Modern advertising and copywriting takes inclusivity seriously. What is inclusivity, you ask? It is the practice of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for demographics who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised (e.g. of a certain ethnicity or physical impairment). And in copywriting, it refers to the use language or terminology that embraces people of all backgrounds. Recent trends have shown that there is very little public tolerance for businesses that fail to embrace progressiveness. Join Wordsmith as we explore how to include inclusivity into our writing!
Why bother being progressive?
Do you remember how many companies celebrated pride month a decade ago? There weren’t very many. Now think back to June of 2021, when you couldn’t walk past any commercial district without finding companies hanging banners and ads with rainbows and pro-LGBTQ media.
Given modern woke and cancel culture and the trigger-happiness of social media, all it takes is one wrong message before people gather pitchforks and torches. Even renowned gay rights advocate and TV personality Ellen DeGeneres and inspirational children’s book author Dr. Seuss were targeted for racial insensitivity, so no one is immune to the persecutions of social justice. Regardless how incredible of an empire you may have built over the decades, it can easily crumble under a single allegation of insensitivity. With the risks of being “cancelled” so high, it pays to know how to write inclusively.
We’re not saying that you have to dedicate every campaign and message henceforth to a progressive theme, but it’s essential to learn politically correct keywords to avoid “triggering” audiences. “Consumers increasingly expect diversity,” writes CEO of Next PR and Forbes Council Member Heather Kelly. “They are more likely to buy from brands that actively demonstrate inclusivity and can see right through superficial lip service. They demand authentic consistent demonstration of your commitment to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).” The key message here is to be consistent. If you only do this once or twice, consumers can and will sniff out false intent.
Guidelines for inclusivity
To ensure that future content falls within DEI, Kelly suggests the following best practices:
· Use gender- and sexuality-inclusive terms
Even when marketing a product traditionally intended for a specific gender (e.g. sanitary napkins), ditching the “for women” tag shows a willingness to accept transgender and nonbinary individuals. Try using gender-neutral pronouns like people, everyone, they, them or their when referencing individuals. If you were doing a tagline for a brand of coffee, here’s how you might write it:
Generic: Starback’s Cold Brews are a great start to any morning
Gender-neutral: Everyone should start their mornings with a Starback’s Cold Brews
Bad: A real man drinks Starback’s Cold Brews to start his morning
Furthermore, avoid outdated terms like “homosexual” and use recognised modern terms like “gay”, “lesbian”, “LGBTQ” and so on. Consult this handy glossary for more.
· Be specific about race
“Race and ethnicity are only one part of a person’s identity, so avoid broad generalisation,” writes Kelly. In the case of Hong Kong, Chinese and fair skin may be the dominant ethnicity and skin colour, but it’d be incorrect to assume all audiences fall within that general demographic. For example, Hong Kong is also home to a significant population of expats – both from Southeast Asia and around the world.
“If you note the race of one individual, you must do so for all others mentioned,” she adds. Doing so avoids singling out one person and promotes general equity, which is important when writing customer testimonials or quoting someone!
· More on race
Kelly also highlights how the term “Black” (capitalised) has evolved. In the past, “Black” was primarily used to refer to a person’s skin colour, but it now encompasses racial, ethical and cultural elements. “Only use African American to refer to American Black people of African descent,” she advises. The same can be applied to Chinese American, Indian Canadian, Vietnamese Swede or instances where you need to mention a person’s mixed heritage.
Notice how we didn’t include hyphens when we listed the two countries. Many news sources (like The New York Times) have fallen into the habit of labelling individuals as Asian-American or Mexican-American because it’s been an unchanged part of their stylebook for decades. Unfortunately, this style of writing is incredibly outdated according Henry Fuhrmann (a former assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Times). “Those hyphens serve to divide even as they are meant to connect,” Fuhrmann explains. “Their use in racial and ethnic identifiers can connote an otherness, a sense that people of colour are somehow not full citizens or fully American: part American, sure, but also something not American. ‘Hyphenated Americans’ is one derogatory result of such usage.”
He makes a good point here, as using hyphens reinforces the stereotype that only a certain race or ethnicity should be in the majority. Continuing with the example of Americans, while white ethnicities do account for a large portion of the overall population, there’s also a significant number of Asians, Hispanics and other ethnicities who call America home – who over generations – have embraced the language and culture. It would be wrong to not consider them fully fledged Americans, which is why dropping the hyphen is an important sign of respect.
To conclude this point, Kelly and Fuhrmann uses “people of colour” when referencing mixed groups or races, but we don’t recommend this. People of colour doesn’t make much sense, as everyone is some colour.
· Outdated labels
Beyond demographics, outdated labels are also a key problem to look out for. Take the adjectives “crazy” or “retarded” for example. They used to be a general term to describe a person with mental handicaps, but the word is seen as vulgar and crude nowadays. Some have tried to censor it with “mentally disabled”, but the same negative connotations arise. Avoid sounding ignorant and be precise about disabilities – is the person suffering from autism? Or is it Down syndrome? Both are mental disabilities, but the symptoms are very different!
The same applies to other disabilities, for example, use hearing or visually impaired instead of “deaf” or “blind”, as there are many different levels of impairment that can range from minor impairment to complete impairment.
Furthermore, professions have changed a lot over the past decades. Given that many jobs are no longer exclusive to a particular gender, terms like “firemen”, “postmen” or “right-hand man” are politically incorrect. Use “firefighter”, “postal worker” or “chief assistant” instead.
It can be easy to overlook inclusivity and politically correctness as just another trend. Whether true or not, the consequences of being labelled “non-progressive” are increasingly apparent as consumers boycott brand after brand for failing to align with their ethics and morals. Being inclusive with writing is quite simple to achieve, but it does take a consistent effort to pull off, so why not start today?