UNILEVER PLC … And how a scientific test reduced unconscious bias in our marketing teams
01/08/2019
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It's been three years since we announced our pledge to unstereotype our advertising. Since then we've been working on doing so across every brand and in every one of our markets.
We believe that reflecting a progressive and inclusive world can contribute to positive cultural change as well as deliver bottom-line results. The latest data from data and insights company Kantar tells us that unstereotypical advertising creates 37% more branded impact, 28% uplift in purchase intent and increases enjoyment of ads by 35%.
That's why we've been working with creatives to ensure our campaigns defy outdated and harmful cultural norms and instead are underpinned by inclusive, diverse and progressive portrayals of people to inspire, support and empower the audiences we reach.
Scroll through the case studies below to find out how our brands are bringing our unstereotype promise to life.
In March, Dove - in partnership with Getty Images and the Girlgaze network - launched Project #ShowUs, the world's largest image library created and curated by women to shatter beauty stereotypes. The collection features more than 5,000 photos of women and non-binary individuals, all of whom have defined how they want to be seen on their own terms.
The collection is available for all media and advertisers to use, to change the way women are represented. Already more than 12,000 images have been downloaded by over 1,300 companies across a wide variety of industries in 46 countries around the world. And 10% of the fee from every image licensed goes towards supporting female-identifying photographers and growing the collection.
Watch the film for Project #ShowUs here
In countries all over the world, a woman with an apron on, cloth in hand, labouring over household cleaning is one of the most pervasive communications stereotypes. Cif shifted the focus from the gendered world of cleaning to the inclusive world of pleasure.
The brand's 'Hello Beautiful' campaign is based on the gender-neutral insight that beauty brings joy into everyone's life, and it uses humour to challenge what 'beauty' really means. Cif's departure from depicting cleaning as 'women's work' has transformed a low-interest category into an engaging celebration of beauty: a celebration that's relevant to all.
The campaign is currently live in 19 markets (and counting), and markets running the campaign have seen sales increase.
Watch an ad from the campaign here
Brooke Bond won the 2016 Cannes Lions Grand Prix award for a campaign featuring a transgender pop group. Since then it has continued to champion acceptance and social inclusion of all with campaigns that take on topics as diverse as dwarfism, mental health, homosexuality, outdated traditions and religion.
The idea underpinning every ad is that common ground is only a cup away, and that connecting over tea can bring people together to start overcoming judgments and outdated prejudices. Markets that have adopted this unstereotypical approach grew significantly faster last year than those not yet on board.
Watch a film about Brooke Bond's campaign
TRESemmé's research found that 92% of women doubt themselves when they are overlooked or not listened to. That's why the brand spent two years working with global NGO The International Centre for Research on Women to create the Presence MasterClass - a seven-part series designed to help women gain the confidence they need to achieve their professional goals.
The aim is to allow women to discover more about themselves, clarify their professional ambitions and equip them with the tools not only to look their best but also to speak, act and engage in life with a true sense of presence.
The MasterClass is currently live in the UK, offering free online classes. It also hosted a three-day live event in May.
Find out more about Power your Presence
Magnum's latest campaign is inspiring people of all generations to chase the things that bring them pleasure.
For the Never Stop Playing campaign, the brand features 97-year-old style icon Iris Apfel, inspiring the younger generation to chase their true pleasure, without any rules.
The campaign reached 500 million impressions in its first week, with an extremely positive response, and has featured in more than 1,000 publications across 15 countries.
Watch a film about Never Stop Playing
Closeup, which has stood for closeness for more than 50 years, has recently launched its purpose - a pledge to support love in all its forms.
The move follows the brand's recent report which found that while eight in ten young people believe in being free to love someone regardless of their background, only 56% feel they have that freedom, due to societal barriers.
The Closeup #FreeToLove campaign addressed the issue with a series of moving 'Lost Loves' stories. These films feature true stories of former couples torn apart by self-doubt, family pressures, religious differences, class divides and judgment.
Watch one of the Lost Loves films
Dove Men+Care is championing paternity leave globally, by celebrating and appreciating men in their role as involved caregivers.
The brand is also encouraging men to take - and enjoy - their paternity leave. Dove Men+Care, together with gender justice organisation Promundo, has published research exploring the barriers that prevent men from taking paternity leave.
It also launched its Pledge for Paternity Leave campaign in the US with Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of tennis star Serena Williams. Together they made available a $1 million fund to support new or expectant dads whose circumstances meant they couldn't otherwise take paternity leave.
