YouTube, Pinterest, Snap and WACL urge better representation of women in advertising

Women in Advertising, Communications and Leadership (WACL), in partnership with influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy, has launched a creative campaign as part of its ongoing Represent Me initiative. 

The aim of the campaign is to amplify WACL’s purpose, which is to accelerate gender equality in the industry. 

The move follows a recent Unstereotype Alliance State of the Industry report, which showed that there is a persistent need to recognise the intersectionality of women and take action to support all forms of diversity; including race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and age. Women still do not feel – and statistically aren’t – represented in advertising. It’s time the industry changed this.  

This new creative campaign is a collaboration between WACL, Billion Dollar Boy, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest, and four prominent female voices in the creator industry. 

The four female creators include:

Trina Nicole: a body confidence influencer and founder of the UK’s first plus size dance class.
Ellen Jones: a writer, speaker and activist for Neurodiversity and LGBQT+.
Jamelia Donaldson: founder and CEO of TreasureTress and a woman transforming the natural hair care landscape.
Lucy Edwards: a broadcaster, journalist, author and disability activist making a remarkable difference to her community and to brand behaviour.

Despite women still wanting better representation in their work, data around gender equality in society as a whole shows that progress is far from inevitable.

There is an increasing body of evidence from multiple sources, including IPSOS’s A Woman’s Worth, System 1’s Feeling Seen and the Geena Davis Institute, that show women still do not feel accurately represented in advertising.