Past Unilever Campaigns Drove Move to End Stereotyping Women

While at the Cannes Lions Festival in France this week, Unilever proclaimed that it would stop stereotyping women in its marketing and advertising.

Three areas will be under review as Unilever moves to be more authentic when portraying women: role, personality and appearance. It has notified all of its agency partners of the commitment.

Following that announcement, The Drum decided to take a look back at some of the brand’s campaigns that would be called into question under Unilever’s new guidelines. They include Axe, Persil, Dove, Magnum, Degree and Pot Noodle.

Unilever stops stereotyping
Ads like this one for Axe portray women in stereotypical ways.

Unilever conducted multiple studies across the globe on how women view themselves. It also analyzed 1,000 ads to find that 50% portrayed women in stereotypical ways.