UK advertisers are making clear progress in showing more diverse women compared to their global peers, despite a persistent dominance of stereotypical gender roles.
Kantar research has revealed that across 2023, the proportion of UK ads featuring women with different body sizes was close to twice the global figure at 31%. Content including women over 40 also increased from 21% to 28% year-on-year.
This is in contrast to continued reliance on traditional gender roles within advertising creatives, with only 8% of ads featuring women in non-traditional gender roles last year.
Kantar head of creative excellence Lynne Deason said: “Advertising has real power to influence the way we think, how we feel about ourselves and how others see us, and adland has been taking action to challenge damaging stereotypes. It’s heartening to see the progress being made in UK campaigns”
“However, the data on non-traditional gender portrayals shows that there’s still plenty of work to do – and that goes for representations of men as well as women. There’s a commercial imperative as well as a moral rationale for getting this right. Our research found that ads which are more inclusive and nuanced on gender are ultimately more effective and deliver a better return on investment.”
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Kantar found that gendered stereotypes, such as featuring women as caregivers and nurses, continued to be widely used, with a majority of campaigns still leaning towards more favourable representations of men.
Personal care was seen by consumers as the only category in which women were depicted more positively than men.
In comparison, the analytics firm found that adverts for cars, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, financial services and technology were still seen as portraying men more positively than women.
Deason continued: “The evidence speaks for itself – campaigns which portray people positively are more effective. Amazon’s most recent Christmas ad ‘Joy ride’ is a great example.
“The ad, which spotlighted the ways older women can still have as much fun as the rest of us, scored in the top 2% of all UK ads on positive portrayal of women – it also came in the top 4% for brand power and top 6% on being different. With many advertisers under pressure to make the most of budgets during the cost-of-living squeeze, marketers can’t afford to ignore these kinds of metrics.”
