There are four million Australians living with a disability, and yet they rarely see themselves represented in advertising.But there are moves afoot to improve diversity and inclusionA spokeswoman for the Advertising Council Australia said there were no official records on diversity in advertising in Australia, but statistics from the US by global data company Nielsen showed people with disabilities only made up 1 per cent of people appearing in adverts.
Ms Miller said advertisers didn't have people with a disability in mind because they simply couldn't think of who to use. "However, advertisers and brand managers are becoming more aware of the importance and benefits of diverse representation within advertising."Ms Miller said Australia also did not have enough agencies offering diverse talent.
The company's health marketing guru Naomi Morton said that people of all abilities used health insurance, so it was important for their advertising to reflect that. "There are plenty of dark parts about being an amputee, but I've always found you can make life a whole lot easier by having a good laugh."
"It's important to understand that for people with disability, the demand to be represented in advertising is about more than broadening a narrow aesthetic."The failure to include disabled people in mainstream advertising is also a broader reflection of deeply held and long-standing prejudices, stigma and negative stereotypes about them."
"The problem is that the client is most likely to be against it as they will see the disability as distracting from the product."
. It's an advertisers job to influence people to buy stuff. Sure, if some millenial wnk business needs to virtue signal so 20yo instagrammers will retweet their products, sure, use a female transgender lesbian with one leg and autism. That doesn't really achieve anything though