RAF’s winning diversity ad airs on Channel 4 tonight
Pictures by Olly Courtney
A “provocative” Royal Air Force campaign that tackles the negative clichés of women in advertising will air on Channel 4 tonight (15 February).
Launching within The Last Leg, the campaign mocks prevailing gender stereotypes in advertising and uses the RAF’s own female talent serving in front line roles.
The creative, imagined by the RAF’s own agency Engine, is the third recipient of Channel 4’s £1 million Diversity in Advertising Award, which last year invited brands and agencies to pitch campaigns which would challenge ingrained stereotypes and the objectification and sexualisation of women.
The RAF beats the likes of Cadbury Milk Tray, eBay and Flybe to secure the ad slot.
“The Royal Air Force has been delighted to have worked on this venture with Channel 4 and Engine, allowing us to showcase the vast range of exciting opportunities available, regardless of gender,” said Air Vice-Marshal Chris Elliot, Chief of Staff Personnel and Air Secretary, RAF.
“Through teamwork we move forward in breaking down stereotypical barriers and hope to encourage others to do so through this campaign.”
The campaign launches as early findings from a new survey examining diversity in advertising revealed that the main problem with adverts featuring women is the roles in which they are portrayed rather than overall levels of representation.
The research, commissioned by Channel 4, studied the 1,000 most watched TV adverts over a four week period and showed examples where women were portrayed in stereotypical and sometimes derogatory ways. In ads where women have a clearly defined role or occupation, just over 40 per cent showed women in a clichéd “homemaker” or “house wife” role.
“This RAF advert clearly illustrates the difference between how women are portrayed in advertising, compared to the realities of everyday life for a woman serving in the RAF,” said Channel 4’s head of agency & client sales, Matt Salmon.
“It is a worthy recipient of £1 million of our airtime and given our research shows that women are typically shoehorned into derogatory or stereotypical roles, campaigns such as this are long overdue. We hope that other brands now follow the RAF’s lead in considering how women are portrayed within advertising.”
Louise Hayward, client managing director, Engine, added: “Gender parity will lead to a more effective RAF, and I’m incredibly proud to contribute to achieving that, whilst simultaneously challenging the often lazy portrayal of women in advertising.
“I have been humbled by the incredible women in the RAF that I’ve met, and impressed with the fact that their gender is totally irrelevant to meeting the significant challenges they face every day.”
Channel 4 has committed to running the £1 million scheme until at least 2020 and the next iteration of the award will open for entries in June 2019.
In 2016 the competition focused on improving the representation of disability and was won by Mars and AMV for their Maltesers campaign. In 2017 the focus was on non-visible disabilities and was won by Lloyds Bank’s #GetTheInsideOut campaign on mental health.