[Applause]
hello everyone I’m Melanie Santos I’m
Brazilian and just telling you that I’m
Brazilian I bet that you start to form a
view about Who I am if I tell you that
I’m also a mother more things are going
to start popping up in your head and if
I tell you that I spend my 25 years now
working in a global corporation Wow
gosh even more information is coming to
your mind three references that without
thinking about it in a blink you start
to form a view about Who I am what like
what life I lead what things I hold dear
what things I like to eat and perhaps
even how it ends December yeah which I
don’t and you know this is because we
all make subconscious associations
without thinking we understand people
through the references that we have a
very available for us references that
are conditioned to us since we are
little babies references that a very
simple level we could call stereotypes
and stereotypes can be good they can be
valuable but sometimes stereotypes can
be very damaging for people they can be
helpful because they can you know hold
people back they can put people in very
tiny little boxes so let me tell you why
I’m worried about this and let me tell
you starting with something I am a
hopeless cook I don’t know about you but
I can bet that I’m worse than any of you
I can cook only three things I can make
iced tea and I city yeah so you know I
think it’s a difficult one to be so at
home every night the ones who saved my
life
and my husband my two sons they are
amazing cook they cooked so well and
they love doing it
so I take this opportunity while they
are cooking to be sitting in the cooking
table with them and talking to them
about life and every night I have a
surprise because I’m
seeing my kids grow and I’m seeing how
beautiful they’re becoming and I’m
seeing how progressive they are in the
way they think but sometimes I can see I
can sense some stereotypes creeping
their heads
I can sense this because when they talk
about themselves when they talk about
their body image I can sense there’s
something going on I can sense that the
stereotypes that they are receiving is
really getting to their brains and if
these stereotypes that are outside
getting to their brains if they really
accept all the negative stereotypes
about gender about beauty about
nationality age race you name it this is
going to seriously compromise the man
they’re going to become and this is very
serious for me so every night me and my
husband we are always there trying to
bring broader ideas about people about
life about society for them but it’s
only me and my husband against millions
of impressions they receive out there
those millions of impressions are of all
sorts if you take a global study that
talks about women if you think about
advertising and women oh my gosh only 3%
of advertising around the world is
showing women portraying women in a very
powerful role only points 0 3% of
advertising around the world is
portraying women that’s funny
so apparently girls we cannot lead and
we are not funny
yeah and this doesn’t represent the
women that I know I’m sure that you
agree with me but that’s what’s going on
there’s enough of literature talking
about stereotypes
a lot of them talking about the harmful
problems of stereotypes I don’t want to
keep admiring the problem I want to do
something to change it I wanted to put
some action and energy to change this
and I think that after 25 years working
in advertising I think I can flip the
role of advertising and transform
advertising in something good so let me
tell you another story
I grew up in Brazil and I had the most
wonderful childhood I was blessed with
the parents that I have my parents gave
me a word full of possibilities and I
was raised with a very strong
self-esteem and even we found that when
I was looking around me I was very
limited with the universe of references
that I had and thinking about my future
I had two possibilities only either I
was going to be a housewife or are going
to be a teacher a housewife or a teacher
a housewife or a teacher so that was my
future my future was as ismo as a child
sandbox but one day everything changed
one day a movie came to Brazil a movie
from Ridley Scott a movie about a
monster a movie called alien I don’t
know if you know this movie right is
amazing this movie came to Brazil and
when it came to Brazil I was a teenager
and the translator made me in a favor
he translated the name of the movie
instead of alien aleni
my name yeah and that was a disaster
yeah after few days he changed it again
to the right name but it was too late
that’s who everybody was really bullying
me oh my god you know Ally need a alien
Lina the most early Niwot so it was
terrible and I was so troubled I didn’t
know what to do and well said you know
what why don’t you confront this monster
and just go and watch this movie and
that’s what I’ve done
and I went and for my surprise oh my god
who was that woman it was the first time
that I was seeing a true leader someone
who was leading the spaceship she was
powerful she was the one who was really
the here in that film she was Sigourney
Weaver and her character was suddenly
play and she was amazing she was the
opposite of all the stereotypes that
I’ve seen before in my life and Sione
was there in the cinema looking at me
and it was like she was talking to me
and she was
a leading hello wake up you don’t need
to be a housewife you don’t need to be a
teacher you can be whatever you want to
be wow that was amazing I could not
believe one insightful movie Thank You
alien thank you and with that you know
my little future that was in the size of
