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New York Festivals International Advertising Awards debuts “Black Madison Avenue – 7 Is Not Enough", a 3-part video series features a riveting and topical conversation among seven top-tier award-winning Black creative leaders discussing the current state of the advertising space.
The series will start on March 18th at 1PM EST. It is based on an idea by Walt Geer, Executive Creative Director, Experience Design for VMLY&R, and is set to be an honest and insightful discussion amongst like-minded peers.
The featured Executive Creative Directors, each bring more than 20+ years of individual industry experience to the discussion, as well as their collective experiences that people of color face within the agency culture. Together they share their experiences, challenges, and triumphs and how they have navigated the process throughout the years during their stellar careers.
“If we look at the top 5 holding agencies in the US (accounting for over 358k employees), there seems to only be about nine Black Executive Creative Directors. Seven of us met for the first time in person, to discuss the current state of the advertising space,” commented Walt Geer.
The Black Madison Avenue panel includes:
- Patrick Bennett, Executive Creative Director, Momentum Worldwide
- Perry Fair, EVP, Global ECD, Global Director of Entertainment, McCann
- Walt Geer, Executive Creative Director, Experience Design, VMLY&R
- Andrea Gray, Executive Creative Director, Grey Group
- Kaleeta McDade, Global Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy
- Shannon Washington, SVP, ECD, Head of Creative, R/GA New York
- Sherman Winfield, Executive Creative Director, VMLY&R
“You can’t change the culture within these spaces unless there’s people like us in these positions,” added Geer.
At the Live stream event, also will be present VMLY&R CEO Jon Cook and former Y&R CEO David Sable.
