- 48 percent of Indians expressed the need for more inclusive representation by brands as compared to 33% of consumers across the world
- Depiction of women continues to be skewed stereotypically (skin tone, appearance, and age), as compared to male characters
- Other groups including LGBTQI, Neurodivergent, differently abled, senior citizens nearly absent from Indian ads
- Diverse and progressive advertising commands higher ROI for brands
Chennai: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and the UN Women convened Unstereotype Alliance (UA), launched their collaborative study on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in Indian advertising. The report, prepared by Kantar, a global brand research partner to the world’s leading companies, deep dives into a critical component of ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals of corporates. The study was unveiled at the DEI Edge Summit, co-hosted by ASCI and UA, and supported by organisations such as Diageo, HUL and Disney Star.
The joint report provides new insights on Indian advertising’s D&I representation versus global practice (leveraging data from the 2023 Global MONITOR survey) and a wealth of original findings on Indian advertising trends accommodating D&I. Some of the key dimensions of D&I representation mapped in the report were age, gender, sexual orientation, race, physical appearance, social class, disability, and religion, across 28 markets around the world.