a sandbox became the size of ipanema
beach any Panama beaches wonderful and
the sensation that I was feeling was a
sensation of freedom a sensation of
empowerment a sensation that I wanted
the whole world to have moving many
years later I’m here in this global
corporation this is an advertiser that
is talking to billions of people every
day and I thought wow what if we create
those opportunities to talk to people in
a different way what if we use our
advertising to break stereotypes instead
of create stereotypes what if we use our
advertising to break stereotypes about
gender about nationalities about age you
name it and I thought wow it’s gonna be
wonderful we are going to transform
advertising in a force for good and then
two years ago me and my colleagues
talking about this at the office we
started to really formulate something
and we said what if we create internally
a movement of movement to really inspire
all our marketeers to think about a
niche advertising we can start breaking
stereotypes and there we said Wow
so let’s call this movement a new
stereotype very simple as a stereotype
and with that we talked to people and
that movement had immediate traction
people will really resonate with that
idea of creating a stereotype movement
and my colleagues very much inspired by
that
to create new ads new ads that were very
simple but you know in tiny little bits
we start to break some stereotypes I
give you some examples for instance we
have some cooking products for cooking
products instead of having that old good
mama you know cooking in the mail every
night yeah
why don’t we have people who have
passion for cooking like my kids why
don’t we have people that have
absolutely passion for tasty food
independent of the gender or the age or
in an antibacterial soap instead of
having the doctor and the source of
endorsement why don’t we have a woman
doctor inspired girls also to be a
doctor or even in a deodorant brand that
we have that for ages we portray that
macho that was spraying the deodorants
and all the girls were coming to him
yeah dad dad you know lasted forever and
it was a very single-minded way of
looking to masculinity that was an
expression of masculinity that quite
frankly I don’t think it was attracted
to anyone
yeah and we decided from stereotype
again and we end stereotyped by creating
different multiple ways of showing
masculinity in inviting men to find
their own magic and last example wanted
to give is an example that is very
special this is a key brand in India a
very conservative Society there we
decided to provoke something really big
there we decided to challenge the
negative stereotypes against transgender
people and then we decided to have
transgender people in our commercial and
that was something that was never done
in the country we knew that it was going
to be controversial but we wanted to go
ahead anyways and I cannot tell you the
sort of social impact that that little
word created it was absolutely amazing
but more amazing that what had created
in society were the letters that we
received the thank-you letters from
people to us one specific letter was
very very searching for
me because this letter was coming from
parents parents that after seeing the ad
they felt so encouraged by the ad that
they decided to reconnect with histones
they’re transgender son after 20 years
so things like that
we’re really you know touching for us
and really gave us a lot of energy to
continue fighting to continue on this
journey of stereotyping but you know it
gets better
because it’s not only about doing right
for society whenever you do advertising
that is more progressive you are doing
advertising that is more impactful for
your brand as well so it’s a win-win
it’s not a social case it’s a business
case as well and with that information
in our hands you know we needed to do
something even bigger and I said wow
what can we do so I came to my boss and
I pitched that crazy idea for him I tell
him you know what if we bring our all
our knowledge yeah to other advertisers
including our competitors because we
want everybody to join this this is very
important this is something that we
should not keep to ourselves and my boss
said you’re absolutely right
this is something that we shouldn’t use
as a competitive advantage this is
something that we should use to unite
the advertising industry and with the
help of UN Women we assembled 25
companies that are the biggest
advertisers in the world and those
companies were companies that were
already committed with this agenda and
together we created a new stereo type
alliance and then stereotype Alliance
has a very clear goal what we want to do
is to banish stereotypes from our
advertising by the year 2020 and we are
very committed with the agenda and
that’s where we want to go but before I
finish I just wanted to leave you with a
thought I don’t think that we need to
stop here I think that there is much
more we can do and
just thinking about an stereotype I just
imagine that actually we could adopt a
no stereotype mindset in many or the
fields of life actually in any other
field of life I can imagine a stereotype
of fashion and stereotyping music and
stereotyping education politics you name
it there’s so much that can be done even
yourselves think about your life and
think of the things that you could start
on stereotyping if we do that if we do
that we will be able to really do
something special we will unleash the
real potential of people we will allow
people to be whoever they want to be we
will finally put stereotypes aside and
humanity first so let’s all stereotype
thank you
[Applause]
