The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the lawyer who spearheaded a massive class action against Coca-Cola are now targeting the advertising industry, citing "dramatic levels of racial discrimination" against African Americans throughout the industry, in such areas as incomes, recruitment, and promotion. Called the Madison Avenue Project, the plan, announced Jan. 8, is designed to apply public pressure on advertising agencies and expose what the NAACP and law firm Mehri & Skalet say are systematic biases against African Americans within the industry.

"Forty-five years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, [advertising] is still a closed society," attorney Cyrus Mehri said at a Manhattan press conference. "We're not going to let go until this industry makes a giant step forward."

The NAACP campaign isn't the first time the advertising industry has come under fire for discriminatory hiring practices. Long known for its clubby culture, Madison Avenue was targeted by civic groups as early as 1963, when an investigation by the Urban League of Greater New York pointed out that fewer than 25 African Americans—out of some 20,000 total employees in advertising—held "creative or executive positions." Most recently, a 2006 probe by the Human Rights Commission of New York found that only 2.5% of those advertising agency employees who made more than $100,000 annually were African American.