Advertising market size (US$): 747.6 million
Launch date: December 2019
Strategic priorities: Addressing gender stereotypes with a focus on traditional gender-based division of labour and targeting youth to galvanize action. Gender stereotypes, traditional gender-based division of labour, capturing the youth, behavior change, establishing measurement metrics and self-regulatory system
Strategic industry events: Effie Awards, Mixx Awards, Crystal Apple Awards, MMA Smarties, Prida Awards, Media Summit (in collaboration with Advertising Foundation)
Vice Chairs: Advertisers Association (RVD), Association of Advertising Agencies (RD), Unilever, Eczacıbaşı Holding, Kantar Media
Members: Avon, Bayer, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Eti Gıda, MullenLowe, Koç Holding, Publicis Groupe, TBWA/Istanbul, Vodafone, WPP, Yıldız Holding
Allies: Bahçesehir University (BAU), Cosmetics & Cleaning Products Industry Association (KTSD), Foundation of Advertising (RV), Foundation of Outdoor Advertisers (ARVAK), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Radio Listening Services Organisation, Representation and Broadcasting Corporation (RIAK), The Advertising Self-Regulatory Board (RÖK), Turkish Researchers' Association (TUAD)
Milestones
AB2C Campaign
In 2020, the creation of the ‘When ads change society changes’ campaign was led by two founding members of the chapter, Association of Advertising Agencies (RVD) and Foundation of Advertising (RV). Informed by the annual research on Effie award winning TV ads conducted by chapter ally Bahçeşehir University, this public-facing campaign challenges traditional gender portrayals and roles. The B2C campaign ran across outdoor, radio and online media, achieved organic reach of over 13 million and received 9 national industry awards. The campaign also expanded into radio, with spots being rolled out across 9 Turkish national radio stations. They were vocalized by two male Turkish celebrities — comedian, Beyazit Ozturk and actor, Yetkin Dikinciler. Both also made statements on the low rate of female voiceovers in ads and asked the industry to change the status quo. The campaign closed 2020 with eight Awards including Crystal Apple Awards (one Crystal Apple and two Jury’s Special Awards), Felis Awards, Social Media Awards and A Awards 2020. Crystal Apple is one of the most significant awards for the advertising industry, organised every year since 1988 by the Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies.
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Türkiye launched the second iteration of its Turkish Unstereotype Alliance Playbook
In April 2023, and following the devastation of the earthquake that hit Türkiye in February 2023, the Türkiye National Chapter launched the second iteration of its Turkish Unstereotype Alliance Playbook. The Playbook highlights the best-in-class examples of advertising and marketing communications of Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye Chapter’s 2022 members. At launch, the Chapter invited the rest of the advertisers, advertising agencies and any company working in the marketing communications space in Türkiye to use this Playbook, to be inspired by it and to join us in dismantling harmful gender stereotypes in and through marketing communications.
Türkiye National Chapter releases the Effie Awards Türkiye Gender Equality Scorecard Study 2023
The Türkiye National Chapter, in conjunction with Bahçeşehir University, has published its annual Effies Scorecard, a report that evaluates Türkiye’s Effie award-winning and finalist content against progressive gender equality metrics. The report is currently only available in Turkish here, but key findings include: In 1 out of every two TV commercials, the female main character is at the center of the story. The female voice-over rate in 2023 Effie TV ads is 37%. The visibility rate of plus-size female main characters in Effie award-winning and finalist TV commercials has gradually decreased over the past 3 years and there is much room for improvement in terms of more diverse body types. There are no young men involved in household chores in the ads evaluated.
Launch: The Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye National Chapter officially launched on 13 December 2019 in Istanbul.
Billboard campaign
In January and February 2020, the Türkiye Chapter launched a public facing outdoor and digital billboard campaign with the support of RVD, RD and ARVAK at various malls in the three biggest cities of Türkiye– Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. The theme of the campaign was 'When ads change, society changes'. The billboards showcased progressive concepts for gender portrayals in advertising and the campaign received the Social Responsibility Category Award at the Outdoor Advertising Awards (A Awards) 2020.
Webinar: During April 2020, the Unstereotype Alliance Türkiye National Chapter hosted a webinar with Prof Dr. Ahmet Tamer Aker from Bilgi University's Trauma and Disaster Studies Mental Health Graduate Programme to shine a light on the reported increase in unpaid care work impacting women during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide information on how to prevent and deal with burnout.
Istanbul Convention
In August 2020, the Türkiye National Chapter supported the Istanbul Convention, also known as the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, on social media.
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