Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is the latest Black owner of a media company to take on General Motors.
Combs wrote an open letter Thursday challenging GM to do better in terms of economic inclusion. He seeks for GM and other corporations to more fairly distribute their advertising spending to include more Black-owned media companies. Short of that, he hinted at a boycott.
The letter Combs ran on REVOLT, his cable network’s entertainment and news site, and tweeted was titled, WE DEMAND MORE: A LETTER FROM SEAN COMBS.
“When confronted by the leaders of several Black-owned media companies, General Motors listed my network, REVOLT, as an example of the Black-owned media it supports,” Combs wrote in the letter. “While REVOLT does receive advertising revenue from GM, our relationship is not an example of success. Instead, REVOLT, just like other Black-owned media companies, fights for crumbs while GM makes billions of dollars every year from the Black community.”
GM spokesman Pat Morrissey reacted to Combs’ letter saying that GM has agreed to hold several meetings over the next few weeks with Black-owned media and has vowed to boost the amount of ad dollars it spends with Black-owned media.
“In 2021, for example, we doubled our spend with Black-owned media groups to 2%,” Morrissey said. “We will increase our spend with this important segment to 4% in 2022, and will continue to grow our spend thereafter with a target of 8% by 2025.”
No meeting invitation yet
Combs’ letter comes after Byron Allen — who owns Allen Media Group, which owns the Weather Channel — and six others ran an ad in March 28’s Detroit Free Press calling GM CEO Mary Barra racist for what they describe as years of refusing to meet with them.
The group charged GM with spending less than 0.5% of its annual advertising budget with Black-owned media. GM disputes that, saying it is 2%.
After that first ad ran in the Free Press, GM had scheduled a meeting between Barra, Allen and the others.
But days later, Allen and the others ran the ad again in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Michigan Chronicle. They did so because they said GM was making the meeting agenda about GM’s donations to Black causes rather than to discuss business.
GM denounced the ad as being full of “factual inaccuracies and character assault.” The automaker canceled the group’s meeting with Barra, saying instead GM would hold a series of smaller meetings with all of its Black-owned media partners.
Besides Allen, the signatories on the original full-page ad included rapper and actor Ice Cube, former NBA star Junior Bridgeman and Central City Productions CEO Don Jackson.
As of Thursday, Allen said he has not been invited to one of those meetings. But Morrissey said some of those who signed the original full-page ad with Allen have received invitations. The meetings have started this week and will continue for the next few weeks.
“Mary will participate in some of them, but not all of them,” Morrissey told the Free Press. “Other meetings will be with other marketing executives.”
Morrissey declined to provide any other specifics about the meetings.
‘Shut up and be happy’
In his letter, Combs defended the men’s decision to run the full-page ad again.
“Exposing GM’s historic refusal to fairly invest in Black-owned media is not an assassination of character, it’s exposing the way GM and many other advertisers have always treated us,” Combs wrote. “No longer can Corporate America manipulate our community into believing that incremental progress is acceptable action.”
Combs said in the letter that corporations like GM have “exploited our culture, undermined our power and excluded Black entrepreneurs from participating in the value created by Black consumers.”
He wrote that in 2019, brands spent $239 billion on advertising, yet less than 1% of that was invested in Black-owned media companies.
“Out of the roughly $3 billion General Motors spent on advertising, we estimate only $10 million was invested in Black-owned media,” Combs wrote.
“Like the rest of corporate America, General Motors is telling us to sit down, shut up and be happy with what we get,” Combs wrote.
Morrissey said Combs’ figures are not accurate, telling the Free Press that GM spends “significantly less than $3 billion in advertising per year.”
GM does not disclose its ad spending, Morrissey said, but he said the $3 billion annual spend that GM disclosed in its annual Securities and Exchange filing included all marketing and communications spending. Actual advertising spending is “much less than $3 billion.”
‘Weaponize our dollars’
Still, Combs wrote that it is “disrespectful that Black-owned media companies only represent 1% of the total advertising market” and that distributors refuse to carry Black-owned media brands “in an era where our impact and influence is undeniable.”
“It’s disrespectful that the same community that represents 14% of the population and spends over $1.4 trillion annually is still the most economically undervalued and underserved at every level,” Combs wrote.
Combs then hinted at a Black-led economic boycott.
“We demand that Corporate America reinvest an equitable percentage of what you take from our community back into our community. If the Black community represents 15% of your revenue, Black-owned media should receive at least 15% of the advertising spend,” Combs said. “The same way you understand the power of our dollars, we understand our power to take them away from any corporation that doesn’t give us the economic inclusion we deserve. We are prepared to weaponize our dollars.”
In a tweet, he wrote, “If you love us, pay us!”
‘A vital component’
Barra has said GM aspires to be the most inclusive company in the world and is committed to partnering with minority-owned media organizations, including Black-owned media companies.
“Black-owned media are a vital component of our marketing mix, and we evaluate our spend for media partners through several core metrics, including transparency, innovation, ad quality, audience delivery and brand safety,” Morrissey said.
GM has made investments in “business enablers such as customized deal structures and facilitating access to measurement and mentorship tools, which are often a barrier for small and emerging businesses,” Morrissey said.
Additionally, in May GM will launch Diverse Owned Media Upfront, which is a dedicated briefing to diverse media owners that encourages partners and potential partners to submit business proposals. GM said it will be accredited by a third party to ensure fairness and transparency.
“As the company with the largest diversity media spend in our industry, we are committed to evaluating our approach on a regular basis to ensure we maintain our leadership position,” Morrissey said.
More:GM CEO Barra fights back against racist label after second ad runs
More:GM’s Mary Barra postpones Thursday meeting with Black-owned media
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.