No Gimmicks: Best of Diversity, May
Diversity in advertising. It should be common practice, but it’s not. Conversely, it has also become fashionable, which has led to a string of inauthentic work — ‘bandwagon’ behaviour. As there often is with trends, trendsetters and their followers also want a piece of the action.
In this monthly blog, I would like to pick the cherries. Non-gimmicky cherries, real work, driven by purpose, and with the potential to create measurable change.
I want to inspire action, with examples of commercials from 2018, in which there is no reference to diversity, but where diversity is used as a reflection of our society.
Here’s my criteria:
- Diversity isn’t the subject of the commercial.
- The commercial stays away from stereotypes.
- The main characters were chosen based on diversity.
First up this month
Opgeladen opstaan — IKEA (Lemz)
I don’t have to put a lot of words on this. Because it’s not about IKEA casting a lesbian couple, in fact it’s not about the couple at all, this is a textbook example of how it can be done.
Valentijn — PostNL (Isobar)
This example is one of my own campaigns. Why? Because it’s a good example. Here, too, it’s not about the people themselves. Whether it’s an old, lesbian, dark, white or whatever type of couple… it really doesn’t matter. It makes no difference to the message. We just showed a reflection of reality. Fortunately, PostNL understands this too and it was self-evident that we used all different types of couples.
T-shirts met en zonder tekst — Zeeman (Persuade)
Another gem: almost all Zeeman commercials and brochures are made with real customers instead of professional models. This makes their campaigns very diverse. Last year we could already see this in the ‘Iedereen mooie benen’ video, which showed tights on all kinds of legs, including someone with a prosthesis.
How?
An increase of diversity in advertising and media is beyond dispute. But how can we ensure that this becomes reality? Personally, I try to do that by being active in initiatives like these, but you can also be inspired by the examples above. Use a less obvious character as the main character in your campaign. Fight for it with clients/brands you work for. It often helps to explain that the proposed characters represent the target group too.
Fast forward, please!
No doubt that in the future we’ll look back on old campaigns and think: Wow, it’s crazy that advertising used to be so narrow-minded! Just like we look back on old campaigns that were downright racist and/or sexist. I just wonder how long it takes until that future is now and hope we can fast-forward towards this perspective.
Sharing is caring
Sharing inspiration helps. Which campaign inspired you? Let me know and I will feature it next month!
