A survey of 2,000 Brits found that 55 per cent think there aren’t more people with physical disabilities in ads because they ‘make people uncomfortable’, while 62 per cent say the same for those with mental disabilities. The second reason given was that people hadn’t been exposed enough to disabled communities.
Advertising has the opportunity to change that: the survey found that 63 per cent of those with physical disabilities think that seeing more disabled people in ads removes the stigma around their community, while five per cent wish that brands would be braver in showing ‘people like me’ in their ads.
Maltesers took an unprecedented step with their ad campaign (shown above) that featured disabled actors, but with mixed results. While the campaign proved to be the ‘most successful‘ advert for the brand in a decade and was widely praised for normalising disability, the ads have also garnered criticism for centring each storyline completely around the actor’s disability, rather than her other characteristics.
If you care about inspiring children with an interest in engineering and aspirations not bound by their gender, this note may bring a tear to your eye. Two tears actually, both because it is so eloquently beautiful, and because it shows that in a lot of ways we have gone backwards over the last forty years.
Lego has been criticized recently for its move to gender its toys, creating “girl’s Lego” and producing, in the words of one seven year old, female characters that “sit at home, go to the beach, and shop,” while the boy characters “saved people, had jobs, even swam with sharks!”
Looks like aerie is ready for its closeup — its unretouched closeup. aerie, American Eagle’s sister store for lingerie, has launched aerie Real, a Spring 2014 ad campaign featuring all unairbrushed models. In a release on Friday, aerie announced that the ads are “challenging supermodel standards by featuring unretouched models in their latest collection of bras, undies and apparel.”
When H&M hired a “plus-size” model to show off the range of sizes for its beachwear, the ad campaign caused much discussion. Model Jennie Runk says it’s time we stopped obsessing about size. I had no idea that my H&M beachwear campaign would receive so much publicity. I’m the quiet type who reads books, plays video games, and might be a little too obsessed with her cat.
ter bevordering van gender-mediageletterdheid en activisme gebaseerd op radicale democratie || for gender media literacy and activism based on radical democracy || pour l'éducation au genre dans les média et l'activisme basé sur la démocratie radicale
