Byron Lewis

Byron Eugene Lewis Sr. (born December 25, 1931) is a retired advertising executive and business owner.

Referred to in The New York Times as "the original Black media king," Lewis was instrumental in opening the eyes of major brands like Avon and Mars Candy, as well as the entertainment industry, to the buying power of African American consumers.

Widely regarded as a pioneering ad man, Lewis came up with “The Diapers” ad for Lincoln Navigator, a national automotive account aimed for the first time at the urban Black middle class.

He has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame and has received awards from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Communications Excellence to Black Audiences (CEBA).

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is collecting Lewis's work.

Lewis is the founder and chairman emeritus of the UniWorld Group, Inc., known as one of the world's largest, and longest standing, Black-owned advertising agencies.

It is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York with satellite offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Miami and Los Angeles.

The agency came to prominence during an age when advertisers mainly concentrated on broadcast and print media, but also stressed word of mouth and interpersonal communication among other creative and innovative ways to reach consumers.

UniWorld Group became known for specializing in communities of color.

Its advertising presents a broad cross section of the Black community, often in natural, everyday situations.

The agency's long client list includes Ford Motor Company, Smirnoff, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Burger King, United States Marine Corp, Colgate-Palmolive, RJ Reynolds, HBO, Kraft, Home Depot, Eastman Kodak, Mountain Dew, National Park Service, the New York Public Library and its Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, United Healthcare, the New York Daily News, Texaco, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney.

It also handled a special 40th anniversary ad for Ebony (in partnership with Ford) that coincided with the single largest print magazine issue in Black publishing history.

During his years at the helm, UniWorld was a full-service shop with a staff of more than 100.

In all, Lewis hired more than 1,000 minority artists, creatives and contractors.

Over 300 of UWG's former employees have formed an alumni group on Facebook called "UWG Old School Playas."

Before serving in the United States Army in the 1950s, Lewis graduated from Long Island University where he pledged Omega Psi Phi, the Black national college fraternity.

He is a member of its hall of fame.

In 1969, Lewis received a $250,000 investment from two white venture capitalist groups to launch UniWorld Group.

The agency cut its own path forward, venturing into spaces atypical for ad agencies.

It worked on Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign and became an early embracer of hip-hop artists like Busta Rhymes, who appeared in TV spots for Mountain Dew.

Event marketing was a priority at the agency, which handled movie premieres and threw extravagant parties to raise brand awareness.

The agency was also involved in philanthropy.

In 1999, UniWorld had reported annual billings of $230 million.

The following year it was named the top advertising agency by Black Entrepreneur.

Summing up his career in a 2022 interview with journalist Craigh Barboza, Lewis said, “What I found was major corporations, and most white people, had never thought of Blacks as consumers."

In 2000, Lewis sold a 49% stake in UniWorld to the British advertising giant WPP for an undisclosed amount.

In 2010, UniWorld worked on the launch of the African Burial Ground in New York City, raising more than a half-million dollars for the project.

When he retired in 2012, he sold his remaining stake to Motorola entertainment marketing head Monique Nelson and her family.

With Nelson as CEO, UniWorld remains the nation's oldest multicultural advertising agency.

Lewis was born in Newark, New Jersey.

His father, Thomas Eugene Lewis, was an orphan from northern Connecticut with roots in the Cape Verde Islands, who ran a house painting and handyman business, employing his sons and local laborers.

He also picked vegetables on Long Island and New Jersey truck farms.

His mother, Myrtle Evelyn Allen, from Galveston, Texas, was a domestic worker, and worked part-time at a school cafeteria.

She was also a Queens borough election worker for decades.

Lewis spent much of his childhood in Far Rockaway, Queens.

When his family moved to Jamaica, Queens, he attended Shimer Junior High School and John Adams High School.

He also attended church, and credits the Rev. Charles Carrington at Brooks Memorial Methodist Church as his first mentor.

The reverend got Lewis involved in theater, choir, community service and the Boy Scouts.

Later, Lewis would fund a sound system at the church in memory of his mother.

To pay for college and help his family, Lewis worked as a busboy at Gertz department store in Jamaica.