Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye celebrates third anniversary promoting gender equality in advertising!

The Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye chapter led by the Advertisers Association and the Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies,with the coordination of UN Women, celebrated its third anniversary at Bahçeşehir University in İstanbul on December 16th.

The Unstereotype Alliance, a platform aimed at transforming gender stereotypes and eliminatinggender inequalities in advertisement, celebrated its third anniversary in Türkiye on December 16. The Alliance’s members including private sector companies, academia, and industry representatives attended the anniversary celebration of the platform, which is an initiative led bythe advertising and marketing communications sector with support from UN Women Türkiye.

The research “Women and Gender Dynamics in the Advertising and Marketing Industry in Türkiye” was presented to only members at the event by Gül Şener, lecturer at the Faculty of Communication of Bahçeşehir University And it will publish to the public in the second week of January. 

Speaking at the event, UN Women Türkiye Country Director, Asya Varbanova, mentioned that advertisement plays a key role in promoting gender equality in the media: "As UN Women we are proud to be the convener of the Unstereotype Alliance – which is a member-led ‘think and do’ coalition. We fully recognize the power and influence of the advertising industry and the advertisers that shape that industry when it comes to stirring positive social norms change. We will keep building on our work with the private sector for an equal future for all, void of gender stereotypes."  

Ahmet Pura, President of the Advertisers Association, stated: “One of the main vehicles for social norms change all over the world is an advertisement. We are aware of this, and we achieve good results, however, these efforts are meaningless without monitoring and research. This is why we established the Equality Scorecard for our Effie Awards, which has become a reference for the Turkish advertisement industry.”

The event was also attended by Ezgi Tokman, Unilever Sustainability, and Communications Manager; Ayşen Akalın, Consumer Products, Media and Communications Manager at Eczacıbaşı Group and Akan Abdula, FutureBright co-founder who also delivered inspirational speeches, as well as Akbank and TBWA/İstanbul that were announced as the newest members of the platform.

The third-anniversary celebration of the Türkiye chapter was conducted over a month after the Unstereotype Alliance Global Member Summit held at UN headquarters in New York. UN Women Türkiye Deputy Country Director Zeliha Ünaldı, attended the global gathering on behalf of Türkiye. See the video of the Global Summit here.

About the Unstereotype Alliance

The Unstereotype Alliance is an industry-led initiative convened by UN Women that unites leaders across the global advertising industry to tackle the widespread prevalence of stereotypes that are often perpetuated through advertising and content. The Unstereotype Alliance aims to affect positive cultural change by using the power of advertising to help shape perceptions that reflect realistic portrayals of all people. It is carried out by UN Women all over the world in Türkiye, Brazil, United Kingdom, Japan, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Australia, Mexico, Nigeria, India and Argentina. 

The members of Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye are; Avon, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Eczacıbaşı Holding, Eti Gıda, Johnson&Johnson, Kantar Media, Koç Holding, P&G, Publicis Groupe, Unilever, Vodafone and WPP, IPG/Mullenlowe, GSK, Bayer, Akbank and TBWA.