Reform UK voters are the least likely to feel represented across five personal attributes
Key takeaways
- Following Sarah Pochin row, 27% of white Britons say they don’t feel well represented in adverts in terms of their race
- 51% of ethnic minority Britons say they don’t feel well represented in adverts in terms of their race
- 41% of Britons think representation in adverts has “gone too far”
- Reform UK voters are most likely to say so, and the most likely voting group to say they feel underrepresented in adverts across five attributes we asked about
- When it comes to other attributes, older Britons in particular say they feel underrepresented in adverts in terms of the ages of people depicted, at 65% of over-65s
Last week, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin triggered a row after complaining during a TalkTV phone-in about adverts being “full of black people, Asian people”.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP has since apologised for her remarks, saying they were “phrased poorly”, but maintained that many adverts are “unrepresentative of British society”.
Now a new YouGov survey shows that Pochin is among the 27% of white Britons who say they don’t feel well represented in advertising when it comes to the race of people they see depicted.
However, this compares to 65% of white people who say they do feel well represented.
Instead, it is ethnic minority Britons who are more likely to say they don’t feel that they don’t see people who look like them in advertising: only 42% say they feel well represented, compared to 51% who do not.
When it comes to voting groups, Pochin is joined by 63% of those who voted for her party at the 2024 general election in feeling they are not well represented in advertising when it comes to race.
Voters for other major parties typically feel well represented in this regard, from 50% of Conservatives to 78% of Labour voters.
There is also a noticeable age trend; the older a Briton is, the less likely they are to feel represented, falling from 71% of 18-24 year olds to 50% of 65+ year olds.
Britons tend to say adverts have gone too far when it comes to representation
However, when it comes to “making sure that different social groups are represented in advertising”, the most common belief among the public is that adverts have “gone too far”, at 41%. Only 29% of Britons believe the right balance had been achieved, while 16% think they still need to go further.
Reform UK voters are particularly likely to hold this view, at 78%, followed by 60% of Tories, and 58% of the over-65s.
Among white Britons, this figure stands at 46%, again the most common answer – a further 27% think the right balance has been reached while 14% think it needs to go further.
Meanwhile, only 18% of ethnic minority Britons agree representation has gone too far; more tend to believe the right balance has been achieved (42%), although a quarter (25%) still believe there is further to go.
Crossing the answers for this question with those of the previous questions on personal representation shows that the bulk of those who say they are not well represented tend to think advertising has gone too far, rather than still needing to go further.
How well represented do Britons feel on other characteristics (age, gender, class and sexuality)?
Of the five characteristics we asked about, it is age that proves to be the factor where the most people feel unrepresented.
This is particularly the case at the older end of the age range, with just 25% of the over-65s saying they feel well-represented, as well as 40% of 50-64 year olds.
This stands in contrast to 55% of 18-24 year olds and 64% of those aged 25-49.
When it comes to other factors, men are slightly more likely to say they don’t feel well represented when it comes to gender (21%) than women (16%), while those in working class households (C2DE) are more likely to feel underrepresented than their middle class (ABC1) counterparts (38% vs 30%).
On representation by sexuality, 72% of straight Britons say they feel well represented, but only 38% of LGB+* Britons say the same, with 47% of this latter group saying they don’t feel well represented.
Across all five of these variables, it is Reform UK voters who are most likely to say they don’t feel well represented compared to other party supporters.
Likewise, Reform UK are the most likely to say they feel underrepresented on ALL of the five factors, at 17%, compared to 10% of Conservatives, and 3-4% of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters.
* those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Other sexual orientation
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Photo: Getty
