Inclusive Advertising for a Better World

The expansion and contestation of various social and cultural norms across identity categories such as race, gender, sexuality, physicality, and ability underscores the need for inclusive advertising that can reflect today’s demographically diverse market and resonate with underrepresented consumer communities (Licsandru and Cui 2018). A lack of understanding of and respect for diversity can negatively affect societal well-being by reinforcing bias and marginalization against minority groups (Henderson and Rank-Christman 2016). Research also shows that consumers who feel alienated or marginalized from brands can experience threats to their well-being (e.g., Kipnis et al. 2021). Given the long-standing criticism of invisibility and stereotyping of minorities in advertising, as well as the recent controversies surrounding “woke” advertising as exploiting diversity and inclusion movements, research must provide theoretical and strategic insights on advertising inclusivity, or lack thereof, to understand the social and cultural impacts of advertising.

Diversity in advertising has been examined through various aspects (e.g., gender roles, cultural identity, political ideology, religious and spiritual appeals; Eisend 2019; Milfeld, Haley, and Flint 2021; Northey et al. 2020; Waller and Casidy 2021). However, recent studies suggest that advertising messages featuring ethnic and religious minority brand endorsers (Rößner, Gvili, and Eisend 2021), as well as ads targeting African Americans and older consumers (Franklin 2014; Rosenthal, Cardoso, and Abdalla 2021), fail to engage with these communities in a meaningful way. Similarly, people with disabilities remain largely absent in advertising representations (Timke 2019). Recent years have witnessed an increase in ads promoting diversity and inclusion (e.g., The Financial Express 2022; CU Boulder Today 2022) that may break existing boundaries. At the same time, recent industry surveys suggest that almost half of the interviewed U.S. consumers (42%) strongly care about inclusivity in advertising and may boycott brands that fail to represent diversity (Statista 2021).

Reflecting the complex and wide-ranging considerations surrounding inclusive advertising, the articles in this special issue cover heterogeneous perspectives and methodologies. Out of the 57 initial submissions, we published eight articles in this call. We thank all authors and reviewers for their contributions to the discipline. In this introduction, we discuss the key elements of each article and conclude with some critical reflections.

In the first article focusing on award-winning gender-inclusive campaigns, Zayer, Coleman, and Gurrieri (2023) reconceptualize inclusive advertising beyond representations of different identity categories. By analyzing how social impacts are recognized and legitimized by the industry through advertising awards, their qualitative thematic analysis explicates how inclusive advertising may drive social change through exposure/awareness and conceptual, instrumental, and political mechanisms for impact, as well as demonstrate the scalability of impact at the micro, meso, and macro levels. With illustrative examples from their data, they highlight the importance of creativity in the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement. They underscore the action-oriented dimension of inclusive advertising—a critical insight amid growing woke-washing controversies against inauthentic inclusive advertising efforts.

Related to the theme of gender inclusivity, across eight studies Naidu, Perkins, and Howlett (2023) advocate for the inclusion of larger-bodied women in health-related advertising, provide practitioners with clear guidelines on how to portray larger-bodied women in health-related advertising, and underscore the importance of featuring diverse individuals who have historically been excluded from advertising in a way that does not negatively impact consumer behavior. Specifically, they find that framing larger-bodied women as a process (versus an object) increases women consumers’ purchase intentions for the advertised health-related product. This effect occurs because women consumers increase their perceptions of their own humanness after exposure to the “body as a process” messaging. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that these results hold among women and gay men but not among straight men.

The article by Septianto et al. (2023) addresses gender stereotypes in advertising and focuses on female empowerment in the context of social media advertising. The authors utilize the regulatory mode approach to show that social media–based advertising increases the empowerment of female consumers by inducing a locomotion goal orientation (active goal pursuit initiation and maintenance) versus an assessment goal orientation (focus on making the best possible decision). In a series of field studies and experiments, the authors confirm that by countering stereotypical female loss-aversion decision-making style by using the verbs such as act, go, and get as opposed to words like think, true, and right, social media ads can boost women’s sense of empowerment and inclusion, thus increasing their brand engagement. These results support earlier findings on the role of “femvertising” (i.e., promoting female empowerment) in creating emotional connections to brands (Lima and Casais 2021; Park, Koo, and Kim 2023) and enhancing brand loyalty and buying intentions of female consumers (Kapoor and Munjal 2019).

In addition to gender considerations, a dominant theme in the emerging trend of inclusive advertising and the industry discourse on inclusion and diversity is race and ethnicity, which is addressed in Rößner and Eisend’s (2023) article. This article presents two empirical studies, a meta-analysis and a content analysis, and challenges frequently held views in the diversity literature. The findings show that any increase in ethnic minority representation in advertising is fully captured by the fact that ethnic minorities in the general population have increased, and that relevant changes have occurred only in Eastern societies where the White minority is overrepresented. Ethnic minorities are widely represented in print media but not in online or television media. Except for using ethnic minority endorsers’ products, stereotyping predominates and varies little across old and new media.

