Access Communications Group

Access Communications Group created controversial Kansas City radio ads for the national Republican political action committee during the 2002 election cycle. These ads were targeted at African-American voters and equated Social Security to "reverse reparations." 

The ads were strongly criticized by the NAACP, and immediately disavowed by GOPAC, the Republican political action committee that paid for the ads. John Uhlmann, a principal for Access Communications Group (who also as served as a member on the GOPAC board of directors) admitted his company produced that ad but that it was unauthorized for release by GOPAC. He claimed the release of the ad to radio stations was "accidental". 

The ads were run in support of the House candicacy of GOPAC-endorsed Adam Taff. 

The text of the controversial ad read


 * ''Female Announcer: You've heard about reparations, you know, where whites compensate blacks for enslaving us. Well, guess what we've got now? Reverse reparations. Under Social Security today, blacks receive twenty one thousand dollars less in retirement benefits than whites of similar income and marital status.


 * ''In the U.S. of A., white men live seven years longer than black men. One third of the brothers die before retirement and receive nothing. Almost half the married sisters lose their husbands before they rank Social Security spousal benefits. President George Bush proposed reforms that help our community in three ways. First, we get a higher minimum benefit. Second, our women get their fair share in their spouses Social Security. And, third, blacks get retirement accounts with real financial assets.


 * ''So the next time some Democrat says he won't touch Social Security, ask why he thinks blacks owe reparations to whites?