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. 

Unilever Argentina was one of the founding members of the Argentina National Chapter. We spoke to Natalia Giraud, Director of Corporate Affairs, Unilever Argentina about how a global company can make local impacts and continue to support the communities they serve.

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

“The advertising industry plays a fundamental role in promoting rights, equality and a fairer, more inclusive and respectful society by communicating without harm stereotypes,” Giraud says. “Consumers are constantly looking at us and therefore it is essential to understand that brands play a fundamental role as agents of change in the society.”

Giraud reflected on the challenge that can present: “As a leading consumer goods company, we believe that the biggest challenge for the advertising industry, in order to achieve equality for all women and girls, is to detect which stereotypes may be causing certain harm and work to achieve greater representation of all people in our communications”

A tangible example of Unilever’s work on global scale is Dove, which 20 years ago adopted an ongoing commitment to improving body confidence and self-esteem in girls and women. “[We] and started talking about real beauty. The brand's purpose is to consolidate the idea that beauty should be a source of confidence rather than a factor of anxiety and emotional insecurity.” Giraud explains. 

“Through the consistency of its purpose over time, we were able to generate a community that continues to encourage people to have a positive relationship with their appearance, strengthening their confidence and self-esteem.”

From billboards to beaches


In summer 2024 Dove Argentina brought their global mission to champion body diversity to beaches along the Atlantic coast. Billboards were present on the main beaches in the country with the message "all bodies are summer bodies”. This campaign stayed true to Dove's 20-year long message of self esteem while offering a fresh, local perspective.

As well as challenging the beauty standards imposed by society, media and the beauty industry itself, Dove started with themselves: committing to 1) increase representation among the women they portray and 2) not digitally alter any images in their campaigns.

Consumers are constantly looking at us, so brands play a fundamental role as agents of change in the society.

- Natalia Giraud, Director of Corporate Affairs, Unilever Argentina

Driving social change, together 

But they couldn’t do it alone: “At Unilever, we understand that promoting a world without stereotypes is not achieved individually and in isolation, but collaboratively, assuming our role and responsibility in society. That is why, in 2017, Unilever joined forces with UN Women and sponsored Unstereotype Alliance along with other companies, with the goal of collectively using the advertising industry to drive positive change around the world.”
Unilever is working on this mission across the organization: “we are working on this agenda with all marketing teams and their agencies, to learn the tools of the Alliance and constantly train ourselves to incorporate an inclusion perspective in everything we do.”

Giraud explains why it is crucial that the whole organization gets involved, “we must understand context, train ourselves and work closely with brands to achieve the greatest possible representation of consumers, so that the world is freer and so that they choose our brands.” In 2024 the Unstereotype Alliance launched industry-first research proving Giraud’s point: inclusive advertising drives social change and improves the bottom line.