Pensioners remain virtually invisible in UK television advertising, with over-70s appearing in just two per cent of campaigns last year, research has shown.
The report, commissioned by Channel 4 as part of its Mirror on the Industry project and carried out by the agency Tapestry, found that other groups such as pregnant women and disabled people are also being sidelined. The research audited the top 500 adverts across all broadcasters over two, four-week periods. It is the sixth year the company has carried out the research.
Despite over-70s accounting for nearly 14 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom according to the latest National Census, they featured in just two per cent of adverts.
Pregnant women appeared in only 0.1 per cent of adverts, while disabled people featured just 4 per cent of the time, a figure unchanged since 2018, despite making up nearly one in five of the population.
By contrast, Black people remain significantly over-represented on screen. The study shows they featured in more than half of adverts in 2022, up sharply from 37 per cent in 2020 following the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black people make up around 4 per cent of the population in England and Wales, according to the 2021 census.
South Asian people appeared in 17 per cent of adverts, higher than the 8 per cent share of the population they represent, while East Asians were present in 11 per cent of campaigns, compared with 1 per cent of the public.
Marcus Ryder, chief executive of the Film and TV Charity, said the imbalance shows the need for broader diversity among decision-makers in the industry.
“Diversity should always be far more than just about counting heads,” he told The Times. “Is the black person just seen as a regular dad? Sometimes it feels as if, after the age of 30, all black people die off. Bosses look at hitting targets as opposed to hitting accuracy.”
