Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Shelter were among the list of high-profile companies whose Christmas adverts ‘failed to resonate’ with the Black community.
Research from the Diversity Standards Collective found that tokenism, negative stereotyping and inauthentic representation played a significant part in this year’s crop of Christmas advertising, with members of the Black community failing to identify with many of them.
Lidl was called out specifically for “multicultural casting for the sake of representation,” while Shelter was accused of “playing into the stereotype of Black people being poor or having less than others”.
Casting Alison Hammond as royalty in Sainsbury’s festive spot left some with the opinion that it felt like “tokenism”, with community feedback stating that: “It was just Black famous casting. No attempt at authentic portrayal.”
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The organisation tested 12 Christmas adverts featuring Black and mixed raced casts using its Community Certification ad testing tool. With seven found to be unrepresentative or inauthentic, the research revealed that – while agencies and clients are casting more Black and mixed-race people in their ads – tokenism remains rife, with little thought put into the lived experiences of those communities.
Just five ads passed the test with an approval score of more than 75%.
The Diversity Standards Collective founder and CEO Rich Miles, said: “The advertising industry’s race to become the best Christmas ad is now a cultural event, but this research shows that many of these ads are only representative of and authentic for one culture and that’s not the same one as the characters they’ve cast.”
Miles added that the research was designed to “puncture the self-congratulatory nature of this whole contest” while also helping the industry start “thinking differently” about the ads it’s putting out.
However, some campaigns scored highly and resonated well with the community. JD Sports’ ad – created by Cake – was praised for properly representing young Black people as well as its authentic use of Black sports stars and artists.
“We set out to make a film that truly reflects youth culture in this country, featuring some of the most talented stars from sport and entertainment,” said Cake’s executive creative director Alex Groom.
“To know that it resonated so highly with the Black community for its authenticity and because of the representation in the cast is more important to us than any creative award.”
The results in full were:
1. JD Sports ‘King of the Game’ – 84%
2. H. Samuel ‘Unwrap the Sparkle Bountiful Cow’ – 82%
3. Boots ‘#Joyforall’ – 81%
4. O2 ‘The Snowgran’ – 80%
5. Very ‘ Gifts for all your Christmases’ – 76%
6. Disney ‘The Gift’ – 74%
7. Argos ‘They’re coming. Be ready’ – 63%
8. Tesco ‘The Christmas Party’ – 69%
9. The National Lottery ‘A Christmas Love Story’- 69%
10. Sainsbury’s ‘Once upon a pud’ – 68%
11. Lidl ‘The Story of the bear’ – 64%
12. Shelter ‘Brave Face’- 57%
1 Comment. Leave new
I didn’t think the advert was aimed at a ‘black community’, more customers