Wonderhood Studios and The Diversity Standards Collective launch industry-wide framework to boost inclusion and representation in advertising

Wonderhood Studios and The Diversity Standards Collective have joined forces to launch the Campaign Inclusion Charter to boost inclusion and representation in advertising and are now urging agencies and in-house teams to sign up too.

The new initiative is intended to embed inclusion throughout the creative process, ensuring creative work genuinely reflects the audiences it is intended to engage. It comes at a time when too many ads still cause public backlash for being insensitive or tone deaf.

Often, problems arise when inclusion and representation are not addressed at each stage of the creative process. Yet considering them throughout not only helps tackle potentially damaging issues as they arise – it helps ensure they don’t happen at all.

The Campaign Inclusion Charter helps agency and in-house creative teams build inclusion across the full lifecycle of a creative brief – from first conversations through strategic development, ideation and storytelling, partner selection, language, tone and platform choices to the final checks before work goes live.

The idea is that by embedding inclusion throughout, those producing creative work can avoid repeated mistakes and ensure output genuinely reflects the audiences they serve.

By signing the charter, an organisation joins a collective movement turning good intentions into everyday creative practice and real-world representation through ten core commitments which act as a set of guidelines to which signatories commit.

Implementation can be done in whichever way best suits each organisation’s size and budget, with tracking of implementation and monitoring – the responsibility of each participant – done as they choose, either by internal teams or, when an agency is formally DSC-backed, by the DSC.

The intention is that adhering to the ten commitments helps an organisation both reinforce existing internal processes and identify any shortcomings in their current approach.

The Campaign Inclusion Charter 10 Commitments agencies and in-house teams are invited to sign up to are:

Make Inclusion Part of the Brief: We aim to bring inclusion into the conversation from the very start of a project during briefing, asking who’s represented, who isn’t, and why that matters to the work.

Use Inclusive and Evolving Language: We strive to use respectful inclusive language when discussing audiences, casting and creative ideas and to check our work for outdated or insensitive terms before it is shared or published.

Check and Question Our Work: We commit to building in moments across the campaign process to pause and question our work, creating space for teams and partners to speak up, challenge stereotypes, and flag concerns before work goes live.

Think More Openly in Strategy: We strive to consider how our strategic insights and ideas might land with different people and communities before creative development begins.

Invite Different Creative Perspectives: We commit to welcoming a mix of voices while ideas are forming whether through diverse internal teams, collaborators, or external input so our creative thinking reflects more than one lived experience.

Don’t Shy Away from Being Specific: We commit to not stopping at simply including diversity in the script. We will bring the work to life with nuance and specificity through casting, art direction, wardrobe, locations, and cultural detail so representation feels considered, credible, and real.

Champion Diverse Partners: We will actively seek opportunities to work with a broad range of suppliers and collaborators. This may involve evolving our approach to the pitching process to ensure we engage a diverse mix of talent. Our aim is not to be tokenistic, but to take a holistic view of who we partner with over time, ensuring we meaningfully support and enable diverse voices.

Share the Work Intentionally: We commit to ensuring that when our work goes live, it is shared in ways that are relevant, intentional, and accessible. This includes considering channel choice, formats, accessibility, and relevance to the audiences and stories we’re reflecting.

Represent and Reflect Real Variety in Our Stories: We aim to reflect real variety in the stories we tell whether within a single campaign or across a brand’s work over time so the breadth of our audiences is meaningfully represented.

Build on each Campaign: We commit to actively reflecting on diversity and inclusion after each campaign, acknowledge what worked, what could be improved, and how learning can be applied next time. This includes internal reviews and conversations with clients as part of campaign wash ups.

Wonderhood Studios and The Diversity Standards Collective have collaborated on a wide range of campaigns since 2021, inclusive of Three Gravlax, Awww, Midnight Mums Club and Sharma Fam Chat, The Royal Foundation’s Shaping Us and Starling’s The Bank Built For You.

Eddy Yan, New Business and Marketing Director at Wonderhood Studios, said: “The best campaigns that truly captivates audiences, are the ones that reflect the reality of the audiences it’s trying to reach. When inclusion is considered throughout the process and not added as an afterthought, the work becomes more authentic, more effective and ultimately more impactful. This charter is about providing teams with a clear and practical way to build that thinking into how campaigns are created every day. We’re excited to be launching this initiative and hope agencies across the industry will join us in raising the standard for making more inclusive work.”

Rich Miles, CEO and Founder of The Diversity Standards Collective, said: “Inclusion is one of the most powerful creative tools we have, yet it’s still too often treated as a single checkpoint instead of something considered across the whole campaign journey. Having reviewed hundreds of campaigns firsthand, I’ve seen how many ideas miss their full potential simply because inclusive thinking wasn’t built into the process from the start.

This charter is about changing that. It’s not about perfection from day one, it’s about making the commitment to progress. Because when inclusion is embedded properly, you create work that feels more real, more culturally connected and more capable of making people stop, look and see something they’ve never seen before.”

For further information about The Campaign Inclusion Charter and to sign up, visit https://campaigninclusioncharter.com/

Source: Campaign Inclusion Charter

  Agency, Campaign Inclusion Charter, Launch, The Diversity Standards Collective, Wonderhood Studios