Press Releases

National Action Network’s National Executive Director Tamika D. Mallory To Join Grammy-Award-Winning R&b Star Keri Hilson, Smokey Fontaine (interactive One), Al Thompson (Film/TV Actor) & Siddiq Bello (Digital Strategist) For Digitas & Interactive One Conversation About African-Americans And Urban Consumers

NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK’S NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TAMIKA D. MALLORY TO JOIN GRAMMY-AWARD-WINNING R&B STAR KERI HILSON, SMOKEY FONTAINE (INTERACTIVE ONE), AL THOMPSON (FILM/TV ACTOR) & SIDDIQ BELLO (DIGITAL STRATEGIST) FOR DIGITAS & INTERACTIVE ONE CONVERSATION ABOUT AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND URBAN CONSUMERS

WHO:

Tamika D. Mallory, National Executive Director, National Action Network
Keri Hilson, Grammy-nominated R&B/Pop artist
Al Thompson, film/TV actor, web series creator, CEO Valdean Entertainment
Tamika Mallory, Exec Director of the National Action Network
Siddiq Bello, legendary digital strategist
Smokey Fontaine (moderator), Chief Content Officer, Interactive One

BACKGROUND:

National Action Network’s National Executive Director Tamika D. Mallory is among a stellar list of panelists participating in a shared dialogue about African-Americans & urban culture in New York today as part of a special Interactive One and Digitas event. Some of the issues that will be addressed include what it means to be “authentic” to an African-American audience and why it is important, and why African-Americans have enormous purchasing power but are not fairly represented in ad dollar distribution and positions of management.

Today, NAN fights to make sure that the ad industry values the consumers that have the most buying power. Despite the fact that the buying power of African-Americans is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to The State of the African-AmericanConsumer Report, NAN’s hope is that there are benefits proportionate to our buying power.

NAN launched The Madison Avenue Initiative or “MAI” in 1999-a program designed to address the inequities in the advertising industry.  NAN looks into the spending practices of corporations, specifically examining whether their advertising budgets with African-American and Latino publications and advertising agencies is commensurate with their consumer bases. MAI has successfully pushed for corporations to make advertising purchases that approach the level of minority consumer patronage of their products in specific markets.