It turns out that the ad industry has managed to find some minority people to hire after all! The NYC Human Rights Commission has been formally on the industry's ass to hire more non-white people and stop being such insular crackers. But everybody watching assumed they would fail, because ad reporters are extremely cynical and also because the industry really didn't seem to give a fuck itself. But hey, looks like they have snagged some of those elusive employees "of color!":

Ms. Gatling reiterated statistics released this spring that found that five of the 16 ad agencies that signed on have not met all their minority-hiring goals in the first year of their diversity pact with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. However, the remaining agencies either met or exceeded all their 2007 goals... The average goal was 18% for minority hiring and the average result was 25%, Ms. Gatling said.

Eleven out of sixteen means a majority! And this is certainly progress from two years ago:

During Advertising Week 2006, Mr. Seabrook had called hearings decrying minority-owned media outlets' lack of advertising, and nobody turned up. The agencies, Mr. Seabrook said at the time, "ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean."

If the ad industry can take care of this, then it can turn its attention to the gays. [Ad Age]