Unstereotype Alliance Film Highlights the Stubborn and Unfair Stereotypes that Still Plague Advertising

The Unstereotype Alliance has launched a powerful new short film, ‘The Problem is not Seeing the Problem’, produced by IPG, calling on the industry to act immediately to eliminate stereotypes from their ads. 

The thought-provoking spot was created by MullenLowe London. 

Unveiled on the one-year anniversary of the thought and action platform, the film presents a series of auditions in which people are asked to act in certain ways according to the stereotypes about them. Approaching the issue with a good sense of humour, the short is a stark reminder that the advertising industry has a long way to go to remove these false preconceptions from its output.

The Unstereotype Alliance – an industry-led initiative convened by UN Women, the lead UN agency on gender equality and women’s rights, 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.