minority media, in general, has become a hot-button issue. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement and a broader focus on the African-American community, there\u2019s been a particular focus on Black-owned media.<\/p>\n

According to the seven executives who signed the Sunday ad, GM currently devotes just 0.5% of its roughly $2.3 billion annual ad spend to black publications and other media. The automaker disputed that figure, claiming the current figure is closer to 2%, though spokesman Pat Morrissey said GM management agreed an increase is necessary.<\/p>\n

The signatories of the Sunday ad \u2014 including Weather Channel owner Byron Allen; rapper, actor and media mogul Ice Cube; and Junior Bridgeman, the owner of Ebony Media \u2014 were set to demand that GM devote a minimum $200 million annually to Black-owned media, with the figure increasing 5% annually during the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

Automaker’s spending plan<\/h3>\n
\"Byron<\/a>
Byron Allen, head of the Allen Media Group, which owns The Weather Channel, said GM was trying to “divide” Black-owned media executives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under the plan GM announced Wednesday, it will grow spending from 2% to 8% of its total ad budget by the end of 2023. That would boost the figures from about $45 million to roughly $180 million over that period.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Barra has the opportunity to be on the right side of history,\u201d Allen said during a conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com midday Wednesday. He acknowledged his group would try to leverage any agreement with GM to win similar concessions from not only rival automakers but corporate America in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery corporation in America will be held accountable if they don\u2019t do business with Black media in a respectable way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hours later, when the original meeting with the seven media execs was canceled he expressed surprise and anger. \u201cWhat they\u2019re trying to do is divide and conquer,\u201d Allen said by phone. \u201cThey should be meeting with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to hold multiple meetings with a broader cross-section of the Black media community was well received by others, however.<\/p>\n

Black-owned media response<\/h3>\n
\"Benjamin<\/a>
Benjamin Chavis, CEO and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for Black media, also wanted to meet with Barra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Benjamin Chavis, CEO and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for Black media, said he also wanted to meet with GM Chairman and Chief Executive Barra and express his belief that it \u201cand other corporations need to increase their advertising with Black-owned media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavis was more upbeat on how the automaker and its CEO had been addressing the issue of systemic racism than the group sponsoring the Sunday ad. He said the carmaker has been \u201ctaking steps to deal with systemic racism \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t happen overnight, or in one year.”<\/p>\n

Barra became the first female automotive CEO in January 2014. She has repeatedly promised to make GM \u201cthe most inclusive company in the world.\u201d Just last week it appointed to its board of directors<\/strong><\/span><\/a> former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and Mark Tatum, the deputy commissioner and COO of the National Basketball Association. The GM board now is the first of any major corporation with a majority of female directors.<\/p>\n

After the death of George Floyd in police custody last May, Barra wrote a letter to employees saying that she was \u201cimpatient and disgusted\u201d by the events and stressed the need to \u201cindividually and collectively\u201d act. And on June 19 \u2014 known as Juneteenth, the commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States \u2014 GM asked employees to observe 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the amount of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is recorded as having his knee on George Floyd’s neck during his fatal arrest, as a sign of solidarity with the black community.<\/p>\n

\"Ice<\/a>
Rapper and media mogul Ice Cube was one of the seven signatories on the ad criticizing GM CEO Mary Barra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newspaper ad shines light on issue<\/h3>\n

But, in the Sunday newspaper ads, Allen and other Black-owned media execs were far less upbeat about such moves. \u201cYou stand on stage, after the death of George Floyd, saying, \u2018Black Lives Matter,\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/a> when you have refused to acknowledge us,\u201d the ad says of Barra. \u201cThe very definition of systemic racism is when you are ignored, excluded and you don\u2019t have true economic inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com, Allen said corporate America needs to recognize and support Black-owned media which has been struggling in recent years. Ebony, arguably the best-known publication in its field, was purchased out of bankruptcy by former NBA star Bridgeman last year.<\/p>\n

Complicating matters has been the shift from traditional \u2014 largely print \u2014 media to online publishing. Companies like GM often have cut back direct ad buys with media outlets, in general. Instead, they steer a large share of spending to digital ad services such as Google AdSense. As a result, said a senior Detroit ad exec on background, they\u2019re often able to reach Black consumers without actually working with black-owned publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing charges of \u201csystemic racism,\u201d General Motors announced a 400% increase in ad spending in Black-owned media by 2023. However, after initially agreeing to meet with the seven media execs leveling the charges, GM backed out, saying it will instead host a series of smaller meetings with additional executives. Get all the details at TheDetroitBureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5],"tags":[],"make":[58],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,174,150,151,123,133,131,299,243,132,125,124,148,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163507"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=163507"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=163507"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=163507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}