Madness: Cut out all the black people.

In the late 70's, I worked on an ad campaign for a soft drink company. After we screened it, the client said "Great commercial - just cut out all the black people." I had done a research paper in graduate school - a content analysis on print ads at that time, and the roles that black people played in them. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, pullman porters and maids abounded. For the soft drink campaign, we cast African Americans in more aspirational roles. But this client wanted no part of it - he wanted no black people at all! I was so disgusted I wanted to walk out of the screening room, but of course I would have been immediately fired. We cut out all the black actors from the spots.