hello everyone I’m Melanie Santos I’m
Brazilian and just telling you that I’m
Brazilian I bet that you start to form a
view about Who I am if I tell you that
I’m also a mother more things are going
to start popping up in your head and if
I tell you that I spend my 25 years now
working in a global corporation Wow
gosh even more information is coming to
your mind three references that without
thinking about it in a blink you start
to form a view about Who I am what like
what life I lead what things I hold dear
what things I like to eat and perhaps
even how it ends December yeah which I
don’t and you know this is because we
all make subconscious associations
without thinking we understand people
through the references that we have a
very available for us references that
are conditioned to us since we are
little babies references that a very
simple level we could call stereotypes
and stereotypes can be good they can be
valuable but sometimes stereotypes can
be very damaging for people they can be
helpful because they can you know hold
people back they can put people in very
tiny little boxes so let me tell you why
I’m worried about this and let me tell
you starting with something I am a
hopeless cook I don’t know about you but
I can bet that I’m worse than any of you
I can cook only three things I can make
iced tea and I city yeah so you know I
think it’s a difficult one to be so at
home every night the ones who saved my
life
and my husband my two sons they are
amazing cook they cooked so well and
they love doing it
so I take this opportunity while they
are cooking to be sitting in the cooking
table with them and talking to them
about life and every night I have a
surprise because I’m
seeing my kids grow and I’m seeing how
beautiful they’re becoming and I’m
seeing how progressive they are in the
way they think but sometimes I can see I
can sense some stereotypes creeping
their heads
I can sense this because when they talk
about themselves when they talk about
their body image I can sense there’s
something going on I can sense that the
stereotypes that they are receiving is
really getting to their brains and if
these stereotypes that are outside
getting to their brains if they really
accept all the negative stereotypes
about gender about beauty about
nationality age race you name it this is
going to seriously compromise the man
they’re going to become and this is very
serious for me so every night me and my
husband we are always there trying to
bring broader ideas about people about
life about society for them but it’s
only me and my husband against millions
of impressions they receive out there
those millions of impressions are of all
sorts if you take a global study that
talks about women if you think about
advertising and women oh my gosh only 3%
of advertising around the world is
showing women portraying women in a very
powerful role only points 0 3% of
advertising around the world is
portraying women that’s funny
so apparently girls we cannot lead and
we are not funny
yeah and this doesn’t represent the
women that I know I’m sure that you
agree with me but that’s what’s going on
there’s enough of literature talking
about stereotypes
a lot of them talking about the harmful
problems of stereotypes I don’t want to
keep admiring the problem I want to do
something to change it I wanted to put
some action and energy to change this
and I think that after 25 years working
in advertising I think I can flip the
role of advertising and transform
advertising in something good so let me
tell you another story
I grew up in Brazil and I had the most
wonderful childhood I was blessed with
the parents that I have my parents gave
me a word full of possibilities and I
was raised with a very strong
self-esteem and even we found that when
I was looking around me I was very
limited with the universe of references
that I had and thinking about my future
I had two possibilities only either I
was going to be a housewife or are going
to be a teacher a housewife or a teacher
a housewife or a teacher so that was my
future my future was as ismo as a child
sandbox but one day everything changed
one day a movie came to Brazil a movie
from Ridley Scott a movie about a
monster a movie called alien I don’t
know if you know this movie right is
amazing this movie came to Brazil and
when it came to Brazil I was a teenager
and the translator made me in a favor
he translated the name of the movie
instead of alien aleni
my name yeah and that was a disaster
yeah after few days he changed it again
to the right name but it was too late
that’s who everybody was really bullying
me oh my god you know Ally need a alien
Lina the most early Niwot so it was
terrible and I was so troubled I didn’t
know what to do and well said you know
what why don’t you confront this monster
and just go and watch this movie and
that’s what I’ve done
and I went and for my surprise oh my god
who was that woman it was the first time
that I was seeing a true leader someone
who was leading the spaceship she was
powerful she was the one who was really
the here in that film she was Sigourney
Weaver and her character was suddenly
play and she was amazing she was the
opposite of all the stereotypes that
I’ve seen before in my life and Sione
was there in the cinema looking at me
and it was like she was talking to me
and she was
a leading hello wake up you don’t need
to be a housewife you don’t need to be a
teacher you can be whatever you want to
be wow that was amazing I could not
believe one insightful movie Thank You
alien thank you and with that you know
my little future that was in the size of
a sandbox became the size of ipanema
