September 17, 2020
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Carol H. Williams will receive Ad Age’s Vanguard Award during this year’s Women to Watch Awards event scheduled tonight.
Williams, the CEO of Carol H. Williams Advertising, is being honored for a lifetime of significant achievements, including being named to the AAF Advertising Hall of Fame.
According to a news release, now in its second year, the Vanguard Awards is given to women like Williams, who have inspired, mentored, and blazed trails for other women in the industry.
“Carol H. Williams personifies the best and the most effective advertising genius mind in the global advertising industry,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
“The NNPA congratulates and salutes Carol H. Williams not only for her outstanding leadership but also for her longstanding commitment to freedom, justice, and equality. Our society and the world continue to be made better because of leaders like Carol H. Williams.”
The first African American female to be named a VP and creative director at Leo Burnett Co., Williams opened her firm in 1986.
Among the Fortune 500 clients she has created work for are General Motors, General Mills, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, the U.S. Army, and Walt Disney Co.
Williams is also the first African American creative inductee in the Advertising Hall of Fame and a 2020 Matrix Award honoree.
Her creative credits include Secret’s “Strong enough for a man but made for a woman,” and campaigns for brands including New Freedom and Pillsbury while at Burnett.
Williams reportedly has led and motivated more than 5,000 employees over a more than 30-year career and has exceeded $30 million in revenue during high-performance and growth periods.
The agency previously won an award for its multicultural online and interactive campaign during the 2018 Chevy/NNPA DTU campaign.
"Powerful narratives are the shaping force in our lives and thereby creates empathy and motivates action at their most profound level,” Williams told NNPA Newswire in a statement on Tuesday, Sept. 15. “Narratives that ignite and nurture passions within us, envision new possibilities, develop confidence, and inspire us to overcome any obstacles that we face in making what was once unimaginable, imaginable,” she stated.
September 10, 2020
LAWT News Service
“Success Post-COVID-19: Navigating Our New Next” is this year’s theme for The Los Angeles Black Business Expo. Hundreds of our community’s most influential business leaders, business owners and consumers will join the Expo online, which returns on Saturday, September 12, 2020.
Founded in 1989, by event producer extraordinaire and thriving entrepreneur Barbara Lindsey, The Los Angeles Black Business Expo re-emerges as the Premier Event for Black Business Empowerment, Networking, and Job Opportunities. “In the face of COVID-19 and its devastating impact on communities of color, now more than ever, it is imperative to continue our mission of promoting and empowering Black-owned businesses in the Greater Los Angeles region and beyond,” Lindsey stated.
The legacy continues the vision of origin. That vision borne to Barbara Lindsey, Harold Hambrick (date of death), and Dr. Clyde Oden remains the same: Support Black-owned Businesses to fuel the Black economy, locally, regionally and nationally.
According to Nielsen Company research, Black consumers speak directly to brands in unprecedented ways as they achieve headline-making results. Through social media, Black consumers have brokered a seat at the table and are demanding that brands and marketers speak to them in ways that resonate culturally and experimentally if these brands want their business. And, with Black purchasing power being $1.4 trillion in 2019, it appears that Black Americans are a force to be reckoned with.
This event will feature more than 40 speakers and over 60 businesses including George Fraser, founder of the largest African-American networking conference for people of African-descent, The Power Networking Conference; Les Brown, internationally-renown motivational speaker and best-selling author; and more than 30 high-impact educational and informative workshops and seminars.
Please join us on Saturday, September 12, 2020 from 9:00AM to 3:00PM PST. For additional event information, please call Tracy Brown at (310) 346-9857. For technical assistance or additional information, please call Ronald Miller at (909) 565-0224. For press inquiries, please call Karen Lewis at (323) 424-9400 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
September 10, 2020
By Quinci LeGardye
California Black Media
After months of uproar, harsh criticisms and biting commentary from advocates representing various industries, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2257 into law on Sept. 4. The legislation is an AB 5 amendment bill, and it will go into effect immediately.
AB 2257 builds on the controversial worker misclassification law by clarifying which industries will be exempted from AB 5’s restrictions.
AB 5, which took effect in January of this year, reclassified millions of independent contractors in California to W-2 employees based on what the state calls “the ABC test” to comply with a 2018 state Supreme Court ruling called the Dynamex decision.
Exempted industries will now instead be classified by legal criteria called the Borello standard, which previously allowed more workers to operate as independent contractors in the state.
