Global confectionery manufacturer Mars says transparency and accountability for gender equality targets is a smart business decision, as it pushes for more brands to emulate and improve on eliminating gender bias in advertising.
Five years ago, Mars– made up of brand names like M&Ms, Maltesers, Pedigree and Ben’s Originals– audited their ads to find they had significant shortcomings in gender stereotyping and representation of women.
Vice President of Brand and Purpose at Mars Incorporated Michele Oliver said the data showed only 38 per cent of characters in Mars’ ads were women, and they were 5 times more likely to be shown cooking compared to men, who were 30 per cent more likely to be shown as leaders.
“As one of the world’s largest advertisers it was simply not good enough,” said Oliver in a LinkedIn post.
“Still we shared the results- internally and externally. To hold ourselves to account.”
“This year, after 5 years of sustained and substantial focus we have hit our target. Equal representation of genders and zero bias or stereotypes.”
Moving forwards, Oliver said the global brand has taken steps for change in the representation of people of colour, having achieved true representation in the US. She adds, however, that they’re aware of further representation shortcomings for LGBTQ+ consumers, people with disabilities and older-aged individuals.
“We will continue to focus on this until we are representing the full and glorious diversity of the people who buy, love and enjoy our brilliant brands,” said Oliver.
“Measure. Declare. Set a target. Commit publicly. Don’t rest until you get there. And when you do, set the next target!”
In response to the news, consultant and speaker Stephanie Aitken congratulated Mars on achieving equal gender representation in their ads but raised the question of why it took 5 years to achieve this goal, noting that it seems possible for brands to follow Mars’ example in a shorter span of time.
“For a brand like Mars this is a smart business choice given the data that globally women carry 89% of the primary or shared responsibility for household chores, daily shopping and food preparation,” said Aitken. “A fact that Mars were no doubt very well aware of!”
“That feels like a very long time when the pandemic has taught us that we can make huge pivots (like working from home) in a short span of time when we need to,” she said.
“I’m sure there are important lessons that we can learn from Mars on this that might help other companies do it faster. I wonder if they’ll be that open and share them?”