Big brands shun straight,
white Britain in their adverts
Advertisers are turning to gay couples and ethnic
minorities to sell their products
thetimes.co.uk, 26/8/2017
Ikea used a gay male couple to represent the diversity of modern family
life in a recent campaign
Advertisers are so worried about being accused of racism or homophobia they
are shying away from using images of white people and straight couples.
Marketing departments are even putting diversity above relevance to their
target audience to avoid accusations of bigotry, a survey of 500 companies has
found.
A third of advertisers questioned said they had used fewer white models and
heterosexual couples over the past year. More than a third of these said they
were taking this approach to “prevent perceived discrimination”.
The findings are likely to trigger accusations of political correctness but
show a marked change in attitudes in the advertising industry, which has until
recently had a reputation for under-representing ethnic minorities.
Brands that have featured gay couples include Lloyds, which ran a “he said
yes” campaign and Tiffany, the jeweller, which ran a “will you” gay proposal.
Dove, which is owned by the Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, recently used a
significant number of women from ethnic minorities in its “real beauty”
campaign. McDonald’s has also run adverts with few white people.
The study by Shutterstock Inc, which provides commercial images and music,
found that almost half of marketing departments had increased their use of
racially diverse images over the past year and a third increased their use of
homosexual couples.
The overwhelming majority that used images of gay couples or
“non-traditional” families admitted doing so even if it did not fit with their
brand. Half said they were using fewer white people because they no longer represented
“modern society”.
The 2011 census found that 87.2 per cent of the population is white, 2 per
cent mixed race, 6.9 per cent Asian and 3 per cent black.
Less than 1 per cent identified themselves as “other”. Since then there has
been significant migration to the UK. Last year net migration from outside the
EU was 175,000.
Many companies also have their marketing departments in London or outsource
work to advertising agencies in the city where there is a much higher
proportion of ethnic minorities than the rest of the country.
Research last year by Lloyds Bank found that one in five adverts featured
people from minority groups although the Shutterstock study suggests that this
proportion will have increased this year.
As recently as 2010 only 5 per cent of TV adverts contained someone from an
ethnic minority and in 2009 Microsoft was forced to apologise after
photoshopping a white man’s head on to a black man’s body on a poster.
Keren Sachs, content development director of Shutterstock, said that for
many years the advertising industry suffered a diversity problem. “The people
chosen to represent campaigns have an obvious and visual impact on public life.
This appears to be changing. Marketers are now being more inclusive through
their choice of images,” she said.
“Our research shows that marketers in the UK are shifting their attitudes
and selecting images, primarily to represent modern-day society.” These
“influencers” understood that marketing needed to reflect the diverse range of
communities in the UK.
Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights
Commission, said that brands were right to increase diversity and often this
was to appeal to white consumers. “Businesses have to appeal to minorities but
also the white population, who think it’s peculiar if they see an ad that
doesn’t have minorities in it and looks like they are being sold something from
the 1950s,” he added.
“The biggest drivers are to get the black or brown pound but frankly white
consumers think if you look like a firm selling something that is for an
all-white Britain, it is something that went out of date decades ago. If there
is a change this is businesses doing what they are supposed to do. This is good
capitalism in action. It’s the exact opposite of political correctness.”
Advertisers working in finance were the least keen to show diversity, the
study suggested. Only 28 per cent have used more racially diverse or homosexual
images over the past year.
Human resource consultancies were the most enthusiastic, with 60 per cent
using more diverse images this year.
Hue and cry
● In the 1900s a Fairy Soap advert showed a white girl asking a black boy: “Why
doesn’t your mamma wash you with Fairy Soap?” Pear’s Soap described teaching
cleanliness as the “white man’s burden”.
● Robertson’s used a golliwog in adverts until 1988, saying it was “a
fictional nurseryland character, not a depiction of a black person”. The image
lasted on its labels until 2002.
● In 2012 a Nivea campaign featured a clean-shaven black man throwing the
severed head of a bearded black man, with a call to “re-civilise yourself”.
● Qiaobi, a detergent company in China, showed a black man being forced
into a washing machine and emerging as a fair-skinned Chinese.
● Paddy Power was accused of racism this week in an advert promoting the
Mayweather vs McGregor fight. “Always bet on blaway derogatory or
insulting.
● The actor Ashton
Kutcher stirred controversy in 2012 by wearing brownface in an advert for
Popchips.
