Strength in Numbers: #SeeHer Advisory Board Expands
Academy Award Winner Geena Davis and InStyle Magazine
Editor-In-Chief Laura Brown Join Association of National Advertisers’
Movement to Eliminate Unconscious Bias in Media
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actor, founder and chair of the Geena
Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Laura Brown, editor-in-chief of
InStyle Magazine, have joined the advisory board of #SeeHer, the
Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) movement of global, national,
and regional brands working together to eliminate gender bias in
advertising and media.
The new advisors were announced today by #SeeHer Chair Stephen Quinn,
former CMO of Walmart and Pepsico, and they represent an expansion of
the movement’s influential board. In June, #SeeHer named award-winning
journalist and author Katie Couric and WNBA President Lisa Borders as
inaugural members of its advisory board.
#SeeHer launched in June 2016 through the partnership of The Female
Quotient (TFQ) and the Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE), a
subcommittee of the Association of National Advertisers which is the
largest, most-influential marketing and advertising association in the
U.S. #SeeHer’s mission is to achieve a 20 percent increase in accurate
portrayals of women and girls in advertising and media by 2020 — the 100th
anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
“Our advisors will give us unparalleled insight into the critical areas
of news, sports, fashion, culture, and film,” said Quinn. “Their counsel
will be an invaluable asset to amplify #SeeHer as the leading voice in
accurate portrayal of women and girls in media.”
“Media greatly influences society, and advertising-related content
players a very powerful role in that ecosystem,” said ANA CEO Bob
Liodice. “As the largest advertising trade association in the U.S., it
is our responsibility to lead the industry to increase authentic gender
portrayal in media, while helping members’ brands deliver tangible
business growth.”
Since its launch in 2016, #SeeHer has become the industry standard in
providing advertisers, agencies, and media executives with
state-of-the-art insight and activation strategies and tools to identify
and eliminate unconscious bias in ads, entertainment content, and media
planning. Last March, the movement unveiled its innovative testing tool,
the Gender Equality Measure (GEMTM) to identify and eliminate
gender bias in ads, creative content, and media planning. To date, GEMTM
has been used to evaluate 30,000 ads and over 400 Nielsen-rated TV
shows. The initiative represents 1,000 of most respected brands.
Geena Davis is a brilliant polymath, semi-finalist for the Olympic
trials in archery, Academy-Award® winning actor and advocate for women
and girls. She founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the
only organization working within entertainment media to dramatically
improve gender portrayals in media targeting children 11 and under. Its
cutting edge research and expertise has influenced significant change in
content creation at networks, studios, production companies, guilds and
agencies.
Laura Brown is one of the foremost and most loved fashionistas in the
country, serving as executive editor of Harper’s Bazaar magazine for
more than a decade before joining InStyle Magazine, the leading resource
for celebrity style, in August 2016.
About The #SeeHer Initiative
Despite the strides made to accurately portray women and girls in the
media, an unconscious bias persists against women and girls in
advertising, media, and programming. The Association of National
Advertisers (ANA) Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) launched the
#SeeHer initiative in June 2016 in a partnership with The Girls’ Lounge,
after the White House announced the elimination of gender bias in media
as critical to the nation’s future. #SeeHer’s mission is to increase
accurate portrayals of women and girls in media by 20 percent by 2020,
the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. For
more information, visit www.SeeHer.com,
follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
About the Association of National Advertisers
(ANA)
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for
individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the
interests of marketers, and promoting and protecting the well-being of
the marketing community. Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership
that advances marketing excellence and shapes the future of the
industry. The ANA’s membership includes more than 1,000 companies with
15,000 brands that collectively spend or support more than $400 billion
in marketing and advertising annually. The membership is comprised of
more than 750 client-side marketers and 300 associate members, which
include leading agencies, law firms, suppliers, consultants, and
vendors. Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit
ANA Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the
understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and
marketing communities. For more information, visit www.ana.net,
follow us on Twitter,
or join us on Facebook.
About the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment
(AFE)
The ANA AFE is a coalition of national advertisers with more than 1,000
brands, whose members represent $40-plus billion of U.S. television ad
spend. The group’s mission is to find, nurture, and support high-quality
content the entire family can enjoy on multiple distribution platforms.
In 2016 the AFE expanded its mission to include gender equality through
its #SeeHer initiative. For more information see www.SeeHer.com and www.anaafe.net.
Contacts
ANA (Association of National Advertisers)
Patty Kerr, 310-344-4487
pkerr-cw@ana.net
