Earlier this year our Diversity and Inclusion Working Group commissioned a research study to track diversity and inclusion in advertising, carried out by Opinium and funded by the Direct Line Group. The aim was to be able to understand whether the public think that advertising is representative of society.
There have been two waves of the research carried out to date which pose two critical questions:
- How far did they agree with the statement that it is important for different groups in society to be well-represented in advertising?
- Did they agree that TV adverts reflect modern British society?
Results
68% said that diversity in ads was important, but just 42% agreed that TV ads demonstrated that diversity. Only 36% of respondents agreed that TV adverts reflect modern British society, down from 42% in March 2020
These results show there is still much work to do in ensuring advertising is truly representative and ISBA and the members of our D&I working group are committed to changing this for the better and believe that tackling the issue of under-representation and lack of diversity in advertising is simply non-negotiable. We will be tracking public perception twice yearly through this research.