Transport for London (TfL), City Hall and its advertising partners, JCDecaux and Global, have announced that Replens MD, who produce a vaginal dryness moisturiser, has won the third annual TfL Diversity in Advertising competition, receiving around GBP 500,000 worth of advertising space across the TfL network.
Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement, Dr Debbie Weekes Bernard, said: “Adverts can be empowering when diversity is central to their development and not just an afterthought, and it was really good to see this come through in this year’s TfL Diversity in Advertising competition. This year’s winner beautifully celebrates older people. It also captures diversity in all its intersectional forms, including reflecting same sex relationships, while also highlighting an important issue for women. London is the most diverse city on the planet, and it is vital that this is reflected through advertising campaigns that we see around our city.”
Replens MD’s campaign was chosen because of its bold creative, which challenges the assumptions around older people and intimacy by instead celebrating these relationships. Now more than ever, it has become clear that a sense of connection and intimacy with other people is incredibly important and plays a vital role in protecting the health and wellbeing of everyone, regardless of their age. The brand was also commended for reducing the stigma around a product that some women may feel shy discussing or otherwise embarrassed to say they need.
Brompton, the UK’s largest bike manufacturer, has also been selected as the runner-up. It will also be running a campaign on the network, having been offered the opportunity to receive match funding of up to £50,000. As with the previous years, the advertising space for both companies has been provided by TfL’s advertising partners, at no cost to TfL.
The annual competition was launched in 2018 to increase the representation of London’s diversity in advertising on the TfL network. This year’s competition aimed to help tackle inauthentic and one-dimensional portrayals of older people within advertising by inviting brands to come up with campaigns that better reflect this important group of people. It follows two previous successful competitions which encouraged advertisers to authentically portray women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities in advertising – both groups that are often under or misrepresented in campaigns.
The UK has an ageing population and Lloyds Banking research in 2016 found that while those over 65 years old made up 17.7 per cent of the population, they only featured in 6.17 per cent of advertising. This is echoed by the research carried out by UCL for the 2018 Diversity in Advertising competition, which showed that people over the age of 55 reported feeling ‘invisible’ and ‘irrelevant’, with fewer than one in four respondents being able to recall seeing an advert featuring someone with wrinkles. The Lloyds research also highlighted the stereotypical nature of the presentation of older people, and found that, when they did appear in advertising, older people were typically shown as a wise, generous, engaged parent or grandparent in a nuclear family.
Following entries from brands and advertising agencies, the submissions were reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of advertising, media, older people’s organisation, and City Hall and TfL representatives. The judges were specifically looking out for a campaign to act as a catalyst to change perceptions and drive change in the industry.
Meanwhile, Brompton’s campaign stood out as a result of flipping the term ‘getting on’ on its head. Rather than being used as a label to deride somebody for being older and stuck in their ways, the campaign cleverly shows a range of older people emanating confidence and literally about to ‘get on’ a bike, which is opening them up to a world of possibility.
Chris Macleod, Director of Customer and Revenue at TfL, said: “With the competition now in its third year, it is great to see that the exceptional talent and creativity in the advertising industry is still being engaged by the themes of our competition – as illustrated by the outstanding quality of both the winning and runner-up campaigns. My congratulations go to both Replens MD and Brompton for their incredible entries, which clearly shone through despite tough competition, as well as my thanks to the fellow judges and our advertising partners. As we begin to take the first steps to recovery from the pandemic, I hope this competition will help encourage the industry to come back stronger and more inclusive than ever.”
The Replens MD campaign was created by The Gate London. The Brompton campaign was created by Antidote.
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