By Shawn Williams – Dallas South News Editor
I was excited to open up this month’s Black Enterprise magazine and see a familiar face prominently featured. On page 108 (in Motivation, my favorite section) BE highlights the Dallas based Marcus Graham Project. As many DSN readers know, MGP is an internship/boot camp that trains African-American men for careers in advertising.
Lincoln Stephens founded The Marcus Graham Project along with Larry L. Yarrell II after noticing a lack of African-Americans in the advertising business. “I was one of only a few black males at a company of about 300 people,” Stephens told Black Enterprise regarding his first advertising job. The article talks about the work of MGP’s inaugural boot camp last summer and gives tips to help those who may be trying to break into the industry.
The way the article came about is testament to the way advertising and promotion is changing before our eyes. After Stephens appeared in a video featured on the Advertising Age website, a Marcus Graham supporter retweeted a link (@mgproject) for the video to someone at Black Enterprise. They liked what they saw and Stephens received a call soon after.
“It speaks to the power of social media in spreading news,” Stephens said. “Thirty years ago they may have seen the article when their magazine came in the mail and then the process would have been much slower,” he went on to say. Since the article, Stephens said the awareness of the Marcus Graham Project (named after the character Eddie Murphy played in Boomerang) has increased.
A couple of weeks ago, Stephens flew to Colorado to appear on an episode of Feerless Q & A an internet TV show with ad executive Alex Bogusky. Bogusky (of Crispin Porter + Bogusky) was looking to do a show on diversity and said he found The Marcus Graham Project as the most interesting and compelling subject to feature on the show. “Going on a show called Fearless was like God saying ‘Don’t be afraid,’” Stephens said.
Watch live video from FearLess Q+A on Justin.tv
And even with his every busying schedule, Lincoln finds time to snap shots as a volunteer photographer with Dallas South News from time to time. And MGP/DSN have partnered to launch the Marketing/Media Mix a social event for local media and marketing types to network with one another. We continue to salute the accomplishments of our neighbor and collaborator Lincoln Stephens.
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