In contrast to the rich literature on gender, race, and ethnicity in advertising, disability is a seriously underresearched topic. Timke’s (2023) critical discourse analysis investigates what the advertising trade press and educational resources recommend as effective approaches to incorporating and representing disability as a key element of the broad diversity and inclusion considerations. By analyzing the similarities and discrepancies between industry guidelines and critical disability scholars’ advice, the findings shed much-needed insights on the recent progress and the blind spots in the industry’s self-teaching about achieving disability inclusion.

Wilkie et al. (2023) bridge the gap in scholarly understanding of variable attitudes and responses toward diversity and inclusion advertising (DIA) among general audiences (Berg and Liljedal 2023). Employing the latent cluster analysis and qualitative in-depth interview methods to analyze representative data from the United Kingdom, the authors identify four customer segments based on their attitudes toward DIA: pro-diversity partners, disapproving diversity brand devotees, hostile diversity “haters,” and inclusivity-indifferent customers. These segments are characterized by differences in belief congruence (match between the ad content and viewers’ beliefs), sentiment toward diversity, inclusion, advertising in general, personal virtue signaling, assessment of the brand’s authenticity, and psychological brand engagement. The article proposes a theoretical framework for future research based on this typology. It offers practical implications to brand managers and advertisers regarding creating and targeting diversity and inclusion ads.

Yin and Li (2023) contribute to resolving existing inconsistent findings regarding the effectiveness of charity advertising protagonist type in increasing charitable donations. In a series of experiments, the authors show that while both benefactor- and recipient-focused appeals are equally effective in increasing donations for in-group (domestic) recipients, featuring in-group benefactors is more effective for enhancing donations for disadvantaged out-group (international) recipients. The study reveals that the increase in donor feelings of social connectedness to the advertising protagonist rather than the feelings of moral elevation and empathy for out-group recipients explains the effectiveness of benefactor-focused charity advertising for out-group recipients. The authors suggest that using in-group benefactors in charity advertising can promote the inclusiveness of donation behaviors to disadvantaged out-group recipients.

Liu et al. (2023) offer a bibliometric analysis of social exclusion. Their article stimulates a conversation about inclusive advertising by thoroughly investigating the underlying phenomena of social exclusion and associated constructs (e.g., marginalization, loneliness, social isolation). They assess the mechanisms and consequences of social exclusion using a bibliometric approach and thematic content analyses of more than 490 papers published in marketing, including advertising, communication, and psychology publications, during the previous two decades. There are several future research directions, present propositions, and guidelines on (1) how marketers can design inclusive advertising, (2) how advertising can cater to the needs of excluded consumers, and (3) how advertising can help mitigate the negative effects of social exclusion and improve consumer psychological well-being.

Through the eight articles, this special issue reflects the wide spectrum of theoretical perspectives and identity considerations of inclusive advertising. Some of the articles focus on a specific minority concern, such as disability and ethnicity. In contrast, others address broader considerations of the social exclusion experience and the reconceptualization of inclusive advertising through impacts. A common theme across these special issue articles is the call for collaboration between advertising practitioners and scholars to facilitate social change through inclusive advertising.

While substantially contributing to the current knowledge on inclusive advertising, the articles in this issue underscore the imperative to emphasize future research focus on the issue and identify the areas needing further research attention. More specifically, further research can (1) explore the relationship between inclusive advertising and consumer well-being, (2) explore effective strategies to communicate inclusivity in advertising to engage both minority and majority consumers, (3) address the social, ethical, and political implications of artificial intelligence–powered advertising personalization in enabling or hindering advertising inclusivity, (4) propose new methodologies to investigate underresearched, marginalized consumer groups’ advertising responses, consumption patterns, and brand relationships, and (5) discuss the power dynamics between advertisers, digital media intermediaries, and consumer activists in promoting, negotiating, or resisting diversity and inclusivity movements via advertising.

Disclosure Statement

No potential competing interests were reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giampaolo Viglia

Giampaolo Viglia (PhD, Pompeu Fabra University) is a Full Professor of Marketing at the School of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation, University of Portsmouth.

Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai

Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai (PhD, University of Texas) is a Professor and Department Chair at the School of Communication, University of Miami.

Gopal Das

Gopal Das (PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur) is an Associate Professor in Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Iryna Pentina

Iryna Pentina (PhD, University of North Texas) is a Professor at the Department of Marketing, University of Toledo.