Special to the NNPA

(NNPA) – Today, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, has announced the creation of The Marketing & Media Project to coordinate the organization's activities and initiatives within the advertising and media industries.

The Marketing & Media Project will join RPC's other industry-focused projects whose mission is to protect, defend, and gain civil and economic rights by leveling the playing fields. The current initiatives are: The Telecommunications Project, The Peachtree Street Project, The Automotive Project, The Energy & Science Project, The Entertainment Project, The Wall Street Project, and The Silicon Valley Project.

"For more than a decade we have engaged corporations on their contracts and economic relationships with African-American advertising agencies and African-American media companies," Rev. Jackson said. "The creation of The Marketing & Media Project signals the elevation of that dialogue at a critical time. Current economic factors have put these businesses in peril because Corporate America has ignored the unique expertise they possess, while discounting the bottom-line significance of the consumers they represent. By centralizing our resources we can better achieve justice and economic fairness for all."

Rainbow PUSH will invite African-American-owned advertising agencies, public relations firms, marketing communications firms and media companies to become member partners of The Marketing & Media Project and to provide RPC with insight and strategy on the critical issues they are facing.

At its recent annual conference, RPC announced an agreement reached with KFC in which the restaurant chain will partner with minority-owned marketing firms to develop programs and strategies targeting minority consumers, and allocate up to 10 percent of KFC's national media budget.

Among the issues that The Marketing & Media Project will immediately address are:

• Securing opportunities and fairness as part of the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal
• Initiating a dialogue with The Obama administration's Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities on increasing the allocation of the $1 billion Federal advertising budget to African-American-owned ad agencies and media
• Negotiating with the automotive, telecom and other industries on the engagement of African-American advertising agencies, public relations firms and other professional services companies
• Entering into a dialogue with marketing and media trade associations on a commitment of inclusion of African American professionals within their ranks
• The establishment of research and databases to quantify the economic relationship between marketers, advertising agencies, Black radio stations, Black newspapers, Black magazines, Black TV and cable companies and the African-American consumer market
• Establish coordination between all entities of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition on marketing, media and advertising issues at the local and national levels, including 1000 Churches Connected and PUSH Excel