Spikes Asia 2018: 'Our industry has been lazy in tackling creativity'

Aline Santos, executive vice president – global marketing and head of global diversity and inclusion, Unilever, feels that no matter what technology one uses, it can’t make up for poor creativity.

 

During her session at Spikes Asia 2018 she elaborated, “Our industry has been lazy in tackling creativity. Laziness is damaging creativity, losing audiences and killing brands and society.”

 

She stated this is the biggest cause for the industry arriving at stereotypes. “It’s like the industry is shrugging shoulders at stereotypes. We need to make society more inclusive,” she said.

 

Santos then spoke about how she thought that women could only be teachers or housewives when she was growing up. “I was raised in Brazil. When I was looking towards my future I had references of my mum who was a teacher and my aunt who was a housewife. One day, a movie called ‘Alien’ changed my life. It came to Brazil with poor translation, and the title of the movie was translated to my name. I was troubled by that and teased in school. My mother urged me to watch it and it changed my life. It was a new reference for me. The lady was a leader. She woke me up and transformed my future.”

 

She then showed some numbers from a study of 500 ads commissioned in China, India and Indonesia.

 

·         Less than 1 per cent of these ads show women as intelligent.

 

·         0.2 per cent shows women as funny

 

·         4 per cent of the ads had women above 40

 

·         Not a single ad had any disabled people featured.

 

·          Less than 3 per cent had showed men as caring fathers.

 

·         There was no ad that showed men cook.

 

She asked, “So what’s going on? Where are the people who cook? It’s down to laziness. We must show different references of people with more authentic sides to them."

 

She referred to Unilever’s #Unstereotype initiative which the brand started two years ago. Among the campaigns she showcased was the ‘6 Pack Band’ from India. The campaign that won a Grand Prix in Cannes lost consumers to begin with, but gained many more and is now growing three times faster according to Santos.