WFA launches Latin American guide to diversity and representation through the creative process

The new guide is now available in English, Spanish and Portuguese and downloadable here

WFA, in collaboration with its national advertiser associations in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, has released a guide to bias in the creative process, using local case studies and examples sourced from the region. It was launched at WFA's 2021 regional meeting for Latin America, on 28 September.

The guide aims to tackle diversity and representation issues throughout the entire creative process. It highlights 12 key areas where bias can occur and proposes questions that can be used as a litmus test at every stage, and illustrates them with more than 30 local and regional campaigns from Latin America, sourced from companies including AB InBev, Banco Santander, Diageo, GSK, L’Oréal, Mercado Libre, Nestlé, P&G, Unilever, Yanbal and others. The guide also links to various resources which can help marketers and agencies overcome some of these challenges.

The new publication builds on the global insight from WFA’s Diversity & Representation: A Guide to Potential Areas for Bias in the Creative Process, which was created with the support of WFA's Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce and published in March 2021. 

Like the original global framework, it will be freely available to everyone in the industry as part of WFA’s ongoing commitment to boosting diversity and inclusion and improving representation beyond its corporate membership. National advertiser associations in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay will also promote the guide as part of their ongoing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.

The launch of the new guide follows the publication, in 2019, of the Buenos Aires Declaration for Progressive Advertising by WFA and national advertiser associations in Latin America. One of the goals of the declaration was to promote the development of progressive content that doesn’t objectify but instead depicts people as empowered actors and this guide will further enhance efforts to ensure that this occurs by brands and across the region.

The new guide can be downloaded here.

“Representation matters to our business at GSK Consumer Healthcare but it should matter to all marketers – it is quite simply our jobs to understand the true humanity of consumers, to better meet their needs and to communicate to them in a way which feels relevant & cuts through. It’s impossible to do that if our marketing is always driven by simple stereotypes or averages, and important for us to look right across the creative process at the moments when diversity might get erased, or when we can inject it to make our marketing better for us and for society,” said Jerry Daykin, Senior Media Director at GSK Consumer Healthcare and co-chair of WFA's Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce.

“We are very excited to launch the new Latin American edition of our guide to avoiding bias in the creative process and highlighting some great work that has been done across the region. Developing true diversity and representation in advertising is a long-term challenge but by providing brands with the tools to avoid any pitfalls, we can accelerate the process and ensure we live up to the high ideals of the Buenos Aires declaration,” said Stephan Loerke, WFA CEO.

“Today’s marketing world demands a nimble and agile approach. But working at speed sometimes means mistakes can creep in, with the resultant creative can fail to represent society in all its diversity. The new Latin American framework will enable brands and their agencies to build processes that avoid pitfalls and ensure that content is as representative and inclusive as possible,” said Camelia Cristache, WFA Senior Communications Manager and WFA Diversity & Inclusion Lead.

“Our consumers expect to see diversity in the content we produce. This guide can help brands and their agencies avoid bias and sense-check their creative process so that it's more diverse and representative of the people brands serve," said Philip Perez, WFA VP for Latin America and President of the Argentine Advertisers Association (CAA).