I’m a big phony. A fake. A sham.
The agency I work for has a lot of clients and two offices. Our office here handles local clients, for the most part. Our office in the state capitol handles some other clients. Some of them are based in their geographic area. Many are not. Many of the other office’s clients are national outfits. Big-time companies out of D.C. and Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York. The other office gets these clients by positioning itself as an “urban” agency. In this case, “urban” essentially means “black”. Companies looking to make some advances in the African American segment look for urban agencies to handle their advertising. This is cool, because our relatively small agency gets to work on some pretty big accounts. It’s really cool because I’ve been able to work with some really big accounts, like a national retailer and a major telecommunications company. The thing is: I’m white. Like, totally Caucasian. This isn’t really a moral or ethical problem. The stuff I’ve done has been well received by the market. But I got an email yesterday that made me realize what a con I am. It went something like this:
“Hey guys,
We wrapped up production on the spots today. [Filler text here.] [Guy] did really well directing the voice talent and Robert’s scripts were trill!”
Clearly, I was supposed to have known what trill means. I didn’t. I had to look it up. Don’t tell anyone, okay?
The agency I work for has a lot of clients and two offices. Our office here handles local clients, for the most part. Our office in the state capitol handles some other clients. Some of them are based in their geographic area. Many are not. Many of the other office’s clients are national outfits. Big-time companies out of D.C. and Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York. The other office gets these clients by positioning itself as an “urban” agency. In this case, “urban” essentially means “black”. Companies looking to make some advances in the African American segment look for urban agencies to handle their advertising. This is cool, because our relatively small agency gets to work on some pretty big accounts. It’s really cool because I’ve been able to work with some really big accounts, like a national retailer and a major telecommunications company. The thing is: I’m white. Like, totally Caucasian. This isn’t really a moral or ethical problem. The stuff I’ve done has been well received by the market. But I got an email yesterday that made me realize what a con I am. It went something like this:
“Hey guys,
We wrapped up production on the spots today. [Filler text here.] [Guy] did really well directing the voice talent and Robert’s scripts were trill!”
Clearly, I was supposed to have known what trill means. I didn’t. I had to look it up. Don’t tell anyone, okay?
It makes me question whether you're really my brother...
Wait. You're not black?
hey r
i'm totally interested in this concept, actually - but i'm now unclear on the work you do. big corporate writing and researching for predominantly black owned or managed companies? what's wrong with having a white writer? or i mean, i guess - explain?
~katey :-)
I guess the irony didn't come through on this one. I write ads. Television, radio, print, interactive and electronic media. Sometimes, I write ads for the Austin office. The Austin office is usually hired to produce ads for the African American population. I'm a white guy writing ads for black folks.