Thursday 4 February 2021

All 'Advertising Stereotypes'..?

...or will white men still be portrayed as bumbling fools who can't find their way around the kitchen?
Unilever has said it will tackle advertising stereotypes and work with more businesses run by women and other under-represented groups as part of a wider inclusivity drive.

Shouldn't they choose business that give a good service or provide viable deals for the company? Isn't that how capitalism is supposed to work? 

Dave Ingram, its chief procurement officer, said Unilever had set a target of spending €2bn (£1.8bn) a year with companies owned and managed by women, under-represented minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities and the LGBTQI+ community by 2025.

Whether they are any good, or not? Good lord, has the woke virus spread further and faster than Covid? 

Unilever will also increase the number of advertisements that feature or are created by people from diverse groups. The move would “help tackle the prevalence of stereotypes that are often perpetuated through advertising, and promote a more inclusive representation of people”, it said.

Frankly, this just means more adverts that are unrepresentative of the real world that people can see around them - a world where everyone's a mixed race couple.  

Unilever has also set a target of only working with businesses that pay employees at least a living wage or income by the end of the decade. Hitting this ambitious target would involve working with farmers, suppliers, NGOs and governments to bring about systemic change.

Remember when businesses existed just to make a profit for their shareholders? 

14 comments:

Thud said...

I own unilever shares, I live in house bought from the last Lords estate, they have always been a great company...what to do?

asiaseen said...

The next Unilever AGM could be interesting.

DJ said...

Woke capitalism at its finest. They'll go right ahead with the adverts showing a cool black dude married to a blonde chick, but ditching the sweatshops? That'll take until the end of the decade!

The Jannie said...

So we're in for more TV ads featuring mixed race families who represent about 10% of the population . . . In fairness, it's a tax fiddle so they have to take advantage of it.

Libertarian said...

Thud, go to the shareholders meeting and ask the questions Julia's raised.

Stonyground said...

"Unilever will also increase the number of advertisements that feature or are created by people from diverse groups."

I don't see how TV ads can possibly get any more diverse. What are they going to do, bring back the Smash Martians so we can be inclusive of people from other planets?

MTG 1 said...

Neglectful Unilever stewards are courting discriminatory disaster by diverting funds into companies managed by women and minority ethnic groups.

Maybe Unilever shareholders could at least live with product donations to problematical groups. I mean, how about a bottle of mouthwash for Reverend Jarel Robinson-Brown? The double hyphenated cleric (of no particular description) who denounced the fundraising work of Captain Sir Tom Moore, as a ‘cult of white British nationalism’. Well, there's thanks for you, Unilever...oh, there's more...the newly appointed POS declared that he would not join the national clap to mark the passing of Capt Tom.

My one-time sympathies are certainly wearing thin when it becomes increasingly evident that the scum who ascend to running these groups, bite the hands of feeders and even refuse to acknowledge the passing of an esteemed hero, simply because he is white.

Bucko said...

It's getting to the point where so many companies are doing this rubbish, you just can't refuse to buy all their products.
I have boycotted every supermarket at one time or another, before just ignoring them because I still need to buy food and stuff from somewhere

Eric said...

Funny how the fruits of the far left can make one yearn for those days when corporations like Unilever were merely seen as faceless and impersonal juggernauts of industry.

Stonyground said...

They spend a ton of money on advertising and, if they start to alienate people they will have to change. Remember Gillette's absurd anti man ad campaign that did wonders for the sale of Harry's. Gillette are now offering shaving plans that copy Harry's plan.

Mark said...

@Bucko

Indeed.

The best thing to do with all this shite is to ignore it. If you like a product, buy it. If a supermarket, shop or anything else provides a good service that you're happy with, keep on using it.

They can pretend all they like that we are all "the same under the skin" but this just shows graphically that we aren't. Most hilarious of all is "black history", "black studies" and "decolonialize" (sorry, yank spelling and Pavlovian response to make the red underlining go away) this, that or the other.

But for sheer ignorance, arrogance, and a truly cosmic lack of self awareness

https://www.100greatblackbritons.co.uk/


MTG said...

'100 Great Black Britons'

David Lammy and Diane Abbott top the list.

JuliaM said...

"...they have always been a great company...what to do?"

Beats me. It's not like any large company seems to be able to resist the siren call of the Wokelings.

"...but ditching the sweatshops? That'll take until the end of the decade!"

It'll take 'til automation improves. Then they can all go back to watching the north end of a southward moving water buffalo.

"I don't see how TV ads can possibly get any more diverse."

Oooh, I bet you ain't seen nothing yet!

"My one-time sympathies are certainly wearing thin when it becomes increasingly evident that the scum who ascend to running these groups, bite the hands of feeders and even refuse to acknowledge the passing of an esteemed hero, simply because he is white."

Mine are so thin you could read a newspaper through them!

"...because I still need to buy food and stuff from somewhere"

Exactly!

JuliaM said...

"...yearn for those days when corporations like Unilever were merely seen as faceless and impersonal juggernauts of industry."

I suspect they still are, this is just the clown makeup they now feel they have to apply.

"...if they start to alienate people they will have to change."

Let's hope so! 'Cancel culture' is, after all, a two-way street.

"David Lammy and Diane Abbott top the list."

🤣🤣🤣