Unstereotype Alliance launches in Brazil

The Unstereotype Alliance, UN Women’s flagship partnership with the marketing industry, has announced the launch of a local chapter in Brazil with support from Unilever Brazil and the Brazilian Association of Advertisers (ABA).

Unstereotype Alliance Brazil will bring together brand owners, agencies, media owners and other industry stakeholders to promote progressive gender representation and diversity in marketing in Brazil. The first signatories include Unilever, Grupo Boticário, Heads and Mastercard.

During the launch, Adriana Carvalho, Manager of Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP) at UN Women said: "Let's work with companies from the outside in and inside out. We want to address societal issues such as unconscious bias, the gender pay gap, harassment and undervalued domestic work".

Over the next couple of months, a leadership council made up of representatives from leading member companies will meet to define working groups that will focus on different principles and pillars of the Alliance. Next steps also include the development of a local website with a repository of resources for the industry, including a number of different studies and case studies on gender and diversity, as well as the organization of workshops meant to bring together advertisers and agencies.

ABA will make the case for change and the importance of such an initiative among its members and industry partners. "The advertising supply chain is complex, but combatting stereotypes is a basic responsibility of creatives who create the campaigns and advertisers who approve the campaigns," ABA’s Executive President Sandra Martinelli said.

The Unstereotype Alliance was launched by UN Women with the support of multiple global brands during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in 2017. Founding members include Diageo, J&J, Mars, P&G, Unilever and WFA.

Commenting on the launch, WFA CEO Stephan Loerke said: “Congratulations to UN Women, Unilever Brazil and ABA on the successful launch of the first local Unstereotype Alliance in Latin America. Unstereotyping ads is good for business and good for society and we as an industry must drive this change globally. The success of such a global initiative is really dependent on the local efforts and actions that are taken by our colleagues on the ground.”

For more information, please contact Sandra Martinelli.