The march to un-stereotype advertising: the Unstereotype Alliance and the movement in the making

Stereotypes exist in all societies. The advertising industry has long been a toxic echo chamber for stereotypes of gender roles and poor portrayal of the potential of women and girls. This may at last change for good with the launch of the Unstereotype Alliance, a partnership of the advertising world with UN WOMEN.

How we perceive each other can be determined through oversimplified assumptions about people based on particular traits, such as race, sex, age, etc. They are based on socially constructed norms, practices and beliefs. They often reflect underlying power relations.They may not always be inherently negative, but because they are assumptions that disregard a person's individual and inherent abilities, opportunities and environment, they tend to be prejudicial. Negative stereotypes hinder peoples' ability to fulfill their potential by limiting choices and opportunities.(1)

The global dominance of stereotyping gender roles in advertising has been well documented through studies since the 1970’s in the USA and more recent global studies. Harmful stereotypes further perpetuate constraining gender roles and gender inequality. In the United States along, a recent study by ANA showed that out of 20,000 days 28% of them negatively portrayed women through some sort of objectification, stereotyping or diminishing character portrayal. The data may vary by region, but the problem is rampant worldwide.

Interestingly, advertising is often more regressive in its portrayal of women than the attitudes of the societies in which those ads are aired. And that is not good business either: sexist ads are less effective and fail to seduce women, who control over $20 Trillion in worldwide spending and make at least 80% of purchase decisions.

Moreover, it is by empowering women that economies will grow, thus just about every marketeer may be missing the mark of its future prospects with stereotyped ads. Yet gender stereotyping in advertising is still at work and prevalent around the world, irrespective of the gender equality status of the country (2).

I woke up to a very graphic expression of this fact in January 2016 by watching the #WomenNotObjects (3) You-Tube video released --then anonymously-- by the ad agency Badger & Winters. Bravo to Madonna Badger and Jim Winters for that real wake up call to the industry!

At UN WOMEN, we started to dream about the power of advertising... to turn this around, to actually be a force of change, imagining P&G and Unilever, the top two advertisers, and all major advertisers -- even competitors! -- working together for a more progressive portrayal, one that gives girls and women a chance to be who they can be.

Leaders in the industry had also woken up, with some great progressive branding moves by marketing firms and ad agencies, including the top advertising giants such as Procter&Gamble's #LikeAGirl, and #ShareTheLoad which went viral in India, and Unilever's #MyBeautyMySay; but also the recent work of national industry groups such as the ANA (#SeeHer) or the Ad Council (#LoveHasNoLabel); the Cannes Lions' #GlassLion which rewards outstanding efforts that challenge gender biases, as well as the initiatives of regulatory bodies like the British Advertising Standards Authority. Unilever, which spends €8bn (￡6.3bn) a year in advertising on more than 400 brands, publicly committed to drop sexist portrayal of women in advertising (4) and conducted and published its #Unstereotype research.

In fact recent research shows an overwhelming and recognized presence of stereotypes, and a lack of connection to advertising as

• Over half of ads that featured women contained a stereotypical representation of women
• 40% of women do not relate at all to the women they see in ads
• Three of five women globally agree “advertising places unrealistic expectations and pressures on women”
• Three of five men globally agree that “advertising places unrealistic expectations and pressure on men to be alpha male heroes”

Part of the problem may be that only 27% of writers and creative directors are women, 11% of Chief Marketing Officers are women, and 9% of commercial directors are women. Pat Gordon, one of these rare women, founder and creative director of an ad agency, interviewed by FastCompany, illustrated the challenge: “Most people assume Mad Men is a quaint time capsule,” she says. “The wardrobe has changed and there’s no smoking and no bourbon, but if you really get down to the nitty gritty we haven’t made nearly the progress we should.”

Time has come for a global initiative to mobilize the industry and the private sector at large, globally, to change the face and the message of advertising. We have to go beyond outrage and fragmented brand initiatives, and build a dynamic that will deliver a true global movement with measurable impact. And the vehicle for that is the new Unstereotype Alliance (5)

In June, at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, the go-to forum for the Who's Who of advertising, we launched the Unstereotype Alliance with industry leaders who came together and affirmed their commitment to a global and universal agenda to tackle harmful gender stereotypes in advertising. This is not just a campaign motto, it is a coalition of advertisers, advertising agencies and marketing associations committed to drive, measure and deliver decisive change.

How can advertisers drive decisive change?

By developing, promoting and adhering to principles and guidelines for unstereotyped content creation. By fostering an unstereotyped culture with an emphasis on hiring and retaining more women in senior leadership and creatives roles. By advertisers and advertising agencies holding each other accountable for delivering unstereotyped work.

And, most decisively, by scoring gender portrayal in ads produced and aired, developing analytics and demonstrating progress by measuring change with a view for substantive impact by 2020.

Can stereotypes be measured?

Yes, one can measure on a scale how an ad fares on gender equality. Pioneers in this area include in particular Shelley Zalis, former CEO of Ipsos OTX and Founder of The Girls' Lounge and the Female Quotient; Stephen Quinn, chairman of the Alliance for Family Entertainment subcommittee of the ANA (6) and the Geena Davis Institute led by Madeline Di Nonno. All are part of the endeavor, and we are now developing the measuring tools for this transformative movement.

And that ambition has the backing of all members of the Unstereotype Alliance including advertisers (Unilever, P&G, AT&T, Johnson& Johnson, Mars, Alibaba, Diageo), digital media partners (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Adobe), advertising agencies consortia (IPG, WPP, Publicis), and associations (IPA, WFA, ANA) as well as Cannes Lions.

Support us and we will create a global #Unstereotype movement.

We are starting with leaders of the industry but we aim to create a global movement with each and everyone involved in the media and advertising value-chain around the world.

We want every woman in the industry to be empowered to deliver positive change as a #Planet 5050 and #Unstereotype champion. We want every male champion in the industry to be a #HeforShe and an #Unstereotype champion. Let us all do our part.

We want to work together with all forces of change for a more progressive portrayal, a gender equal culture, one that gives girls and women a chance to be who they can be. Because...

Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture. Allen Ginsberg

(1) Laskshmi Puri in https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2011/7/countering-gender-discrimination-and-negative-gender-stereotypes-effective-policy-response

(2) “independent of a country’s gender indices, including Hofstede’s Masculinity Index, GLOBE’s Gender Egalitarianism Index, the Gender-related Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index, and the Global Gender Gap Index. These findings suggest that gender stereotyping in television advertising does not depend on the gender equality prevalent in a country. The role of a specific culture in shaping gender stereotypes in television advertising is thus smaller than commonly thought”.  From Matthes J, Prieler M, Adam K. Gender-Role Portrayals in Television Advertising Across the Globe. Sex Roles. 2016;75(7):314-327. doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0617-y.

(3) #WomenNotObjects https://womennotobjects.com/campaign/

(4) https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/22/unilever-sexist-stereotypes-ads-sunsilk-dove-lynx

(5) founding members of the Unstereotype Alliance include advertisers (Unilever, P&G, AT&T, Johnson& Johnson, Cannes Lions, Diageo), digital media partners (Facebook, Google, Microsoft), advertising agencies consortia (IPG, WPP, Publicis, Omnicom), and associations (IPA, WFA, ANA) as well as industry champions such as Shelley Zalis (TFQ). see : https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/6/press-release-in-cannes-un-women-ed-calls-to-eliminate-gender-stereotypes-in-advertising

(6) https://adage.com/article/media/ana-s-gem-score-rates-ads-programming-gender-equity/306912/