The UK media and advertising industry is stuck in a time warp when it comes to reflecting the lived experiences of multicultural Britain, and it is not only affecting brands’ reputations, it is also hitting their commercial performance.
Drawing on over a decade of research, The Multicultural Communities Report 2025 by Mediareach reveals that while 18% of the UK population now comes from non-white British backgrounds, and 40% in London, representation in advertising remains superficial, stereotypical, or absent altogether.
The reports exposes a catalogue of failures, including the fact that only 7% of UK ads feature people from BAME backgrounds in leading roles, while 60% of ads still feature exclusively or predominantly white casts.
In fact, only 9% of white audiences feel misrepresented in ads, compared to 30% of Asian and 34% of black audiences
Even more worrying, when ads do feature black people, one in three are confined to what the report argues are stereotypical activities of music, sport or dancing.
Mediareach chief executive Saad Al-Saraf said Britain has seen the demographics shift and spending power grow but the story in advertising simply has not moved.
He added: “Our data shows multicultural communities are not just watching, they’re paying attention to who gets seen, how they’re portrayed, and whether brands get them.
“This gap between identity and imagery is more than a creative oversight; it’s a commercial failure. The report shows that 53% of BAME audiences say they’re more likely to purchase from brands that reflect their culture, and 51% actively seek out those that do.
“We’ve mapped years of viewing and listening habits. Audiences from diverse backgrounds are consuming both culturally specific and mainstream media, but they rarely see themselves reflected accurately.”
The report details how 95% of multicultural millennials use social and streaming platforms weekly, and engagement with digital media (Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, WhatsApp, Instagram) outpaces national averages in these communities. This is no longer about diversity being ‘important’. It’s about it being expected.
Al-Saraf continued: “We urge the media and advertising industries to go beyond tokenistic representation and make systemic shifts in how audiences are understood and served.”
The report makes a number of recommendations, calling on the industry to embed cultural insight at the strategy stage, not just at execution; partner with ethnic media platforms, currently over 725 exist across the UK; rethink casting, scripting and storytelling with lived experience at the core; invest in training and diverse talent pipelines, on and off screen; and, finally, use research and data to measure bias and representation consistently.
Al-Saraf concluded: “This isn’t a one-off snapshot. It’s a cultural audit across time. The industry has had over a decade of signals. What we need now is commitment, not just in front of the camera, but at meeting tables and in creative leadership.”
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