A Black-owned media group took out a full-page ad in this past Sunday’s edition of The Detroit Free Press requesting a one-hour Zoom meeting with General Motors CEO Mary Barra to discuss the automaker’s advertising strategy.
The letter, titled “General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra refuses to sit down with Black Owned Media Companies,” was written by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group and signed by the leaders of some of the largest Black-owned media companies in America. In the letter, the media group points out that GM spends billions of dollars in advertising each year, but “less than 0.5 percent goes to Black Owned Media.” The group is calling for Barra to change this and dedicate at least five percent of the automaker’s marketing budget to advertise in Black-owned media companies.
“Mary, true leaders must lean in and personally address the real issues in our society and in business,” the media company said in the letter. “We are publicly asking you to stop the systemic racism by General Motors against Black Owned Media companies. We are requesting a one hour Zoom meeting with you and several of your key board members and us, the largest Black Owned Media companies in America, so we can resolve this very important issue and have a long-term partnership that’s mutually beneficial for General Motors and the African American consumers.”
Signatories of the letter include Ice Cube, rapper, co-founder of pro-basketball league BIG3 and founder of film production company Cubevision, along with Nu Vision Media CEO Roland Martin, Black Enterprise CEO Earl Graves Jr. and Central City Productions chairman and CEO Don Jackson, among others.
Deborah Wahl
GM had responded to an earlier request from the media company and granted it a face-to-face with GM’s current Chief Marketing Officer, Deborah Wahl. This letter indicates the group does not want to speak to Wahl, however, as they were unimpressed with her efforts to diversify the marketing of her previous employer, McDonald’s.
“Mary, you have asked us to meet with your Chief Marketing Officer, Deborah Wahl. We have absolutely no interest in that because when Deborah was Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald’s, in our opinion, Black Owned Media was, once again, severely neglected, minimized and discriminated against,” the letter says.
The letter also calls on Barra to resign from her role with GM if she does not agree to meet with the Black-owned media leaders.
“If you continue to hold the position that Black Owned Media doesn’t deserve meaningful economic inclusion and we are not worth meeting with, then you should resign, effective immediately,” the group said.
In response to the letter, GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said the automaker has made strides to diversify its advertising in recent years and plans to continue this going forward.
“We have increased our planned spending with both diverse-owned and diverse-dedicated media across our family of brands,” said Morrissey.
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Comments
Mary did the right thing and said they have to meet with the Marketing officer and they refused. She should state that in a note to the press. I’m sorry i don’t think anyone besides the president of the US can just ask with a meeting with Mary. This type of crap needs to stop. These companies have a right do what they want and not be pressured because of a certain narrative.
I mean she is a busy person…
If any other company would be declined on such a short notice no one would care. I mean they wanted to know about marketing who better than the marketing leader?
The word racist is thrown around way too freely in todays society. Business should be earned, not handed out due to the color of your skin. There is only one race that matters and that is the human race, if you disagree with that statement then you may in fact be the one who needs to look in the mirror.
could not agree more.
Sounded like “Blackmail” me right from the “GitGo”
This game has been played for years. In the past Jesse and Al would threaten to go to the media with lies if they were not given substantial donations.
Today with the web they threaten to publish lies on the web to hold companies hostage.
The cancel culture is getting out of control and has the ability to destroy an economy with their wreck less tactics.
This group wants more marketing to try to leverage a smaller group of buyers in the market.
I just saw the same thing going in women’s sports where they are demanding as much cooperate and media support as the men when much less of the public is a fan or cares.
GM has done a great amount of marketing to different segments over the years. In fact Cadillac was the first auto maker to market to and sell cars to the black community.
I am glad to see GM for once not now to undue pressure on something that is more extortion than anything.
all business owners have the rights to hire those who they want period!!!
First of all – “Media Group Pressuring General Motors to Increase Advertising?” THAT’S the headline you picked here at GMA?
How about an actually ACCURATE headline: “Black-Owned Advertising Groups Accuse Mary Barra of Racism For Refusing to Meet With Them On Ad Demands.” THERE’S an accurate headline. And how sad that headline is.
Here’s some quotes from the guys who bought the ad:
“The very definition of systemic racism is when you are ignored, excluded and you don’t have true economic inclusion.”
“You stand on stage, after the death of George Floyd, saying, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ when you have refused to acknowledge us.”
“Mary, we and others firmly believe that if you continue to hold the position that Black Owned Media doesn’t deserve meaningful economic inclusion and we are not worth meeting with, then you should resign effective immediately.”
These accusations are being lobbied at the company that arguably tries to be the wokest, “most inclusive” company in the entire auto industry. They literally just dropped a 60 second ad fawning all over the African American population and celebrating “The Audacity of Blackness.” They donate millions to the NAACP and other organizations that “promote racial justice,” whatever else that means. Who else has done that? Toyota? Lincoln? Mercedes-Benz?
