Topic
- Artificial Intelligence
Jo Muse, cofounder of the first truly multicultural advertising agency, has died suddenly at age 72.
Muse cofounded Muse Cordero Chen in Los Angeles in 1987 with David Chen and Mavis Cordero. The shop was at the forefront of multicultural marketing, bringing advertising that catered to different minorities under one roof.
Muse Cordero Chen pioneered the total market approach to advertising, using consumer insights to develop marketing strategy that embraces diverse audiences. When the agency was founded, Muse’s first clients were clear they needed expertise from various races and cultures to be truly inclusive, Muse said on the Ad Age Marketer’s Brief podcast in November 2022.
“I think the problem has been the knee-jerk reaction from the generalists regarding total marketing is them being able to do it, and it is not as easy to propagate, develop and stimulate total behavior and experience at the consumer-product level without a multicultural staff designed to do that work,” Muse said. “Total marketing is a good concept, it hasn’t fully been achieved.”
Muse died on April 9, his family said.
Although The New York Times likened the concept to “a high-concept situation comedy” at the time, the agency’s success soon spoke for itself. Less than 10 years after its founding, Muse Cordero Chen was doing $30 million in business and expanded to open a New York office. The agency had picked up client work from the California Department of Health Services, Cigna, PepsiCo, Miller Brewing Co. and the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the early days, Muse admitted the agency wasn’t very good at a traditional pitch. “We stunk up the room,” he said of the agency’s pitch for Family Bargain Centers, according to a New York Times interview in 1992.
But with some staff changes and several rehearsal sessions, it didn’t take long for the agency to up its game. Muse Cordero Chen became Nike’s first multicultural ad agency, and while the general account was handled by Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy, the agency persuaded the company to run an ad that encouraged Black youth to pursue their dreams for a broader audience.
In the 1992 New York Times interview, Nike’s then-director of advertising Scott Bedbury said the company was so confident that the campaign, which warned “Life preys on one-dimensional players,” would have a general appeal, that the marketer revised its spring media plan to run the ad in Sports Illustrated.
“Where the country is heading is toward more culturally intelligent communications,” Bedbury said at the time. “You have to find ways to bring along a lot of people at one time. It’s not a melting pot. It’s a mixed salad. And you have to appreciate all the distinct elements.”
Muse excelled at getting people to appreciate “all the distinct elements.” To those who knew him, Muse was a creative leader who liked to push buttons but always with a level head. A Black man in the white-dominated world of advertising, Muse wasn’t afraid to challenge a client’s belief about where the business should go or how to connect with consumers.
Muse Cordero Chen kept a quote on the wall that read “Do the undoable, think the unthinkable, and most of all, make the motherfuckers sweat,” referencing the time a Nike exec told the agency’s team, “every time you guys present to me, you make me sweat.”
“In the business, you always want to get a visceral reaction from someone,” said Jordan Muse, Jo Muse’s son, who is now executive partner and head of account leadership at The Martin Agency. “My dad enjoyed the fact that their work made them sweat or put them on the edge.”
Muse’s philosophy extended to his business relationships as well. Working on the Nike account, he developed a unique relationship with Dan Wieden, showing him that hiring diverse people could benefit his agency. Muse even gave his blessing when the agency’s account leader on Nike, Jimmy Smith, left Muse for Wieden+Kennedy, according to Muse’s daughter Aireka.
“They were kindred spirits,” Aireka Muse said. “I don’t think [Wieden+Kennedy] would be the diverse place that it is without my father.”
“The true greats, no matter the industry, no matter their social economic status, they all share one trait. They say what they do, and they do what they say. Jo Muse was one of those brothers,” said Smith, who is now chairman and CEO of Amusement Park Entertainment.
“I had a job interview with him in December 1990. He said he was going to hire me to work on the Nike account at Muse Cordero Chen. When the interview ended, and as I was leaving, I asked Jo when I should check back in. He looked at me, smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll call you.’ Well, to my surprise, that is exactly what Jo did a few weeks later. The rest is history. That may seem like a very small thing. However, not until these last few years did I truly realize how unique, great and special Jolett Melvin Muse was. If only we could all emulate that one trait. We will miss him dearly.”
In 2022, Muse was inducted into the American Advertising Hall of Fame—the same year his son was inducted into the Hall of Achievement, honoring those under the age of 40.
Muse never pushed his children into the ad industry, but both found themselves there as adults. Aireka is a screenwriter for TriStar Pictures and creative director and copywriter who opened her own agency, A + B, and Jordan has made a name for himself at Martin.
Both Muse children often visited their father’s office or went on shoots, exposing them to the opportunities of the ad world, and Muse nurtured their creativity. He bought Aireka her first typewriter when she was a child and encouraged her to write a newsletter she sold in her neighborhood for a quarter.
“It was all sparked from my father’s entrepreneurism and creativity and trying to instill that into us,” Aireka said. “He taught me that creativity could be currency. What I’m able to think and do is a skill and a gift.”
“Growing up in an agency and seeing creativity in its rawest forms—not necessarily so homogenous as you could be in an agency now—it gave me the confidence to walk into a room and speak confidently about my own experiences,” Jordan said.
In April 2019, Muse sold Muse Communications to William Campbell and Quantasy & Associates, who continue multicultural work in both brand advertising and digital technology. Muse Communications had been a longtime partner to Campbell and Quantasy, and the agency’s industry-leading multicultural strategy and creative prowess proved to be a great asset to the future of Quantasy’s business, according to Campbell, who is CEO.
But Muse did not sit idly in retirement. He worked with the Boy Scouts of America, as well as the Los Angeles Visitors Bureau, and was on the board of directors for The Center Theater Group, L.A.’s premier live theater organization. He was also a founding member of the Greater Los Angeles Black Chamber of Commerce.
Muse continued to be an advisor to Quantasy and worked with a life coach to plan what he wanted to do next. He started a podcast, “Musings with Jo Muse,” which featured interviews filled with insights Muse said he wished he knew when he started his career in advertising. In season six of the podcast, he was planning on branching into video.
Muse also published his first novel, “Mixed Blessings, Is Race Real?” He was working on a self-help autobiography called “From Mississippi to Madison Ave.” when he died.
