Cape Town - Five equality challenge guidelines published by the AIDS Accountability International (AAI), hopes to change the advertising sector to include more members of the LGBTIQ community.
The AAI published the set of five #EqualityChallenge guidelines, through its Advertisers Activists Collective (AAC), to help advertisers, marketers and businesses in Africa improve the depiction and representation of LGBTIQ people in ads.
Project Manager of AAI’s Destabilising Heteronormativity project Lucinda van den Heever said the protection of people with diverse sexual orientation and gender identities and expressions is important and included in the Constitution and the Advertising Code of Practice.
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“Besides the exciting and powerful opportunity that advertisers have to promote equality, advertisers and business leaders also have a clear responsibility to avoid any messaging that discriminates or stereotypes.”
Van den Heeever said it was imperative to engage with powerful institutions and shift their way of thinking about gender and sexuality.
“We must recognise that we do not live in a world of only two genders - male and female - and only one sexual orientation. The heterosexual bias and narrow gender binary repeatedly depicted across most advertising is a false and incomplete picture of what the world actually is.”
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AAC initiative manager Czerina Patel added that violent hate crimes were rampant in Africa and the advertising industry is well-placed to help reduce stigma.
“The advertising industry is strongly influential in how society views the world and those around them.”
She said the #EqualityChallenge asks advertisers to do no harm by not stereotyping and stigmatising, showing the world as it really is, push LGBTIQ diversity in culture and religion, build their LGBTIQ teams as well as further educating themselves and the public about LGBTIQ issue and rights.
“Ads can create stigma and further discrimination by perpetuating stereotypes and making fun of LGBTIQ people, or they can help promote equality by honestly and positively reflecting society’s diversity which will break down stigma and help end the marginalisation of minority groups.”
Earlier this month, AAI and the AAC presented the first-ever training on the #EqualityChallenge guidelines to 35 members of advertiser, Joe Public’s creative and human resources teams.
Joe public art director, Tshepo Mogorosi said they were amazed by the impact the training and how people were engaging on the subject.
“People should learn about these things, especially people in the advertising industry because we are the people that can change other people’s behaviour and influence it…I feel it’s important for me as an advertising individual to familiarise myself with some of the people who are not being represented in ads and try to change that because we are all equal as human beings.”