My 6cents on the Unstereotype Alliance Global Summit

My 6cents on the Unstereotype Alliance Global Summit

The Unstereotype Alliance (UA), the industry-led initiative convened by UN Women to end harmful stereotypes in advertising, recently held its Global Summit 2024 in New York.

As a Founding Board Member for the UA chapter in the UAE, it was a privilege to attend it and have been asked to address its audience.

Here is some of what inspired me:

Loved Madeline Di Nonno’s “Power of Partnerships”. It was the first time I heard about Madeline’s work as CEO and President of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDI).

I learnt, for example, that in children TV shows, human animated characters are 50% females, however non-human animated characters, like the monkey in Dora, have male voices 62% of the time. These are subtle influences. If you can measure it, you can change and improve it…

Loved Nicky Bullard’s “Outrage”. The Group CDO at MullenLowe is outraged about how advertising executives and their clients are generally ignoring consumers above the age of 50.

Populations are ageing in many countries but they are notoriously absent from brand ads. Worse, when they are not ignored, they’re pictured in elderly homes, sick or needing help. The stereotype hasn’t caught up with reality, which is that many of the