Gender stereotypes in advertising have decreased by 2025
Keystone-SDA
Swiss advertising spread fewer gender clichés last year, according to the Gisler Protokoll association. The results are “encouraging” but sometimes insufficient, it said.
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Nearly 87% of the ads analysed in 2025 were free of these stereotypes, noted the association in a press release on Tuesday. This is one percentage point more than the previous year.
In the 369 Swiss video ads, the organisation notes that the most popular gender roles have remained the same: “the funny man” and “the woman who takes care of everything”. There has been a change in the roles relating to care. According to the press release, “in 17 commercials, men took on tasks related to the household, children or relatives, outnumbering the ten women who appeared in similar roles”.
Last year, 21 female experts took on the task of providing explanations, “a field long considered to be dominated by men. Only two men had the opportunity to do the same in the ads analysed”, notes the association, which fights against stereotypes in advertising.
“We still see very few women in humorous roles and very few men enjoying something, such as chocolate”, said Nina Bieli, co-initiator and president of the Gisler Protokoll association.
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Under-represented categories
On three occasions, a person whose appearance did not correspond to the binary conception of gender appeared in an advertisement. This is virtually unchanged from the previous year. For the association, these figures under-represent the proportion of people “who do not fit into binary gender norms”.
“It remains virtually non-existent, even in campaigns explicitly aimed at a young audience. This has to change,” it said.
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A person not perceived as white appeared on 95 occasions, i.e. 26% of the ads analysed. The previous year, the figure was 17%. Although there is no data on the proportion of people perceived as non-white in Switzerland, 41% of the population has an immigrant background.
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“We can therefore see that the representation of people who are not perceived as white has improved, both quantitatively and qualitatively, compared with the previous year”, according to the press release, referring to the type of role and subject of the advert.
Disability marginalised
People with visible disabilities appeared only three times. “Out of the 369 ads analysed, only once did we see a person in a wheelchair, with no connection whatsoever to the subject being advertised. This touches us deeply.”
“People with disabilities take part in social life, but are virtually absent from Swiss advertising, except when there is an explicit reference to their lives with this disability,” Bieli said.
Adapted from French by AI/ts
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