In the areas of representation, inclusion, and diversity, advertising, and more broadly, the media, continue to take shortcuts that prove to be dead ends for everyone.
The 2023 Kantar-The Good Company study on inclusion and diversity in French advertising highlights a persistent gap in the media representation of society. Forty percent of French people say they don't feel represented, with a recurring marginalization perceived among workers, people with disabilities, and seniors, who feel reduced to stereotypes. Although theoretical advances since Pierre Bourdieu's work and his critique of social hierarchies have allowed for a better understanding of power dynamics in media culture, advertising continues to crystallize cultural and republican divisions. Through a process of invisibility and clumsy caricatures, some populations become collateral damage in an advertising time that, in its imperative for conciseness and immediate impact, excludes any complexity. This narrative simplification leads to a reductive and stereotypical representation of our society, contributing to reinforcing social divides instead of mitigating them.
Social Geographies on Demand
Efforts are underway, with 72% of the French population believing that brands have made progress on the issue of diversity and representation. However, this engagement is nuanced, as these efforts are mostly considered limited to skin color and age. In short, two criteria that are immediately understandable and readable in the short time span of advertising narration, and the perfect easy solution to meet the minimal diversity requirements, even if it often gives the impression of a token gesture rather than genuine commitment. These simplistic symbolizations contribute to a real cultural standardization where, for example, the underrepresentation of people of North African or Asian descent in France is especially glaring, where workers and social geographies have disappeared, and where territories fade in favor of fantasized topographies and uniform architectures. A world without subtleties that comes with a touch of opportunism or even social washing, thereby creating a tension between apparent inclusion and underlying discrimination.
Discriminatory Inclusion by Words
To grasp the tension between inclusion and discrimination, the recurring use of the term "neuf-trois" (93) in the media to refer to Seine-Saint-Denis is a striking example of simplistic shorthand, discriminatory impact, and performative inclusion. Originally popularized by hip-hop culture as a territorial marker, this term has gradually been hijacked by reactionary discourse to symbolize territories allegedly seceding from the Republic. In the collective imagination, these two dehumanizing and stigmatizing numbers are then associated with reductive and fixed clichés. Banning this condescending expression from the media sphere, therefore cultural, would allow for a better grasp of the richness and complexity of a territory filled with diversity, creativity, and cultural and entrepreneurial dynamics. And yet, in a sincere or opportunistic approach to inclusion, more and more mainstream media are using the term "neuf-trois" to highlight the many positive initiatives that animate Seine-Saint-Denis. But by favoring this term, instead of deconstructing stereotypes, they continue to entrench discriminatory prejudices under the guise of promotion and maintain the idea of an abstract territory disconnected from the rest of society or even our reality. This counterproductive paradox is also mainly observed in advertising, where brands' performative diversity excludes more than it includes, leaving populations and brands in a constant state of imbalance.
An Additional Challenge
This imbalance also affects people with disabilities, who remain largely underrepresented in society and advertising. An almost complete absence often marked by biases and simplified representations.
The most emblematic example of this symbolic simplification is the almost systematic use of the wheelchair to symbolize disability, even though fewer than 5% of people with mobility impairments use one. In reality, nearly 80% of disabilities are invisible, whether they are sensory, cognitive, or psychological. This simplistic iconography reduces the diversity of disability experiences to a single image, obscuring realities as complex as learning disabilities, chronic illnesses, or mental disorders. Certainly, the wheelchair is a conveniently understandable semantic icon in the restricted format of advertising, but it contributes to the invisibility of other forms of disability, reinforcing the idea that only physical disabilities deserve to be recognized and represented. Beyond mere visual representation, too often, people with disabilities are portrayed either as inspiring heroes, in a logic of over-glorification, or as victims calling for compassion, in all cases confined to a reductive approach that fails to reflect the plurality of life paths and daily realities. Athletes from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have called for this condescending vision to end, hoping to pave the way for more nuanced and authentic narratives.
A National Narrative
Advertising can't, of course, resolve everything or tell every story, or even embrace the full complexity and diversity of society—that's not its mission—but it plays an essential role, being closely tied to the cultural and media narratives that shape our collective imaginations. Communication should be a component of societal change, complementing cinema, music, and social networks, which, separately and together, deliver experiences of diversity, inclusion, and multiple realities that make our differences a unique story.
And while the Kantar study highlights advances in diversity in advertising, it also reveals unbalanced and superficial efforts, which should encourage brands to integrate more authentic and inclusive narratives into their strategies, at a minimum to avoid a consumer backlash, but more importantly, to contribute to nation-building. Beyond quotas and stereotypes, it's time to construct narratives that truly reflect the plurality of society and fully embrace the responsibility of offering richer and more representative cultural mirrors. The means to achieve this are available, from a culture of authenticity to making advertising campaigns accessible to people with disabilities, to just and respectful representations of all audiences. Courage and boldness will be required to see diversity and inclusion questions not as constraints but as opportunities.
