Today, inclusion and diversity are creative ingredients that brands use to advertise more efficiently. More and more advertisers use the resource, not only as a social attitude or trend, but as a social obligation and for the return on brand investment. Data from Qatar’s Global Monitor indicate that 65 percent of consumers consider it important for businesses to promote diversity and inclusion.
One of the great powers of advertising is the power to shape society and the reality in which it develops. In this sense, advertising not only sells products and generates value for brands, but it also changes behaviors and that is why it is important in these times of paradigm shift.
For this reason, the agencies are turning towards the recognition of the patterns of the other age, to discover the versatility of our social fabric and from there to link it with the consumption of products and services, says Ogilvy in an exclusive interview with Merca 2.0.
And is that to change the narrative of the advertising industry, reality-based criteria have to be provided to brands.
Responsibility for advertising
In all the documents that legislate the country, both national and international, it is recognized that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. However, the reality is very different and there are inequality gaps that are not a coincidence, since they are the consequence of institutionalized discriminatory practices in all habits of life and are justified by prejudices, stereotypes, stigmas that are spread through different media.
On different occasions, the advertising content reinforces and reproduces the justifications for historically discriminated groups and the social position they occupy.
Under that watershed, inclusive advertising has shown us that it is possible to offer goods and services successfully and has even become an effective means to question and propose alternatives that reflect human diversity.
For Ogilvy, inclusion in advertising allows the culture to be re-understood to know what is right and what is wrong. By having a faithful portrait of how the world works in this diversity, brands will be able to gain more affinity, content will be more relevant to people and “at the same time, the way in which we understand and understand brands will be transformed. direct their audiences ”.
According to the text “Inclusive advertising”, carried out by the Government of Mexico and the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred), diversity and inclusion will be the guiding principles of future marketing and brands have the option of being proactive or reactive.
For brands that want to venture, the benefits of their inclusive actions will not be immediate, but will generate a shock and later, they will capitalize in their favor and will build a more solid and valued reputation.
In contrast, brands with strong positions will have greater cultural relevance, identification and an emotional commitment to their consumers in the future.
Ethical principles not to discriminate from advertising
More and more advertisers are aware of the importance of inclusion; however, we see very few advertisements with people with disabilities or members of the LGTBIQ + collective, despite the fact that they represent a quarter of society, indicates Qatar.
According to Daniela Buenfil and David Chimal, in “The bias of inclusive advertising in Mexico”, all advertising must be governed by a code of ethics that leads the consumer to make the correct decisions and that offer true guarantees.
“To build an inclusive advertising path, it must promote equality between all market segments, take care of the dignity of all people, represent the great variety of individuals and lifestyles, and finally humanize, that is, before think about a man, a woman, a homosexual, a heterosexual, a privileged person or another with limited resources, remember that the common place of all and all is that we are human beings “, assure the authors in their text.
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