Professions added to AB 2257 exemptions include freelance writers, photographers, translators, visual artists, musicians, film support crews, real estate appraisers and insurance underwriters, among others. The bill also clarifies language regarding sole proprietors and adds new language regarding referral agencies.
Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), author of both AB 2257 and AB 5, said, “AB 2257 represents a comprehensive framework for employment law that makes a clear distinction between employer-employee relationships and professionals that run their own independent businesses.”
Gonzalez said the amendment bill was based on “long standing precedent” developed in case law over the past 30 years.”
“The legislation was a product of robust dialogue over the last year with workers and businesses from every part of the state and reflects the main principles found in the Dynamex decision,” she added.
Independent contractors and freelancers have been pushing back against AB 5 since it was first announced in 2019, prompting fear of job losses that were later exacerbated by the pandemic. Throughout the 2020 legislative year, Gonzalez had meetings with various industries regarding the bill’s exemptions.
AB 2257 also ensures that workers who are subject to “undue control and direction from their employer” or could not satisfy the previous Borello standard are covered by the ABC test, according to Gonzalez’s statement.
Those workers who have been reclassified are now entitled to benefits, including worker’s compensation, overtime pay, paid time off, and more.
September 10, 2020
By Brian Carter
Contributing Writer
Taste of Soul is more than a family festival, it is also an economic empowerment festival designed to spotlight our Black businesses in and around South Los Angeles. Although the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all events for 2020—our support for these businesses is never canceled. To that end, Bakewell Media has launched the ‘Support a Black Business Advertising Campaign.’
“As the community knows, unfortunately, Bakewell Media had to cancel the 2020 Taste of Soul. In its place, the company made the decision to create a campaign that highlighted and supported our local Black businesses. We are calling upon all of our partners, sponsors and major corporations to step up and underwrite the advertising/marketing campaigns of our local Black businesses. These businesses need our support now more than ever, and it is only through our collective efforts that we can come through this pandemic with our businesses still in tack,” said Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., Chairman & CEO of Bakewell Media, Chairman and founder/creator of Taste of Soul.
To say 2020 is an unprecedented year is an understatement, as COVID-19 has taken a toll in more ways than one. Unfortunately, it has become glaringly clear that the Black community is bearing the brunt of this devastation in more ways than one. Black businesses are in crisis right now and in need of support. As a community, we must collectively come together to save these businesses which not only provide goods and services to the community, but provide jobs, empower families, and make our community stronger.
A recent survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research, showed that from February to April of 2020, the U.S saw the largest drop in businesses on record. The survey also shows there was a 41 percent drop in Black businesses due to COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing mandates. Although there are government and local initiatives to help businesses stay afloat, Black businesses have had less access to these resources than their White counterparts and require a greater need for community support and corporate assistance. The Black Business Advertising Campaign seeks to be that extra boost that these community businesses desperately need.
“Most of the businesses within our community cannot afford an advertising campaign and have lost anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of their revenue because of this pandemic. Businesses have had to reorganize and recalibrate in order remain open. It will take years for these businesses to recover,” said Bakewell. “The pain of this economic hardship has resulted in a need for businesses to promote and advertise in more creative ways today, including new hours of operation, delivery options, online orders and other new services.”
In order to promote these businesses and to encourage our community to support our local Black businesses, the advertising campaign program is designed to provide assistance and help them secure the desperately needed advertising and outreach mechanisms these businesses often find challenging to afford. Even in the best of times, our local businesses often find themselves with the lack of resources needed to secure this level of outreach. Having the benefit of an outreach and advertising campaign, that is designed to increase exposure and to draw in more customers, could be a lifeline to business owners trying to keep their doors open. The goal is to provide information that serves as a reminder that these businesses are still open and desperately need and welcome the community’s patronage.
We can help by shopping with Black businesses locally, and on site for those who offer outdoor seating, or ordering for online delivery or take out. We want to remind everyone that the Covid-19 pandemic is not over, so we encourage all to continue practicing social distancing and by wearing masks whenever indoors or outdoors and avoid large gathering. There are a number of Black businesses out there who need our assistance and we encourage our entire Taste of Soul Nation to join us in supporting these businesses today and throughout the year.
Through the Black Business Advertising Campaign, the LA Sentinel is recruiting major companies with the resources needed to help these local Black businesses.
To receive more information and support the campaign, please contact Nicole Williams, Taste of Soul/LA Sentinel project manager, at nicolew@lasentinel or 323-299-3800.