ABSTRACT
Born on Chicago’s south side into a working class family with Southern roots, young Carol Henny Williams – who was energetic and very smart – never considered a career in advertising (Hayes, 1999). Her parents had high standards and insisted that their five children become “self-sufficient, productive citizens” (Hayes, 1999, p. 184). Williams worked at Sears as a catalog editor while a student at Northwestern University, a highly selective private institution located in Evanston, Illinois, where she majored in Biology intending to become a doctor. However, in 1969, a fortuitous meeting led to her participation in the Basic Advertising Course (BAC), a career training program which grew out of national concerns regarding the lack of opportunities for blacks in the advertising business. The BAC was a 13-week educational program sponsored by the 4 A’s established by two men with extensive advertising experience: Bob Ross, a white man and chairman of the Chicago 4 A’s chapter, and Bill Sharp, a black man and mentee of Ross. Over the years, Sharp led a stellar advertising career – working as a copy supervisor at JWT in Chicago, serving as Vice President of Advertising for Coca-Cola, and founding his own advertising agency in Atlanta. Sharp would eventually be inducted into the prestigious Advertising Hall of Fame. With a rigorous curriculum designed by Sharp, Ross, and Vernon Fryburger, chairman of Northwestern’s Advertising Department, the program’s mission was to counter agencies’ claims that there were no “qualified” blacks with the capabilities demanded of the advertising profession; and to establish a pipeline of black talent trained in copywriting, art direction, media planning, and account management (Chambers, 2008, pp. 183-186). Unbeknownst to Ross, Sharp had already been in discussions with a small group of African-Americans who were already working in advertising, including future agency owners Tom Burrell and Frank Mingo, who were trying to figure out ways to get more blacks involved in the profession. Sharp – charged with implementing the BAC program – recruited white and black advertising practitioners from the Chicago area to serve as the program’s instructors. Seeking individuals who were highly motivated with excellent communication skills, BAC’s first class of ten students met in September 1967 on Northwestern’s campus. Later, classes would meet at different advertising agencies in the Chicago area. The coursework was difficult, providing mock assignments which featured general-market brands, so that the skill set learned would be applicable to a wide variety of marketing and job situations. Sharp wanted to be sure that the students would not be pigeon-holed into only being able to work on advertising directed at black consumers (Chambers, 2008, p. 188). During the program, students’ work was thoroughly critiqued and subjected to the same level of scrutiny that occurred in professional environments. By the end of the course, the participants had built a portfolio of mock advertisements and other work. BAC’s founders wanted to ensure
that the quality of the students’ work was top-notch and that the graduates would be taken seriously. As word spread about the BAC, it attracted a lot of interest. At one point there were 165 applications for eight spots in the program and Sharp had to whittle down the numbers (Chambers, 2008, p. 187). Many of the BAC courses were taught by black instructors, including Sharp, Burrell, and Frank Daughton, along with Ross and others. Carol Williams met Bill Sharp in late 1968 at Northwestern when he happened to attend a play she had written for the campus theater (Hayes, 1999). Impressed with her writing skills, Sharp told Williams about the BAC. Although interested after learning about the class – which would be starting in a few weeks – Williams had missed the application deadline. Recounting her BAC experiences, Williams (2014) recalls: “I wasn’t really in the Basic Ad Class – I audited it. By the time they began that whole thing I had missed the admission [process]. I met Bill Sharp and asked him to let me audit it.” Impressed by Williams’ talent, Sharp and Ross agreed to let her participate in the class. This decision apparently upset Frank Daughton, who was one of Williams’ instructors. “He thought that was totally terrible that other students were privileged and had worked diligently to get themselves to get in position to be in this class and how dare Bill Sharp and Bob Ross allow me to audit that class!” Williams (2014) laughed. “I was considered the most unlikely one to succeed. I was very, very quiet, had this Southern family background, and was still in school. They didn’t pay any attention to me,” Williams (2014) chuckled. The following summer – 1969 – Williams sought out internship opportunities and landed at Leo Burnett in Chicago, one of the most prominent agencies in the advertising industry. Upon completion, she was offered two full-time jobs: one at JWT’s Chicago office, where Bill Sharp worked, and a permanent offer from Leo Burnett. Considering her options, Williams reflected: “I loved the problem-solving aspect of strategic marketing and here I was invited into a field which was very rewarding, challenging and intellectually-driven. I went with my heart” (Hayes, 1999, p. 184). Deciding to remain at Burnett, she recounted her experiences, reflecting on her relationship with Bill Sharp. “Bill was one of my mentors and he taught me. I got a job. Next thing those boys [from the BAC] knew, I was a copy supervisor and moving around the bases” (Williams, 2014). Ironically, Williams acknowledged that most of her classmates who went through the BAC only lasted in the industry for a few years. Sharp, lamenting on the high attrition rate among BAC participants who went on to work for agencies, believed he had made a “major mistake” by not helping the graduates get acclimated to the organizational culture present in most advertising firms (Chambers, 2008, p. 190). In light of these problems, Sharp took what he had learned from the BAC experience and self-published a book titled How to Be Black and Get a Job in the Advertising Agency Business Anyway (Sharp, 1969), which was a primer on black survival in white general-market advertising firms. As a testimony to his mentorship of African-Americans in the advertising profession, the book was re-published in 2015, a few years after Sharp’s death.
