Lloyds urges advertisers to challenge image banks on diversity

Lloyds urges advertisers to challenge image banks on diversity. Speaking at Marketing Week Live today (8 March), Lloyds Banking Group director of marketing innovation and communication, Ros King, linked the inability to find imagery which authentically represents diversity in the UK with a general lack of inclusivity in advertising. “This is something our design agency is discussing with the image banks and it would be absolutely great if the other advertisers out there would issue the same challenge to them.” This is an issue of real importance considering 65% people feel more favourable towards brands that reflect diversity in advertising, while 67% already expect advertisers to represent the diverse aspects of society, according to Lloyds’ Reflecting Modern Britain Report. Published in December, the report found that just 19% of people shown in advertising are from minority groups, of which just 0.06% are people with disabilities or from the LGBT community. The most dangerous people are the ones who are adamant they have not bias at all.” She recalled a piece of internal research carried out in 2015 on a series of Halifax brochures, which found that women were represented in domestic settings, advertising lower risk products, whereas men were used to advertise higher risk products like investments, unconsciously putting them in more powerful positions. King urged advertisers not to worry about getting diversity wrong, but instead commit to do more. “There is the fear of getting it wrong and there being a media or customer backlash. “You cannot deliver diversity at the casting stage, it needs to start much earlier in the creative development process. We have found the importance of demonstrating inclusivity, not just diversity. You also need to be authentic and when showing a minority make sure that the depiction of the character is real.