The Advertising Association promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy. We represent UK advertisers, agencies, media owners and tech companies on behalf of the entire industry, acting as the connection between industry professionals and the politicians and policy-makers.

The Advertising Association focuses on major industry and policy areas that have huge ramifications on UK advertising. This section contains our work around public health, gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital economy and more.

Credos is the advertising industry’s independent think tank. It produces research, evidence and reports into the impact and effectiveness of and public and political response to advertising on behalf of UK advertisers in order to enable the industry to make informed decisions.

Front Foot is our industry’s member network of over 90 businesses across UK advertising. It aims to promote the role of responsible advertising and its value to people, society and the economy through a coalition of senior leaders from advertisers, agencies and media owners.

We run a number of events throughout the year, from our annual LEAD summit to the Media Business Course and regular breakfast briefings for our members. We are also the official UK representative for the world’s biggest festival of creativity – Cannes Lions.

Welcome to our Advertising Pays 8 hub – a one-stop-shop for the best UK advertising campaigns that are making a positive contribution to society

Advertising Pays 8 is the latest report from UK advertising’s think tank, Credos and is focused on the hugely important social contribution made by UK advertising. Right now, we are seeing this in action in the way our industry is responding to the Covid-19 crisis and we are gathering case studies here so you can see this in more detail.

The new report includes major new research commissioned by Credos on both the public’s and the advertising industry’s perception of the social good made by industry. The report also includes a variety of different case studies that bring our industry’s social contribution to life in a practical way. These case studies are grouped under five overall themes spanning different elements of social contribution and environmental sustainability: Health & Wellbeing; Community Improvement; Diversity & Inclusion; Environmental Preservation; and Human Rights.

This  hub features many of the leading examples of advertising’s social contribution that were researched for the report. It gives more information about how the campaigns came about, the purpose behind the advert and the impact it had on our society.

We will be growing this hub on an ongoing basis, so if you’d like to put forward a campaign to be included, particularly around Covid-19, or simply would like to know more, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Ellie.

Download your copy of Advertising Pays 8: UK advertising’s social contribution here.

Featured View More
Filter Clear Filters
All Ads
Close Modal
Diversity & Inclusion
Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award 2016: New Boyfriend
BRAND / ORGANISATION

Mars (Maltesers)

AGENCY

AMV BBDO

Media

Channel 4

Launched during the 2016 Paralympic Games, “New Boyfriend” brought attention to people with disabilities and their experiences in daily life. The video features a young woman in a wheelchair who is discussing her new boyfriend with friends. When she begins to talk about their sex life, she references a particular incident where she had a spasm, caused by her cerebral palsy. She uses a bag of Maltesers that she is holding to re-enact and make light of her story.

You can watch the ad here.

Impact

Prior to the campaign, Maltesers set a 4% sales growth target. While the campaign was on the air there was an 8.1% uplift in sales. Within the first 24 hours of the ad being launched, “New Boyfriend” exceeded 2 million views. This was double the views target that Maltesers set prior to the launch. The ad also won Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award for 2016.