This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen or heard, but it’s no surprise coming from the aforementioned Ice Cube and/or Byron Allen. Here’s the thing, boys: Mary Barra has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of the company she heads. That means she needs to maximize profit and returns on investment.
So when her company looks for an ad agency, the race of said agency’s owner could not possibly be more irrelevant. What matters is getting the best ad agency for the money, regardless of the melanin content of the person who heads it. And there’s nothing “racist” about that, just like how there’s nothing “racist” about refusing to entertain your whining about it.
As things stand today, you will not find an auto exec more eager to pander to you and your “causes”…so I humbly suggest that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Morons.
People always will end of eating their own in the woke world. As they are all competing for who is the most woke on a weekly basis. As each new week everyone who follows this cotton soft narrative gets new brochures in the mail that dictate how they have been screwed somehow.
Can we please start holding Mary Barra accountable for some of her actions. She dropped the ball here. Lowercase gm claims to be the most inclusive company, but failed to allocate anytime to meet with prominent advertisers in the black community. It’s quite literally her job to strum up positive press and avoid negative headlines like this. Meanwhile she hired a crusty white lady who sucked at her job at McDonald’s. If the Trumper had failed in this same way you all would be acting like he was a racist… So why the double standard? Rotten to the core with hipocrisy.
“prominenant black business” – according to who? Their blackmail and extortion techniques?
“Crusty white lady” -Take your racism somewhere else. Not needed here.
Just trying to point out the hipocrisy with the race. Crusty or moist, white or black, her advertising at McDonald’s sucked and she got fired. It certainly seems like she’s gotten more than enough chances to be good at her job.
Black owned normally means one black person owns the company. I work in an industry where a black owned firms gets a preset amount of each deal and the person doing the work at the firm is a middle aged white guy. Really helping the people on the ground…
That’s how these things are done
Maybe if they want to be taken seriously they should have a product gm wants instead of being RACIAL WHINERS who act like freedom is worse than slavery?
Have to agree.
They know full well at even a hint of going to the media will bring GM to its knees in short order.
The only company of which I’m aware that turned away threats was Cypress Semiconductor. Jesse Jackson brought his rabble-rousing show to the Silicon Valley. The President of Cypress stuck a metaphorical boot up Jackson ‘s posterior.
Maybe if somebody set up a mock noose for the media group and a mock guillotine for Mary Antoinette outside gm HQ they would ALL get the message, move on and not entertain meeting with this group any further?
If Harris sticks her beak in the meeting will happen.
Professional victims.
liberal values
I think the takeaway here is that with a company the size of GM, the CEO, AKA Marry Barra doesn’t meet with ad agencies. It’s not her job, that’s what this Deborah Wahl apparently does.
Not everyone who wants time with a companies CEO gets it because they want it. This cry wolf cancel culture BS is nothing but opportunistic lazy entitlement.
Enough of this woke sh$t!
Not going to stay on this, since GM did recently joined the “woke” side a certain group called out GM for basically photo-op moments but when it comes to putting the money out GM didn’t show it. Will GM put-up or shut-up?.
Have they not seen how non diverse the Cadillac Escalade ads have been? It’s literally catered to the black audience. Buick commercials literally use a Latino inspired beat. The GM Korean dept does ads all the time.
It’s time to address the elephant in the room that yes even black people can be overly racist. It’s starting to be more obvious with this bs..
I clicked this article thinking yes GM need to do more marketing on the bolt, Hummer, GMC brand as a whole, and especially the Cadillac Lyriq. But then I see this is just about some black company complaining that GM isn’t going full out FCA
What I’m hearing here is, If you don’t give us what we want, we will claim racism. What the hell? Your sending a demand memo to a company and telling them what they will do or else? Now that’s a great way to get your foot in the door! I think who ever is in charge of this group should resign, whatever position it is they hold ! Actions like this is part of the problem!!
What organization do Blacks own that systematically disenfranchised White or any other group?…
I like GM Authority to be a forum to learn about and discuss GM vehicles
Bet there is plenty of Black inclusion in auto repossession data.
Airing that out should be mandatory if they want to do business.
The NBA and NFL are totally racist organizations. They employ 90% and 70% blacks respectively when the black population is less than 14%. They are against white folks who really support the games. They are against Asians who don’t have representation (like one in the NBA ?) When LeBron James said go get “Jewish money” you know the black players are a racist bunch.
Liberals don’t like facts. Because they hurt their FEELINGS.
Ok, enough of this BS! Let’s get back to the real reason for this sites existence. This crap needs to be on another site! At least we know Mary Barra is a leader and not a follower though!!! Lol
Wow! Underlying racist feelings coming from, I guess, Caucasians upset when the tables turn! Barre has nothing to lose by meeting with them, but an hour or two !