Eugene Morris: In order for marketers to understand black folks, they have to walk in our shoes

-Shomari Hines Yesterday in Vegas the 4A's Media Conference kicked off with the whose is who in advertising saying their piece on ad practices and ways to better understand minority consumers. However the one that stood out more to us was Eugene Morris, head of E. Morris Communications who basically said advertisers and ad agencies need to do more to understand the African American consumer. He stopped short of saying they should move in with a black family to see how they live. Hmm a white ad exec from DDB moving in with a black family? This is some MTV reality TV shit right here. E. Morris Communications founder Eugene Morris was the moderator for the session labeled "The Business Case for Diversity." But given the vast clear out of the hall as soon as this panel got going, MediaWorks was left to wonder who was left to hear the case. Still, it is an issue the industry better start figuring out, and Morris was quick to tell those in the room they better get a better plan than their current one -- getting multicultural representation within mainstream ad agencies by stealing from African-American and Hispanic shops. "One, that is not going to help the industry, and two, that is not going to help me," he said, because it leaves the industry with no net increase of staffers who aren't white. Day One of the 4A's Media Conference [Adage]