New York officials will be monitoring the number of minorities working for New York advertising agencies over the next three years. Under the threat and pressure from equal rights advocates and the pressure of city officials, many of New York’s top ad agencies have agreed to recruit more minorities. Primarily, they agencies will be hiring more African Americans.

This is a big deal as advertising agencies have signed a written agreement with the Human Rights Commission to reflect the diversity of the New York population in the top ad agencies. Data shows that in 2005 virtually no upper management were non-white and only 3 percent of staffers were African American. Some big agencies like WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis Groupe SA’s Saatchi & Saatchi and several others will devote themself to finding and hiring more minority staff members.