Sarah Pochin’s anger not shared by brands who find that more diversity in commercials is great for their bottom line
Sarah Pochin’s claim on Saturday that she was driven mad by “seeing adverts full of black and Asian people” might have seemed like another hard-right hard sell from a politician who used one of her first sessions in the Houses of Parliament to ask Keir Starmer if he’d “ban the burqa”.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP was later forced to apologise, saying her comments about advertising were “phrased poorly”, but as well as highlighting what the prime minister described as “racist” views, they also pointed to a very real change the advertising sector has seen in the past five years.
It is true that since 2020 there has been a noticeable increase in representation of black people in UK adverts.
Data from Channel 4’s Mirror on the Industry report showed there was a surge of representation after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when many industries – including advertising – were criticised for poor representation.
