The Loeries, Africa and the Middle East’s premiere creative festival, has released its inaugural research into gender representation in advertising across the African continent. Advertising plays an important role in shaping societal identity which is why the research is designed to deliver the insights needed to ensure stronger positive representation of both men and women in advertising across the continent. Facebook partnered with the Loeries to support the creation and delivery of the report as part of its commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“If we want to eliminate harmful stereotypes in our industry, we need to stop thinking it is someone else’s job. Creating long-term and meaningful change requires collective action,” highlights Elizma Nolte, Head of Marketing at Facebook Africa, “Partners such as the Loerie Awards are key to this and we look forward to continuing to support their work, as well as collaborate with brands and agencies to highlight this issue and create practical ways to address it.”
Entries into the 2020 Loeries Film category were analysed to derive the insights that are shared in the research report. A total of 412 films were analysed using gender representation as key criteria with a long-term of goal building a normative database with insights ranging from gender to race representation. The research methodology was designed to focus on screen and speaking time, by gender, and further analysed across different verticals such as financial services, consumer packaged goods and retail.
A key take-out was the discovery that overall speaking time was dominated by men with 61% of the speaking time versus a mere 30% for women. Men also enjoyed 57% of the onscreen time compared to 43% for women. The disparity between onscreen time and speaking time for women highlights the challenge of some communication deferring to a primarily male viewpoint in the brand communication.
“This research is an opportunity for us to look at the way we communicate and find opportunities to be more representative,” says Loeries CEO, Preetesh Sewraj, “Facebook Africa’s support has been invaluable in helping highlight the need for such insights and supporting the research to the point of delivery.”
The research is being made freely available to the brand communication industry and various stakeholders. A copy of the research can be downloaded at loeries.com.
