Looking For Beyoncé, Part 1: The Color Conflict

This article from the Florida Courier is long, but it’s a very good read. The writer dissects the Ciroc ad controversy and gives some insight into what went wrong and the necessary steps that are being taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Thanks to the Florida Courier for the nod to Sandrarose.com in the article.

A brief ad on a Miami-based modeling web site set off a legal and ethical firestorm on Tuesday, forcing hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and his organization into full-scale damage control to prevent the Internet from taking down a prestige liquor brand.

The ad, which appeared on Miami based Ethnicity Modeling’s ethnicitytalent.com web site, read as follows: “Ciroc Promotion. Ciroc promo is this Friday, March 27, 2009. Time: 3:00pm – 7:00pm and 12:00am – 3:00am Requirements: Race: White, hispanic or light skinned african american. Height: At least 5’6 or taller. Size 7 or smaller. Thisis a cash @ wrap job and the booking will be thru our partner. Please submit asap. Talent will only be contacted if the client is interested in booking you!!! Compensation: $35.00 per hour.”

Ciroc is an ultrapremium French vodka manufactured by Diageo, one of the world’s leading premium drink companies. Diageo also owns Smirnoff, Baileys, Tanqueray, Johnny Walker, J&B, Cuervo, and Captain Morgan, among other alcoholic beverage brands.

In 2007, Diageo entered into “a groundbreaking strategic alliance” with Combs to oversee and manage all branding and marketing initiatives for CÎROC Vodka,” according to Ciroc’s official web site.

The problem: The promotion solicitation was clearly illegal under various anti-discrimination laws, but it didn’t come from Diddy. Neither he nor his in-house advertising agency Blue Flame, which is responsible for all of Ciroc’s advertising and marketing, authorized it.

What happened?

Dia Simms is general manager of Blue Flame. She says that a Miamibased talent company, the Tysom Agency, was given instruction to find “gorgeous girls” for a Circoc promotion in Miami. Tysom is Black-owned.

“The (Tysom) agency came up with its own criteria, and without our knowledge or consent, sent an e-mail to Ethnicity Modeling requesting White, Hispanic or lightskinned African-Americans,” Simms told the Florida Courier.

Ethnicity is a wellknown Miami-based modeling agency owned by LaShawnna Stanley. It specializes in supplying “ethnic,” non-White models to other agencies and media and for videos, films and events. (The Florida Courier uses Ethnicity models for its ‘Florida’s Finest’ page.)

Tysom and Ethnicity have developed a close working relationship over the years. Stanley’s agency cut and pasted the information in the e-mail from Tysom and posted it to the casting call page on the ethnicitytalent.com web site.

Atlanta-based Imperative Talent Management, a company that searches the Internet daily for modeling jobs, copied the Ethnicity listing and sent it out in an e-mail blast to its clients, including “Kiana,” a Black model in the Atlanta area.

Ad went viral

Kiana, a reader of celebrity blogger Sandra Rose’s web site, sandrarose.com, went to Rose’s site and castigated Combs and Ciroc.

“I became outraged and appalled as I saw that I had been excluded from the job because I am not a ‘light-skinned’ African- American woman,” Kiana wrote. “…Sean Combs and Kim Porter [Combs’ longtime girlfriend] are themselves what is considered ‘dark-skinned’ African- American people. What image does this promote? One of self loathing?… I am very disappointed in this company and in Puff Daddy. Thisis a sham and a disgrace. I will no longer support him, this company or any other of his business endeavors. I will forward this email to every African-American person that I know and convince them of the same.”

Rose then went ballistic on her blogsite. In an entry entitled, “Ciroc doesn’t like dark skinned African Americans,” she wrote, “Thisis not imagined, it is very real and it’s been going on within the industry for far too long! Please forward Kiana’s email (or this post) to all your friends to inform them that Ciroc doesn’t value them as customers due to the melanin in their skin!”

Eventually, the e-mail and links got into the inbox of lawyers like David Honig.

‘Illegal’ advertising

Honig, a Florida-based Washington, D.C. attorney, is special counsel for civil rights for the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches and an experienced civil rights litigator.

“Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and virtually all state anti-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination based on color as well as discrimination based on race,” Honig told the Florida Courier. “Congress wisely included “color” in the statute because color discrimination – a close cousin of race discrimination – imposes a badge of inferiority, a stigma of unworthiness, and low self-esteem on those who happened to be born with a dark complexion. That is unacceptable in a civilized society.

“Therefore, an advertisement for paid employment containing a restriction for race or complexion that expressly excludes darkskinned African-Americans, and that apparently also excludes Asians and Native Americans of any complexion, is unlawful on its face.

“The advertisement’s solicitation of African- Americans only if they are ‘light-skinned’ does not fit under a very narrow exception to Title VII. For example, it would be lawful for a talent agency to consider only African- American actors to play the part of Othello. Shakespeare wrote the part of Othello for a Black actor, but Ciroc, a beverage, can be consumed by persons of any race or complexion.”

Setting it straight

Though Simms understood the seriousness of the situation, she called any accusation that Combs would discriminate on the basis of skin color “laughable.”

“We go out of our way to book Black models,” she said. “We’ve done hundreds of events featuring thousands of models of every ethnicity over the years. We are a minorityowned company. I am a Black woman. It doesn’t make sense for our company to employ a ‘paper bag’ test in 2009.

“It’s damaging to Ciroc, to our company, and it’s personally hurtful to Mr. Combs,” she fumed. “The fact that this issue resurfaces lets you know how far we have to go as people.”

Still, Simms says the buck stops with her company. “Ultimately, this is our responsibility. We will use this as a ‘teachable moment’ inside our company and for the people we do business with to make sure this never happens again.”

Who’s to blame?

Honig believes that neither Combs’ nor Stanley’s companies are legally liable under the circumstances.

“Neither Sean Combs, his company Blue Flame, nor Ethnicity Models appears to be responsible for the advertisement. They are equal opportunity employers that for many years have promoted diversity and have hired or made possible the employment of African- Americans of all complexions,” he explained.

But Honig won’t say who he would sue, if he was Combs’ attorney.