This case study was originally published in the WFA DEI in Content Production guide (June 2024)

How can brands be resilient in polarised times? Sebastian Parker and Ishani Rege from Creative Equals, WFA's strategic partner for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, sum up the key lessons from a recent WFA webinar on campaign backlash.

The industry-led coalition convened by UN Women published the third iteration of its report examining the progress of DEI across the global advertising industry in 2023, including an assessment of progress within workplaces, advertising content and consumer sentiment.

Have you heard of Bryan Johnson? He’s the tech entrepreneur who made international headlines because he spends millions of dollars a year trying to reverse his biological age. That involves a gruelling fitness and diet regime, taking hundreds of pills a day, and getting blood transfusions from his teenage son. The result? He’s 45 and looks…42.

Cannes Lions jurors and commentators share their views on this year's edition of the festival.

This year’s Cannes Lions had a real buzz about it. Clients seemed re-energised by the reprioritisation of creative effectiveness and real purpose, and the challenges of addressing sustainability and inclusion. Stephan Loerke, WFA CEO, provides his take-aways from five days in the south of France.

The industry-led coalition convened by UN Women launched "Say Nothing, Change Nothing" at Cannes Lions 2023, a global campaign to build awareness around harmful stereotypes and more specifically bystander behaviour in society. It also aims to provide guidance and resources to enable people to proactively take action against harmful stereotypes.

Despite one in two saying things are improving, inclusion scores remain the same as in 2021. The greatest forms of discrimination are still on basis of age, gender and care-giving status. Disabled respondents report the worst lived experiences.

What happens if you put 20,000 lesbians in a desert and give them a lot of alcohol and a large swimming pool? There are plenty of plausible answers, but the correct one, in this case, is The Dinah Shore Weekend. Column by Guardian writer and brand strategist, Arwa Mahdawi. 

Responsible Marketing Frameworks are becoming increasingly critical for brands. WFA ran a survey during the beginning of 2023 to broader understand the composition of these frameworks, some of their weaknesses and areas for potential collaboration across teams.