Creative Equals, the global marketing organisation that works with brands to improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, has called out Reform UK Sarah Pochin for her assertion that “every advert” seems to feature “black and Asian people”, insisting the ad industry has actually stalled in its DEI strategies.
On Friday, Pochin, who is MP for Runcorn and Helsby, responded to a viewer on TalkTV who had complained about the demographics of advertising, saying they were “absolutely right”, and adding that “it drives me mad”.
She continued: “[Advertising] doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more.”
Pochin went on to blame the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”, adding: “It might be fine inside the M25, but it’s definitely not representative of the rest of the country.”
She later apologised, saying her comments had been “phrased poorly” and she had not intended to cause offence, explaining: “The point I was trying to make is that the British advertising agency world has gone DEI mad and many adverts are now unrepresentative of British society as a whole. I will endeavour to ensure my language is more accurate going forward.”
Over the weekend, health secretary Wes Streeting accused the Reform UK MP of making racist remarks, adding that Pochin was “only sorry she’s been caught and called out”. He also warned of a return to “1970s, 1980s-style racism”.
But in a post on LinkedIn, Creative Equals founder Ali Hanan not only rubbished Pochin’s comments, but said the ad industry was in fact lagging behind.
Hanan wrote: “Here’s the truth about representation in UK advertising today: Only 7% of ads put any person of colour in a leading role; black people appear in over half of TV ads, yet are cast without authority, as key decision-makers or voices of expertise.
“Asian people – the UK’s largest minority group – remain under-represented and boxed into narrow ‘respectable’ stereotypes and that when ads feature Black people, one in three ads feature stereotypes.”
Hanan went on to point out that the advertising industry still had it own issues. “Behind the camera, our sector’s ethnicity pay gap sits at 31%in favour of white staff. The reality is that 18% of the UK population – 1 in 5 of us – come from a Black, Asian, other multi-ethnic background and this is 46.5% in London.
“Whatever Sarah thinks, the UK public disagree, with 77% agreeing that equity, diversity and inclusion IS important is ads. Turns out the ‘woke liberati’ are the majority.
“With the rise of Reform, racism is on the rise in the UK. Opinions like this on our ad sector are now voiced out loud. By politicians. The truth is progress in advertising has been glacial. Nothing has changed much since 2019 and we have gone backwards on many representation scores.”
Hanan concluded: “Modern Britain is multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-faith and interconnected. Advertising should show that proudly and clearly we have so much work to do. It’s on us to counter racism and hate.
“Our creative must portray the full breadth of UK society. Portray, not just represent. When people see themselves – fully and fairly – in our ads, we can create inclusion for society and growth for the whole economy.”
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