We’re a few weeks into a new government. And the question we’re all asking is: what exactly will it mean for us?
Labour is failing its first test for the queer community with its support of the previous government’s puberty blockers ban, which I wrote about in Attitude magazine. But I’m also interested in what this new government means for our industry and Outvertising’s mission to make the industry completely LGBTQIA+ inclusive. This will be my last column writing as the joint CEO but not my last for Campaign.
Ambitions for growth
The new government is busy with an in-tray of “unexploded bombs". Labour’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, created a risk register of emerging crises for the government to get its hands around immediately. It makes for daunting reading. The potential collapse of Thames Water, overcrowded prisons, universities facing financial collapse and failing local councils, too.
Once the fires are out, it will have its eyes on growth. The manifesto claims the decline in our prosperity is in part due to “a failure to acknowledge that sustainable growth requires government to be a strategic partner with business – that markets must be shaped, not merely served.” As a solution to this, the promise is a “more active, smarter government that works in partnership with business”.
Its plan for national renewal seems to centre around part-nationalising infrastructure: a new government owned energy company called Great British Energy and a newly nationalised Great British Railway. While it’s true this Labour Party has moved away from the fuller renationalisation plans of the Corbyn era, it remains the case that intervention is in the natural reflexes of the Labour Party.
There were no specific media or advertising policies in the policy-light Labour Party manifesto. However, Sir Keir Starmer knows his government needs to deliver growth to remain in power. His party’s majority is built on fragile foundations, while its honeymoon period looks like it’s over already. And five years isn’t very long to deliver tangible growth before the polls open again.
That means we have an impatient and interventionist government looking to pull every lever to unlock growth it can find. So, does that mean Great British Advertising in principle? We need to show that excessive regulation will harm its growth ambitions. And in areas where our sector is failing society, we must reform ourselves to avoid heavy-handed legislation.
We’re good at growth
Admittedly this report is a decade old, but the WFA longitudinal study shows that on average, €1 of advertising spend generates €7 for the economy. We make for a pretty tempting lever to pull upon.
Speaking to Campaign, ISBA, the IPA, the Advertising Association and the IAB all congratulated Starmer and the Labour party on the landslide victory and said they looked forward to working with the government “to help deliver Labour’s mission of kickstarting economic growth” but they also seem a little nervous about the possibility of further regulation. And maybe they should be.
It remains the case that parts of our industry are responsible for great social harm, we still have adspend funding an increase in hate crime. Despite a lot of promises from big-hitter agencies, little progress has been made to end this with self-regulation.
Earlier this year, Ofcom chair Lord Grade called for change when he said: “If you are a marketer with money to spend online; or if you are an agency planning and buying on behalf of clients; my message to you is this. Online safety is happening now, and you have a chance to play your part – by getting ahead of the harm.”
Christie Dennehy-Neil, head of policy and regulatory affairs at the IAB, said the new government was a “valuable opportunity to take stock and reassess how to address challenges within the online ecosystem.” And she’s right.
There is still blood in our media plans and on our hands, so it shouldn’t surprise us if our new government intervenes here to end the harm.
LGBTQIA+ inclusion is fundamental to growth
Let’s be clear, LGBTQIA+ inclusion is critical to the growth agenda. It’s not fluff. The data tells this story consistently.
New research from the Unstereotype Alliance found that advertising with more progressive portrayals in their narrative drives significant sales impacts in both the short and long-term.
New research from Channel 4 found that only 3% of UK TV ads featured LGBTQIA+ people in 2023. And only one ad within that 3% featured a Trans+ person.
That means there’s still a huge opportunity here for growth. Invest in queer story-telling, make it meaningful and put proper media money behind it.
Later this year, Outvertising will be releasing the Advocacy Playbook to support all within our industry to reform ourselves. For good and for growth.
Everyone in our sector has a responsibility to deliver on our promise as an engine of growth. Our industry can contribute significantly to opening up the growth we need to help lift families out of poverty, bring down hospital waiting lists, create affordable housing, recruit more teachers and much more besides.
That’s the part we need to play as we work for national renewal. It is time to actually change Britain, not just pay lip service. Because change is coming.
Note from the author: This column was written prior to the far right rioting and lawlessness we’ve seen across the UK since. The UK’s home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said “Social media has put rocket boosters” under the spread of misinformation which has been called a trigger for the violence we’ve seen. Cooper has said that the government will pursue the issue with tech giants who need to take some responsibility.
Marty Davies (she/they) is joint chief executive of Outvertising, the marketing and advertising industry’s LGBTQIA+ advocacy group; and co-founder of Trans+ Adland, a grassroots community group of trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people across the world of marketing and advertising. They are also the founder of creative strategy consultancy Smarty Pants and founder of Trans+ History Week.