Advertising needs to change from the inside out, but the industry isn’t alone.  

shEqual Project Lead, Linden Deathe, sat down with Anton Buchner from Trinity P3 on the Managing Marketing podcast this month to talk about the creation of shEqual and how it’s here to support the advertising industry to move towards a more representative future. 

“Ads are changing. And sometimes, we have really great ads that are breaking down gender stereotypes and showing women in diverse roles and not using old tropes and old stereotypes, and they’re really great. 

But then there are some ads that appear to be doing that, but they’re still …telling women what they need to do to be better,” Linden tells Anton. 

They discussed the use of stereotypes in ads today and how this often stems from the unconscious bias we all have, rather than deliberate attempts to tell a biased story about women. 

“That’s a lot of the work ShEqual is doing. It’s not trying to vilify [the industry] saying, ‘Oh, the advertising industry is just so terribly sexist’, but [recognising] we are all living with these tropes, these stereotypes, these unconscious biases. We are working for change. Some are doing it better than others. 

“Because there’s lots of people that go into making an ad [We want to] look at ways people can speak up when they see something. Like, ‘Do we really want to shoot this? Or use this casting? Should we double think, should we go back and check in?’ Because that might be less expensive than having an ad pulled or panned later on. 

These are things that need to be unpacked. They’re not easy.” 

To hear Linden and Anton dive further into sneaky sexism, why it’s important to put women in the driver’s seat, and some ways shEqual is working with the advertising industry to pick up the pace and create a lasting change, you can listen to the full podcast here: https://www.trinityp3.com/2021/08/inequality-in-australian-advertising/