Find out more about the Pledge
Lux recently launched its new brand purpose: inspiring women to defy judgments and to dare to express their femininity unapologetically.
This purpose is based on the insight that the more effort women put into looking beautiful, the more they tend to be judged.
As well as building this idea into communications across key markets - including China, India, South Africa and the Middle East - Lux has also established content partnerships with TV companies E! Entertainment and Vice. At this year's Oscars, Lux and E! shared live content from the Red Carpet that celebrated women who defied judgments to showcase their femininity at the event.
There will be more to come on the brand's purpose later this year.
Watch Lux's Oscars style report
Calvé peanut butter's purpose is 'Fuel for kids with big dreams' - but until last year, every ad campaign from the brand had featured boys as the lead heroes. In the spirit of Unstereotype, the brand made a simple casting change and featured a female hero for the first time.
The unstereotyping message is further strengthened by setting the scene at a football match, where the coach unintentionally speaks to his team using gender-biased words.
The girl in the ad, who calls out his error, turns out to be a young Lieke Martens, who was voted FIFA's World's Best Player of the year after winning the Women's Euro 2017 cup with the Dutch national team.
The campaign was a hit, sparking sales growth while celebrating a positive role model for girls.
Watch Lieke's ad for Calvé
Skip relaunched its powder detergent in July, with a new ultra-concentrated formula. It not only offers superior care for clothes, it's more sustainable too, using less packaging and biodegradable actives.
To mark the launch, the brand came up with an ad campaign based on the idea that clothes have evolved, Skip has evolved and so must society.
It celebrates the idea that clothes are not just something to put on. They convey what you feel, who you are and what you stand for. The ads smash stereotypes and feature a diverse range of body types, gender identities and ages.
Watch a Skip Evolution ad here
UN statistics suggest nearly 70% of women believe household chores pull them back from achieving their dreams, highlighting the simplistic and limiting role our society imposes on women as being first and foremost home-makers.
In Vietnam, women spend on average ten years of their life on unpaid chores, and hand-dishwashing, as one of the most repetitive, unrewarding and monotonous of them, represents the drudgery of being 'trapped' by these everyday tasks.
Sunlight's 'Life over Chores' campaign set out to remind and inspire women that fulfilling their aspirations and passions is much more important. The campaign used influencers to spark a social debate and lively differences of opinion between modern and traditional mothers. Sunlight also collaborated with renowned psychologist Dr Pepper Schwartz to conduct workshops with women to discuss their aspirations for a more balanced life.
Watch a Life over Chores ad here
Indian soap brand Hamam took action to help keep women safe, with the launch of its #GoSafeOutside campaign last year.
The brand shared guides to self-defence moves on 10 million soap packs, and launched a series of online self-defence classes designed for women.
Hamam also made an impact with a nationwide TV ad which encouraged mothers to support their daughters to learn self-defence. The daughter in the ad enrols - and excels - in a martial arts class, challenging gender stereotypes by taking on her bullies and proving that she can stand up for herself.
Watch Hamam's ad here
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Earlier this year, we worked with academics at University College London on an experiment which challenged our marketers to rethink the way their campaigns portray the people we serve.
More than 60 advertising and marketing professionals from Unilever and our key agency partners in London, New York and Rotterdam volunteered to provide a DNA sample which was used to examine their geographical origins.
Following their results, the volunteers took part in a behaviour-change workshop with UCL designed to to create a deeper understanding of how and when stereotypes are learnt, the brain mechanisms that govern them and how we can unlearn stereotypical thought patterns to increase creative and inclusive thinking.
The Unstereotype Experiment showed a statistically significant 35% reduction in stereotypical thinking and a significant change in original thinking among those who took part.
'Becoming conscious of our blind spots''Taking people on a journey through their own DNA profile created a moment of reappraisal and, in many cases, that realisation of their ancestry proved to be a great surprise to them,' explains Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology Dr Lasana Harris.
'Coupled with training on how the brain forms stereotypes, we challenged their perception of themselves and, in turn, that of others.'
Aline Santos, EVP of Global Marketing and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, adds: 'We are constantly innovating to find new ways to accelerate Unstereotype across our workforce and in our advertising. Becoming conscious of our blind spots and the biases that are holding us back is fundamental, but unconscious bias training has its limitations.
'We've piloted this experimental approach and measured its impact because disruptive techniques and scientific methods will help us all to drive the action needed to be more progressive in our creative work.'
Watch a film about the experiment here
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Unilever NV published this content on 01 August 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 01 August 2019 10:54:10 UTC
