Back to the 1950s?

A new study has revealed that despite women being featured in ads more than ever, women still lack unbiased representation in advertising in 2023.

According to the report, the majority of people in ads across 2021 and 2022 were women, while 40% were men. 

Last year, however, men were cast in professional roles 75% more often than women compared to 2021 and 30% more often in leadership roles. While women were cast 50% more often in domestic roles. 

The representation of women in professional settings declined by a fifth in 2022, while spending on such ads fell by more than a third. Results indicate that gender representation in advertising shifted last year, with women appearing more frequently in domestic and family roles than in the previous year.  

These trends were even more pronounced when age and race were taken into consideration.

Ads featuring women with lighter skin tones accounted for a quarter of all tracked spend, while ads featuring women with darker tones accounted for only 5%. Meanwhile, ads featuring lighter-skinned men in professional or leadership positions received 4x the amount of spend than those featuring darker-skinned women.

In terms of age, ads featuring women over 60 increased 220% year-over-year. The increase was, however, from 0.3% to 0.9%, representing less than 1% of total advertisements.

(Data was provided by CreativeX's analysis of over 10,000 ads)

Images: CreativeX