"Sharpton's growing ties to the black business community are evident at NAN's office in the Empire State Building, where his Madison Avenue Initiative is headquartered. MAI, which aims to direct advertising revenue to the black press, originated in May 1999, when Sharpton received a leaked memo about marketing to minorities from the Katz Radio Group, an advertising sales firm, counseling clients to seek "prospects not suspects." Sharpton swung into action: He alerted the press to the memo, and formed an organization to combat what he saw as a "blackout" from national advertisers. After meeting with black and Hispanic radio-station owners, Sharpton announced that "we had stations that were No. 1 or No. 2 in a market, but No. 10 or 11 in revenue," and he cited industry data showing that of the $160 billion that is spent marketing to consumers each year, only $870 million went to black-owned media.
More than 100 black and Latino media companies and advertising agencies--including Inner City Broadcasting, Ebony magazine and Black Entertainment Television--have rallied to the MAI, as have the industry trade associations. According to MAI, the campaign has already achieved positive results, among them that Colgate-Palmolive increased its black and Hispanic advertising budget by 22 percent, and the Federated Department Stores (which includes Macy's) did so by 25 percent; PepsiCo increased its minority advertising budget by 13 percent, and even installed Sharpton on its Ethnic Advisory Council.
With MAI, Sharpton has quite consciously sidestepped some of [Jesse] Jackson's mistakes. In recent months the New York Post and The New Republic (along with a conservative watchdog group, The National Legal and Policy Center) have accused Jackson of endorsing the GTE/Bell Atlantic mega-merger in exchange for a $1 million contribution from those firms. MAI, says Sharpton, is carefully structured to avoid the appearance of any quid pro quo: The organization takes a flat fee from its members and refuses corporate--as well as foundation--contributions. "We do not get money from the white corporations that we challenge," Sharpton insists. "That's the real problem Jackson and them were getting into.... How do you fight organizations that you are funded by?" Still, for Sharpton, there are perks built into MAI's structure: If the black media nationwide--radio, TV, print--increase their revenue as a result of MAI's efforts, those media outlets have every reason to dedicate ample coverage to the organization's primary mover and shaker: the Rev. Al Sharpton."
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010416&c=6&s=sherman
(In other words, whereas Jesse Jackson is a more typical "left" capitalist politician, in his association with certain sectors of capital, Sharpton is distinguished by his activism on behalf of a small and subordinate, but clearly expanding stratum of capital.)