While, in a Kantar study that we are publishing today, 71% of French people say that inclusion and diversity can influence their purchasing decisions, how are brands’ messages adapting? CB News offers you the interview with Stéphane Martin, general director of the ARPP, published in the magazine dated November 2024. ► To discover the entire magazine, click here and to purchase it, click here.
CB News: When did you sense at the ARPP the rise in social awareness of issues of inclusion, diversity, acceptance of differences?
Stéphane Martin : I would date this awareness back six-seven years, that is to say to 2017 and #MeToo. Before this sequence, we had better framed the image of women in the 1970s and experienced the turn of the 21st century with the era of “porn chic” in advertising. Clearly, there was a “before” and an “after” on the practices put in place… The #balancetonagency account also allowed the community of agencies to establish new rules.
CB News: Brands have gotten into it too…
Stéphane Martin : Under pressure from shareholders, employees and society in general, companies have actually made commitments, whether it concerns compliance with ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria, making it possible to measure their performance in non-financial or CSR areas, where they must demonstrate their action in terms of sustainable development. More generally, we are seeing a real effort from brands, from the creativity of agencies, from the media, to combat stereotypes and promote new advertising representations with less standardized physiques, people from diverse backgrounds, less youthism, etc.
CB News: But in the same sequence, we see a 192% increase in anti-Semitic acts during the first half of 2024, noted by the Ministry of the Interior. And on social networks as in the comments of certain politicians, many have seen a rise in racism, which goes against the inclusive discourse of brands…
Stéphane Martin : We must separate anti-Semitic acts from racist remarks. There was already an old foundation of anti-Semitism in France which was perhaps, unfortunately, only waiting to reawaken… As for the expression of racism, it is undoubtedly linked to a certain freedom of speech: individuals dare say out loud what they have been thinking quietly for several years already. For some, it is a phenomenon of backlash (“brutal reaction”) in response to societal advances, particularly in advertising, which they consider to go too far. And as they remain in their “filter bubble”, where they are only in contact with a group that shares their ideas, they are reinforced in their convictions.
CB News: Should we see this as a step backwards?
Stéphane Martin : No. There has been enormous progress in societal representations! Think about the 1980s, where there were essentially only white people in the countryside, where women were confined to housework or being exposed in a hypersexualized way, where there were no gay couples in the image… This is also true for French fiction which has evolved a lot on these subjects, in terms of meaning and signifiers. We won’t come back to that.
CB News: There remains an unexplored area of communication: very few people with disabilities appear in advertisements…
Stéphane Martin : That’s correct. In most countries, there is a “trough” in the representation of disability. It is very difficult to find the right tone on this type of subject in advertising. And then, we must remember that 80% of the disability is not visible: deafness, low vision, psychological disorders… We must work with the associations concerned.
CB News: The fact remains that after the United States, it is in France that we are observing a growing movement of protest against anything that could be wokism. Do you see this at the ARPP?
Stéphane Martin : We receive a lot of messages or letters telling us “there are too many black people in advertising”, “it’s anti-white racism!” » and the jury receives complaints as soon as two women kiss, even if people approach the subject in a very more cautious…
CB News: That is to say?
Stéphane Martin : They don’t say “there are too many gays” but “I don’t want my children to see that” or “showing them this type of scene is not education that I wish to give them”… More generally, after the parenthesis of collective support for caregivers during the Covid crisis, society split at the time of international conflicts and then the European elections: we see this with a communitarianization carried by certain activists. But it is also, indeed, a reflection of what is happening in the United States.
Accusing the Harley-Davidson brand of having adopted a woke ideology and of having taken a radical turn from its traditional values, some individuals destroyed their motorcycles and posted the videos on social networks. Under pressure, especially with the elections, Harley-Davidson announced at the end of August that it was abandoning its DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policy. In reality, a certain number of local brands are backtracking in the United States, where a societal divide has widened over the past ten years.
CB News: How do French brands react to this pressure since a certain number of them are marketed in UNITED STATES ?
Stéphane Martin : They demonstrate a lot of courage by continuing to affirm their commitments in their advertising communications and do not show any intention of backing down. L’Oréal, for example, has a very committed position with a wide range of local muses. But we must always remember that we have a very Western reading of things. Elsewhere, where there is less visible diversity, sometimes less freedom and/or strong religious convictions, the so-called “Last Supper” sequence at the JOP opening ceremony may have been censored and never broadcast. In essence, however, brands adapt to the social body because they are not there to overturn the table, nor to manage crisis situations.
