Encouraging authentic portrayal

The Channel 4 Diversity In Advertising Award offers an annual £1 million airtime prize for a brand who best responds to our creative brief which in previous years has been about encouraging greater representation of diverse communities in advertising and in 2024 the brief is encouraging brands to be more inclusive in their design of their own ads.

The award is an established industry scheme and has encouraged greater and more authentic representation of diverse UK communities through mainstream UK television advertising.

Why it’s important

The importance of doing this is two-fold;

  • Research shows that diverse communities feel like they aren’t accurately or sufficiently represented on screen in UK advertising.
  • Omitting diverse communities from advertising means that non-diverse communities are not exposed to a true reflection of the multicultural society we live in.
  • And with 2024’s brief, we’re not just aiming for representation, we’re aiming to reach audiences that brands have previously excluded.

Since 2016, Channel 4 has sought to encourage the UK advertising community to be more inclusive in their campaigns by awarding an annual £1million airtime prize. The prize is awarded to the brand who best responds to our revolving brief to create an advertisement which promotes their product/service in a manner which authentically delivers on the brief objectives.

Whilst the winning brand receives a £1million advertising campaign for their commercial, Channel 4 also offers to match-fund (up to £250k limit each) the other shortlisted entries – with the motivation being to get as many representative campaigns on air as possible.

The overall ambition of the award is to get more representative advertising campaigns on air and encourage greater inclusive thinking within the creative process behind the campaigns.

Further information

For further information, or if you have any questions or queries, please email us at Channel 4 Sales

View our past winners

Since 2016 we’ve given away over £6million of airtime to advertisers who best respond to our briefs. Check out their award-winning work here!

Winners Gallery

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