Adam&Eve/DDB leads finalists for Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award

The seven shortlisted brands and agencies were chosen from nearly 40 entries.

Adam&Eve/DDB was shortlisted for work with clients Booking.com, Calm and Virgin Media.

Wavemaker also landed a spot with work for Screwfix as did AMV BBDO — a past winner — for Snickers and Iris London for Starbucks.

Completing the finalist line up is Coca-Cola which submitted a concept with Bristol-based branding agency Epoch Design.

“Diversity and inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do, it makes commercial sense as proven by previous award winners who have shown that embracing diversity not only leads to more creativity, it helps boost sales and ultimately profits,” said Channel 4’s head of agency, client sales and commercial marketing, Matt Salmon.

“Channel 4 and 4Sales are determined to lead change within the advertising industry. Our ultimate ambition is that the industry embraces more diverse campaigns to the point that it doesn’t take a £1m award to generate a more creative and inclusive approach to advertising.”

The finalists will present their campaign ideas to a judging panel on 17 September.

To date, the annual Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award has awarded £3m worth of commercial airtime to brands. Previous winners of the award have focussed on disability, mental health and the portrayal of women in the media.

In 2016 the competition focused on improving the representation of disability and was won by Mars and AMV BBDO for their Maltesers campaign.

In 2017 the focus was on non-visible disabilities and was won by Lloyds Bank’s #GetTheInsideOut campaign around mental health.

Last year’s award explored the portrayal of women in advertising and was won by the RAF and Engine.