Advertisers are over-representing black people in TV commercials while pensioners and the disabled are being forgotten, research has found.
Channel 4’s Mirror on the Industry study discovered that despite diversity in adverts improving, some minorities are rarely featured.
The analysis was carried out by the agency Tapestry which audited the top 500 adverts shown across all stations over two four-week periods.
It found that more than half of the commercials featured black people. According to the 2021 census, four per cent of the population of England and Wales is black.
However, the representation of disabled, elderly and pregnant people was lagging behind that for people of colour.
Disabled people were included in just four per cent of the TV adverts studied, despite them making up almost 18 per cent of the population.
Moreover pensioners aged 70 and above featured in only two per cent of the top 500 commercials. Pregnant women were in just 0.1 per cent.
People categorised as LGBTQIA+ appeared in two per cent of adverts, below the three per cent of the population they account for.
People from a south Asian background make up eight per cent of the population but featured in 17 per cent of adverts. East Asians account for one per cent of the population and featured in 11 per cent of adverts.
Jack Thorne, the creator of hit Netflix series Adolescence, has called for a ‘self-examination’ from advertising bosses following the study.
Thorne, who is autistic, is an advocate for making television in the UK more accessible for people with disabilities.
He told The Times: ‘It is a huge shame that the advertising industry is failing to see what broadcasters do.
‘I hope these figures have an impact and lead them to some self-examination.’
It comes after tech giant Currys was praised for its ‘sigh of relief’ advert that featured a shop assistant showing how gadgets can help blind people.
Meanwhile, in August a shower gel advert was banned by the watchdog for depicting black skin as ‘problematic’ and white skin as ‘superior’.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the commercial after investigating complaints that it perpetuated a ‘negative and offensive racial stereotype’.
The Sanex shower gel ad, broadcast in June, depicted a black woman with red scratch marks and another covered with a cracked clay-like material.
Over this, a voiceover said: ‘To those who might scratch day and night. To those whose skin will feel dried out even by water.’
Over scenes of a white woman the ad stated: ‘Try to take a shower with the new Sanex skin therapy and its patented amino acid complex. For 24 hour hydration feel.’
The ad ended with on-screen text and the voiceover adding: ‘Relief could be as simple as a shower.’
Colgate-Palmolive, which owns the Sanex brand, argued the depiction of diverse models in the ad was shown in a ‘before and after’ scenario to demonstrate their product was suitable for all, rather than as a comparison based on race or ethnicity.
On that basis, it believed the ad did not perpetuate negative racial stereotypes and was not likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
