About the Project
At Channel 4 we’re proud to be one of the UK’s most recognised and authoritative voices on diversity and inclusion. We were established in order to “stand up for diversity and champion unheard voices”, meaning that this is at the heart of everything we do.
In recent years the conversation around representation of minority groups in our industry has truly accelerated, which led us to realise that it was high time for a status check on where TV advertising actually is right now.
Working with YouGov in the most comprehensive study of its kind we set out to quantify just how well minority groups were represented within current TV advertising in the UK via an audit, as well as trying to understand the perception of representation within TV advertising amongst minority groups and the population as a whole- after all, what good are these representation ‘stats’ if the people still don’t feel represented?
Key Insights
In summary, the research found that...
..representation levels for minority groups in TV advertising are still too low, especially when it comes to lead roles.
..minority groups don’t feel like ads are inclusive – tokenism is still rife and stereotypes are over-used and often damaging.
...it’s seen as our responsibility as an industry to improve and embrace diversity and inclusion – with significant commercial, creative and societal benefits to doing so.
Find Out More
For more information about the project, or to request one of our team to come and present it to your business, please get in touch!
Sam Cannons
Senior Research Executive, Channel 4
scannons@channel4.co.uk
Joe Chapman
Senior Research Executive, Channel 4
jchapman@channel4.co.uk