Publish Date: Mar 04, 2025

#ForAllWomenAndGirls is a rallying call for action on the 30thanniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Harmful stereotypes are one of the root causes of discrimination, abuse and violence in manifold areas, can lead to violations of a wide array of human rights and limit people’s full potential. When brands and advertisers challenge stereotypes, they challenge inequality. 

Kantar is the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business and brand partner to 96 of the world’s 100 biggest advertisers. We spoke to Caroline Frankum, Global CEO of the Kantar Profiles division about the importance of data in driving accountability and progress for ALL women and girls.

How can the advertising industry help to advance rights, equality and empowerment?
 

“The advertising industry plays a significant role in advancing rights, equality, and empowerment for all by shaping societal norms and perceptions through the content it produces,” Frankum says. “This means that Brands and their advertising have an accountability to authentically and meaningfully reflect the customers they are trying to reach.”

One of Frankum’s biggest passions is helping businesses transform and grow in profitable and purposeful ways by creating more inclusive and diverse environments. As Global CEO of the Kantar Profiles division, Frankum is responsible for running their multi-million-dollar first-party data division that powers insight delivery and analytics. Her work aims to help brands make data driven decisions that both drive social change and improve commercial performance. 

Despite the best efforts of Kantar and our Alliance as a whole, harmful stereotypes and biases still exist. “Despite efforts to promote gender inclusivity, many advertisements still portray women and girls in limiting and stereotypical roles,” Frankum says. This problem is compounded by “the underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions within the industry, which can hinder the creation of more diverse and inclusive content.”

What gets measured, gets managed

Kantar believes: “what gets measured gets managed” – a central tenet of their work with the Unstereotype Alliance and beyond. Since 2017, Kantar has helped develop, support and drive the Gender Unstereotype Metric (GUM), Progressive Unstereotype Metric (PUM), and the Gender Equality Attitudes Study. 

“This work has quantified and tracked the scale and entrenchment of discriminatory attitudes and harmful gender-based stereotypes, aiding all decision makers, from policy-makers to academics, marketers, private sector leaders and civil society, to be more progressive in their actions,” says Frankum. 

The work Kantar does on GUM, PUM, the Gender Equality Attitudes Study as well as their proprietary Brand Inclusion Index found that whilst good intentions are getting recognized by consumers, society and the ad industry must keep working to close inclusion gaps. “65% of people who are not well-represented in advertising experienced discrimination in the last year which is ten-percentage point difference compared to those who are regularly well-represented.”

There is also lots of progress to celebrate: the Brand Inclusion Index, also found that 7 in 10 people think that brands are making an effort to be more inclusive. Specifically, gender portrayal in advertising has witnessed notable improvements over the past five years. The data and analysis Kantar provides increases accountability while showing that change is possible: “we stay focused on and committed to always getting better on working to close inclusion gaps – which is more important than ever.”

Kantar has a duty and accountability to ensure advertising and data truly reflect the diverse world we serve.

- Caroline Frankum, Global CEO, Profiles Division, Kantar

Leading with purpose

Kantar began working with the Unstereotype Alliance because “our purpose and missions are perfectly aligned” Frankum says. This mission includes a future free from stereotypes. Frankum’s vision for this future is “a world where ALL women and girls can pursue their dreams and ambitions without being held back by societal expectations. It is a world where their contributions are valued, their voices are heard, and they can live with dignity and respect. it means equal rights, opportunities, power, and safety for women and girls everywhere.”

“Kantar has a duty and accountability to ensure advertising and data truly reflect the diverse world we serve – together we are working to shape the brands of tomorrow by better understanding people everywhere.”