Make Government Adverts Diverse, Civil Servants Told
Civil servants have been ordered to make their advertising campaigns diverse, despite ethnic diversity already being overrepresented in recent Government campaign material. The Telegraph has the story.
The Government Communications Service (GCS), which is responsible for campaigns and policy messaging across Whitehall and aims to “change behaviour for the public good”, recommended that mandarins should use “case studies imagery that reflects our diverse society”.
However, a limited review of adverts produced after the publication of initial guidance in 2021 shows that people from ethnic minorities already feature prominently in some policy messages.
For example, an ad campaign for a child development service featured two white adults out of a total of five; and in a recruitment drive for childcare workers, only 50% of models were white.
It follows a row earlier this year over diversity in adverts across British media, with critics suggesting that minorities were over-represented more generally compared with wider society.
In October, Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP, stated in an interview that it drove her “mad” to see advertisements “full of black people, full of Asian people”.
The comment was widely criticised, including by Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, and Ms Pochin later apologised.
However, she did clarify her point by arguing that adverts do not “reflect our society” and that the “average white family is… not represented anymore”.
The GCS, which employs 6,000 people, is run by the Cabinet Office and prides itself on its ability to “change behaviour for the public good”.
Issues of representation are addressed in an “inclusive communications template” that civil servants managing campaigns are urged to consult.
This includes prompts about the inclusion of “diverse imagery”, and urges civil servants to consider whether public messaging features “a wide variety of people with protected characteristics”.
Additional guidance published in 2025 advises civil servants working in communications to work with minority audiences when they are creating adverts, an approach which can “provide insights into lived experience”.
Government communications are also urged to take into account other protected characteristics, including disability, to ensure target audiences are reached.
As part of this diversity work, comms specialists are advised to make use of TV and radio to avoid the problem of “possible lower literacy levels in English and/or other languages”.
In areas with lower English proficiency, government communication should make use of local groups including “community and faith organisations”, guidance says.
This additionally advises reaching target audiences in their native languages and using community engagement to help reach audiences that have “lower levels of trust in government”.
This guidance was set out following the introduction of a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan by the GCS in 2020.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
When people talk about “diversity” and “minorities” what they mean is non white people. It’s just a front for anti white racism. There are an infinite number of ways of measuring “diversity”. If anyone starts flapping their gums to you about “diversity”, ask them “diversity of what”?
Whites cannot be victims of racism. It’s scientific fact. TheScience™, in fact.
Plenty of people seriously maintain that position. If you manage to get one of them to engage, ask them why they think this is.
And the answer they will give is that you are a Far Right, Fascist, Nazi, racist thug – and report you to the police for committing a racially motivated hate crime.
They have no other answer.
Perversity.
This is the fundamental problem, right here. Deluded whackjobs: virtue-signalling, self-loathing oikophobes and non-whites with perma-victimhood status who bore on and on about fabricated grievances. Maybe Lenny & Co chose to ignore all the coloured people at Tommy’s rally because the truth is like kryptonite and doesn’t confirm their bias;
”Sir Lenny Henry, actors Christopher Eccleston and Mark Rylance, and singers Charlotte Church and Paloma Faith are among the well-known faces backing a new campaign against the far right. TOGETHER, an alliance of campaigners, unions and civil society groups, is being launched today to counter the rise of Reform and street protests led by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson.
The alliance is urging people across the country to stand up for unity in the face of attempts to fuel division.
Paloma Faith said: “There is no world I want to live in where discrimination is acceptable for anything. No race, gender or class is superior to any other… this is why racism makes my blood boil.”
Former Dr Who star Christopher Eccleston said: “Racism is hatred, stand with us against it.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/sir-lenny-henry-paloma-faith-36335594
Paloma Faith conflates discrimination, racism and thinking one race is superior to another. Those are completely different things in my view. Racism might simply be a preference for your own race, without thinking your group is superior- it’s just yours. And you can be both racist and think your race is superior without “discriminating” (in the sense she means it) because you may well feel that it’s your moral duty to treat people as you find them regardless of race (which I personally do – try anyway).
Given that the whole of humanity came out of the African Rift Valley roughly 60,000 years ago I can’t see how the human race has split into multiple races, there just has not been sufficient time for evolution to do this.
There are ethnicities and cultures, those developed over the period before widespread international travel became possible. People naturally have a preference for the people they know and grew up with.
If the ratio of ethnicities is roughly correct for the current mix then why is there any need to increase the non-white group? If anything I’d argue it’s already so distorted as to be unrepresentative of the current situation.
What’s the difference between a race and an ethnicity?
How do you explain the obvious group level differences between ethnicities if not caused by evolutionary pressure that varied according to environment?
You also need to consider the influence that neanderthal DNA had, which was not mixed with all “ethnicities”.
I honestly think that it’s wishful thinking to somehow believe that people are largely interchangeable and that “culture” is not connected to genetics. I totally understand that because it’s much nicer to believe that. But the evidence all points in the other direction. The more interesting question is what if anything do we do with this information. I think for the citizens already legally in our country we should stop talking about race or ethnicity or whatever you want to call it. But if you ask me whether I want the white race to survive and whether we should take steps to ensure it does, I would say absolutely. Making that statement about other races seems un controversial. But try saying it about whites in “polite society”.
But then I am a horrible racist.
Am worried this name ‘Together’ will confuse people with #Together. The latter a movement of people trying to fight for freedom. Freedom from vaccine mandates, DigitalID etc.
How do you deal with a new movement that uses the same name?
This worried me too. They are poles (or maybe afghans these days) apart.
In accord with the fundamental principles of Two-Tierocracy, you can’t get too much of the approved sort of diversity and you can’t get too little of the wrong sort of inclusivity.
6000 more useless or harmful vivil servants that could be sacked to save taxes.
Increasingly these people are just talking to themselves, nobody’s listening, we’ve tuned out – dreaming of lampposts and hempen rope.
“Make use of community and faith organisations” but only if they’re woke enough.
Sounds like another excuse to give more money and influence to Muslim groups/ mosques without any checks about the attitude of the “leaders” towards Jews, women, terrorists etc. what the money will be used for and what message these groups will convey.
How do you – how can I – get to be diverse? Perhaps I shoud ask my community leader. Err, hang on a minute…
Clearly the civil service know nothing about advertising (which is hardly unexpected), and are clearly wasting lots of taxpayers money as their advertising campaigns will fail.
An advert needs to be engaging and to resonate with viewers. If it doesn’t, or irritates them in some way, possibly because it does not represent them, then they (at best) ignore it but, at worst, treat it as deliberate propaganda – at which point they become actively disengaged.
You don’t exactly need an Master’s degree or PhD in marketing to work this out. Perhaps our civil servants are somewhat below this level.
Ideological Alignment is EVERYWHERE. All Corporations and Institutions must COMPLY. Not because any laws have been passed or there is any regulatory framework, but because the ESG point scoring system will coerce them into it. Non Compliance will result in EXCLUSION.
Another massive waste of our money by this Government
Right, because adverts aren’t “diverse” enough already, are they…?
Make Government ads diverse?
You mean have White, straight, Christian people in them?
Anyone who uses the phrase “lived experience” should be headbutted.
As in shoving their heads up their butts.