Actors Grudgingly Entered a Stereotypical Casting Call, Then Learned Why They Were Really There

MullenLowe London film shows advertising's baked-in biases

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Fresh off the Cannes Lions, where a significant portion of awarded work either broke stigmas or illustrated greater representation, the Unstereotype Alliance in partnership with the United Nations released new work that shows typecasting is still an issue for talent. Intended for the marketing and creative industry, the film from MullenLowe London takes a first-person view of an audition and goes through several types of roles cast in advertising, all of which indicates bias remains alive and unwell.

“Stereotypes reflect deep-rooted ideas of femininity and masculinity,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women at the launch of the program last year at Cannes and supported by Unilever, AT&T, IPG, Google, Microsoft, WPP, P&G and a raft of others.

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