Advertising agencies feeling the pinch.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

THE BLACK-OWNED ADVERTISING AGENCIES WERE DEALT A ONE-TWO PUNCH in 2008. Billings for the industry, which have been trending downward in recent years, were pummeled by the near collapse of the American automotive industry. Mounting losses at General Motors, one of the largest advertisers in the U.S., forced the auto giant to significantly scale back its advertising budget. Agencies on the BE list were confronted with their toughest assignment by the fourth quarter of 2008: to motivate consumers to spend when they're clutching their pocketbooks for dear life. Personal consumption, which accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy, decreased more in the fourth quarter of 2008 than in the third quarter. This was the largest decline since the second quarter of 1980 and lowered real gross domestic product by nearly three percentage points.

These factors, among others, sent a ripple through the ad industry. Agencies, whether they were behemoths or Lilliputians, were not immune to the unmerciful environment. Among the results is a reduction in the number of black advertising agencies qualifying for our list, from 15 agencies to 10. A number of the BE perennials such as GlobalHue, Burrell Communications Group L.L.C., and UniWorld Group Inc. remained on the list, but they had to seriously batten down the hatches and develop new strategic plans. While there's little doubt that advertising will continue to be a means to reach consumers, the sluggishness of the down cycle combined with fundamental shifts in the industry have presented perhaps the greatest challenge that most of the agencies have ever seen.

This   Last
Year   Year           Company              Location

   1      1   GlobalHue                 Southfield, MI
   2      2   Carol H. Williams         Oakland, CA
                Advertising
   3      3   UniWorld Group Inc.       New York, NY
   4      4   Burrell Communications    Chicago, IL
                Group L.L.C.
   5      5   Sanders\Wingo             El Paso, TX
                Advertising Inc.
   6     --   o2ideas Inc.              Birmingham, AL
   7      6   IMAGES USA                Atlanta, GA
   8     10   FUSE                      St. Louis, MO
   9      7   Prime Access Inc.         New York, NY
  10     14   R.J. Dale Advertising &   Chicago, IL
                Public Relations Inc.

This            Chief                    Billings
Year          Executive       Staff   (in millions)

   1   Donald A. Coleman       207      $379.500
   2   Carol H. Williams       137       311.000

   3   Byron E. Lewis          143       234.000
   4   McGhee Williams         127       190.000
         Osse/Fay Ferguson
   5   Robert V. Wingo          94       111.773

   6   Shelley Stewart          70        86.000
   7   Robert L. McNeil Jr.     48        76.700
   8   Clifford Franklin3       24        71.661
   9   Howard Buford            42        60.600
  10   Robert J. Dale           22        40.000

AS OF DEC. 31, 2008. SOURCE: B.E. RESEARCH REVIEWED
BY KBL, L.L.P. CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS & ADVISORS