beach any Panama beaches wonderful and
the sensation that I was feeling was a
sensation of freedom a sensation of
empowerment a sensation that I wanted
the whole world to have moving many
years later I’m here in this global
corporation this is an advertiser that
is talking to billions of people every
day and I thought wow what if we create
those opportunities to talk to people in
a different way what if we use our
advertising to break stereotypes instead
of create stereotypes what if we use our
advertising to break stereotypes about
gender about nationalities about age you
name it and I thought wow it’s gonna be
wonderful we are going to transform
advertising in a force for good and then
two years ago me and my colleagues
talking about this at the office we
started to really formulate something
and we said what if we create internally
a movement of movement to really inspire
all our marketeers to think about a
niche advertising we can start breaking
stereotypes and there we said Wow
so let’s call this movement a new
stereotype very simple as a stereotype
and with that we talked to people and
that movement had immediate traction
people will really resonate with that
idea of creating a stereotype movement
and my colleagues very much inspired by
that
to create new ads new ads that were very
simple but you know in tiny little bits
we start to break some stereotypes I
give you some examples for instance we
have some cooking products for cooking
products instead of having that old good
mama you know cooking in the mail every
night yeah
why don’t we have people who have
passion for cooking like my kids why
don’t we have people that have
absolutely passion for tasty food
independent of the gender or the age or
in an antibacterial soap instead of
having the doctor and the source of
endorsement why don’t we have a woman
doctor inspired girls also to be a
doctor or even in a deodorant brand that
we have that for ages we portray that
macho that was spraying the deodorants
and all the girls were coming to him
yeah dad dad you know lasted forever and
it was a very single-minded way of
looking to masculinity that was an
expression of masculinity that quite
frankly I don’t think it was attracted
to anyone
yeah and we decided from stereotype
again and we end stereotyped by creating
different multiple ways of showing
masculinity in inviting men to find
their own magic and last example wanted
to give is an example that is very
special this is a key brand in India a
very conservative Society there we
decided to provoke something really big
there we decided to challenge the
negative stereotypes against transgender
people and then we decided to have
transgender people in our commercial and
that was something that was never done
in the country we knew that it was going
to be controversial but we wanted to go
ahead anyways and I cannot tell you the
sort of social impact that that little
word created it was absolutely amazing
but more amazing that what had created
in society were the letters that we
received the thank-you letters from
people to us one specific letter was
very very searching for
me because this letter was coming from
parents parents that after seeing the ad
they felt so encouraged by the ad that
they decided to reconnect with histones
they’re transgender son after 20 years
so things like that
we’re really you know touching for us
and really gave us a lot of energy to
continue fighting to continue on this
journey of stereotyping but you know it
gets better
because it’s not only about doing right
for society whenever you do advertising
that is more progressive you are doing
advertising that is more impactful for
your brand as well so it’s a win-win
it’s not a social case it’s a business
case as well and with that information
in our hands you know we needed to do
something even bigger and I said wow
what can we do so I came to my boss and
I pitched that crazy idea for him I tell
him you know what if we bring our all
our knowledge yeah to other advertisers
including our competitors because we
want everybody to join this this is very
important this is something that we
should not keep to ourselves and my boss
said you’re absolutely right
this is something that we shouldn’t use
as a competitive advantage this is
something that we should use to unite
the advertising industry and with the
help of UN Women we assembled 25
companies that are the biggest
advertisers in the world and those
companies were companies that were
already committed with this agenda and
together we created a new stereo type
alliance and then stereotype Alliance
has a very clear goal what we want to do
is to banish stereotypes from our
advertising by the year 2020 and we are
very committed with the agenda and
that’s where we want to go but before I
finish I just wanted to leave you with a
thought I don’t think that we need to
stop here I think that there is much
more we can do and
just thinking about an stereotype I just
imagine that actually we could adopt a
no stereotype mindset in many or the
fields of life actually in any other
field of life I can imagine a stereotype
of fashion and stereotyping music and
stereotyping education politics you name
it there’s so much that can be done even
yourselves think about your life and
think of the things that you could start
on stereotyping if we do that if we do
that we will be able to really do
something special we will unleash the
real potential of people we will allow
people to be whoever they want to be we
will finally put stereotypes aside and
humanity first so let’s all stereotype
thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: