Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Paragraph: 88
The Committee is disappointed about the lack of diversity in adverts both on and offline.
Recommendation
The Committee is disappointed about the lack of diversity in adverts both on and offline. We urgently want to see more companies advertising with real images of people from a diverse range of ethnicities, abilities, sexualities, genders, body shapes and sizes. We know that advertising is a powerful driver of consumer behaviour and protecting people from adverts, which can be pervasive online, needs to be a priority if the Government wishes to reduce negative body image. We recommend that the Government works with companies and the ASA to further encourage the use of diverse and representative images of people in advertising.
Paragraph Reference:
88
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The ASA has a number of work streams that consider diversity in advertising and its impacts. One of these important strands is their work to review racial and ethnic stereotyping in advertising.28 The Government will continue to engage closely with the ASA to support this work addressing some of the intersectional issues discrimination poses. The ASA’s UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) and the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) prohibit misleading, exaggerated and irresponsible advertising, which does include imagery. These rules cover offence and social responsibility to ban adverts that include gender stereotypes on grounds of objectification, inappropriate sexualisation and depiction of unhealthily thin body images. They were enhanced in June 2019 with a new rule prohibiting negative gender stereotypes. Ads which pressure the audience to conform to an idealised gender- stereotypical body shape or physical features are likely to breach this rule. ASA rules on social responsibility and misleading advertising can be applied to advertising of cosmetic interventions and advertising featuring digitally altered images. The ASA’s proactiveness to adapt and add to their codes gives the Government reassurance that they are tackling the issue of diversity in advertising, and the Government will work with them across their work streams, including on body image in advertising and racial and ethnic stereotyping.