Unstereotype Alliance celebrates its first anniversary and launches new report ‘Unstereotype: Beyond Gender. The Invisible Stereotypes’

The Unstereotype Alliance, an industry-led initiative convened by UN Women to end harmful stereotypes often perpetuated through advertising, celebrates major achievements on its first anniversary at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. The Alliance also introduces insights from its new report ‘Unstereotype: Beyond Gender. The Invisible Stereotypes’ which stresses the urgent need to focus on the complexity of gender and intersecting stereotypes as expressed in different cultural contexts.

The Alliance-led report ‘Unstereotype: Beyond Gender. The Invisible Stereotypes’ includes surveys of women and men in South Africa, Brazil and India. The report found that there is an increasing lack of recognition of the identity and status of an individual—gender, age, ethnicity, relationship status, religion, sexuality—and this amplifies the effects of unfair representation, leading to a greater sense of social invisibility for women. Research for the report will be expanded to additional countries with support from the Cannes Festival.

UN Women Executive Director and Convener of the Unstereotype Alliance, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said, “We know that where there is inequality, discrimination and exclusion follow. Confronting the negative stereotypes in our societies is a vital step to fighting inequalities. The Unstereotype Alliance is unique in its ability to convene diverse companies for a joint cause: using the power of advertising to affect positive cultural change and improve the lives of women and girls around the world.”

Additionally, the group released a power short film, “The Problem is not Seeing the Problem,” that calls on the industry to act immediately to eliminate stereotypes from their ads.

In the year ahead, Alliance members will continue to build on the success and collaboration of the first year to focus on the widespread adoption and implementation of measurement tools that help brands tackle stereotypes, the expansion of evidence and advocacy and the growth of its membership to catalyze the movement toward realistic, non-biased portrayals of women and men.

Read the full press release on the Unstereotype Alliance website.