The discourse around inclusive and diverse advertising has seen its share of recent scepticism, with critics labelling it as ‘woke’ and alleging it can harm a brand’s bottom line. Despite sincere attempts by businesses across all industries and in all parts of the world to take positive action to be more diverse and inclusive - including with respect to how they portray their brands in their advertising - the notion ‘going woke equals going broke’ still prevails and makes corporate leaders wonder if their DEI efforts might harm their businesses’ bottom lines.
This led us at the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative to ask the question: Is progressive marketing, which includes brands adopting more inclusive and diverse advertising practices, good for business?
To answer this, we partnered with the Unstereotype Alliance, which is part of UN Women, to conduct a world-first academic study into the business impacts of brands’ inclusive advertising practices. Inclusive advertising, as defined by the United Nations, is advertising that authentically and positively portrays a full range of people, including traditionally underrepresented and/or underserved communities, and is devoid of stereotypes. This definition aligns with the broader objective of creating content that reflects diversity in terms of gender, race, class, age, ability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and more, while avoiding harmful or reductive stereotypes. The focus of inclusive advertising is on representing individuals in advertising in ways that set positive examples and contribute to a more equal and inclusive society.

Our study centred on statistical analysis of data measuring the commercial performance and inclusive advertising practices of 392 brands from the portfolios of Bayer Consumer Health, Diageo, Mars Inc, Mondelēz International, and Unilever in 58 countries between 2020 and 2023. Data for the study came from the brands themselves, along with the Geena Davis Institute, Kantar, and Nielsen.
The findings
The findings were unequivocal showing that inclusive advertising leads to significant commercial and brand equity benefits. Brands with better inclusive advertising practices when compared to brands with less-inclusive advertising practices had:
- Higher sales: 3.46% higher short-term sales and 16.26% higher long-term sales.
- Greater customer loyalty: 23% lower abandonment rates after trial and 15% higher customer loyalty.
- Stronger brand consideration: 62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice in a given product category and 33% higher strong brand consideration.
- Enhanced pricing power: 54% higher pricing power, indicating that consumers were willing to pay a premium for brands they perceived as inclusive.
- Higher brand equity: On Kantar BrandZ’s drivers of brand equity, 8.3% higher meaningfulness, 12.1% higher differentiation, and 9.4% higher salience.
These findings make it hard to believe that ‘going woke equals going broke.’ Indeed, they instead strongly suggest that ‘inclusion equals income’ for brands. Moreover, this convincingly debunks the myth that inclusive advertising is a niche strategy or relevant only to specific markets. In fact, when we considered the empirical findings from this research the conclusion we reached is that brands with better inclusive advertising practices find it easier to attract customers and to keep them. Simply, this is not only ethically and socially appropriate but also very good for business performance.
While the results speak for themselves, we have heard from many marketers that adopting and embedding inclusive advertising practices is easier said than done. To help brands and their advertising agencies find practical ways to make inclusive and progressive approaches to marketing and advertising ‘the norm’ inside their businesses, together with the Unstereotype Alliance we held the first Oxford-Unstereotype Alliance Inclusive Advertising Summit in Oxford on 17 January 2025 and will have another one in New York on 5 March 2025. In Oxford, around 80 leaders from brands and agencies, along with several Oxford Saïd academics, shared their best practices for embedding inclusive advertising practices in their organisations and also talked candidly about the challenges they have faced along this journey.

Five key principles for business
Building on the collective experience of leaders across a wide range of companies, to make inclusive advertising a successful reality, businesses should consider the following principles:

Persistence pays off.
Although our research suggests that inclusive advertising is no longer optional and should, in fact, be part of running a healthy business, the transitioning to inclusive advertising is not always easy. It involves changing how people think, overcoming long-established and oftentimes unconscious biases. Brands that have done it well have managed to ‘hard wire’ inclusion and diversity principles into their brands’ DNA, team cultures, agency relationships, and business processes. This takes time but the message we have heard is persistence pays off. Some organisations have also found that it can help to publicly set relevant DEI-related goals to help stay the course as it makes business leaders more accountable and motivates employees.
Inclusive ecosystems are essential.
True inclusivity requires systemic change. Given that in most organisations marketing and advertising work is done in partnership with an array of suppliers, agencies, and consultants (ie rarely ever 100% in house), leaders have to ensure that everyone in their marketing strategy, advertising, and media supply chains are aligned and on board with inclusive principles. One way to do this is to set very clear ‘action standards’ that all partners in the ecosystem understand and are held to. For example, if a brand pre-tests all of their ads using established and validated metrics for inclusion (such as the Unstereotype metrics for gender and progressive marketing that UN Women developed with Kantar), the brand can set minimum scores that all ads and campaigns must meet in order to be used. Another approach a brand can take to align their ecosystem around inclusive advertising principles is to put brand and agency teams through training workshops together.
The best way to manage backlash is to be prepared.
One recurring theme in any discussion about DEI in marketing is the fear of backlash that can undermine progressive efforts and harm performance. Brands can hesitate to embrace inclusivity due to concerns about criticism (both from within their boardrooms and from consumers) or worries of making missteps (despite having the best of intentions). The reality is that DEI issues can be politically and socially controversial, which means that organisations can expect some backlash. The best way to tackle this is to expect it and to proactively prepare. While it would be impossible to counteract all external criticism, handling internal challenges is feasible. Approaches such as managing internal stakeholders (especially business owners, senior leaders and board members) through good communication can help. Also, demonstrating the positive business impacts of inclusive advertising with relevant data (eg showing how a more progressive campaign, despite criticism, generated sales uplifts) can be persuasive. Finally, it is important to instil a culture of ‘bravery’ in the face of expected or actual criticism and backlash. Brands must lead with purpose, standing firm in their values, and address backlash with confidence and transparency.
Embed inclusive advertising practices across all stages of the marketing process.
Inclusivity must be integrated across the entire marketing process, from initial consumer insights research to strategy and planning to creative development and all the way through to execution. A useful exercise is to map out all stages of the process and look at ways to bring inclusive advertising principles into each stage - and in particular to identify where inclusivity is not currently being thought about enough.
Make sure you are informed by data.
An important lesson from organisations that have been doing well with inclusive advertising is that they make good use of data to inform their decisions and guide their efforts. Metrics such as the Gender Unstereotype Metric and the Progressive Unstereotype Metric that the Unstereotype Alliance developed with Kantar are extremely valuable to brands. These metrics test individual pieces of ad creative (eg a video ad) and can be used to ensure that ads are meeting brands’ standards. They are also valuable when a brand looks at them across all ads tested in a period of time in a given market as they are a good measure of generally how inclusive and progressive a brand’s advertising is. Moreover, charting a brand’s metrics over time can be insightful as it sheds light on how well (or not!) a brand’s inclusive advertising practices have been evolving and improving over time. These and other metrics should be used as practical benchmarks and standards. Periodically reporting such data to leadership teams and boards also is important as it increases transparency, encourages greater accountability, and generally raises the awareness of the importance of inclusive advertising practices at the top of a company.
Talking is easy but action requires persistent, aligned and cross-functional effort. We know from our research that inclusive advertising is good for business but this is not yet a universal norm of good commercial marketing operations. While the evidence is clear - inclusive advertising is not just a moral choice but a strategic imperative - more work needs to be done. As we approach key milestones like the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, the stakes have never been higher. Inclusive advertising offers a pathway to sustainable business growth and societal progress—a win-win that no brand can afford to ignore.