The advertising and gender community took the initiative to develop the Standard for non-discriminatory advertising based on gender. Activities were carried out taking into account the progressive experience of European countries and based on the study of documents of international and national associations.
The project is implemented in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Ukraine. As part of the implementation of the project, expert meetings of representatives of the advertising market and the gender community were held in 2011, and the text of the Standard for non-discriminatory advertising based on gender was developed. On September 30, 2011, at the All-Ukrainian forum of professional public associations in the field of marketing and advertising, this Standard was adopted and signed by the following organizations: NGO “Ukrainian Marketing Association”, NGO “All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition”, Creative Union “Union of Advertisers of Ukraine”, KMGO ” Institute of Liberal Society”, MGO “School of Equal Opportunities”, VGO “Ukrainian Association of Direct Marketing”, VGO “Industrial Television Committee”, MGO “International Association of Marketing Initiatives”, VGO “Women’s Consortium of Ukraine”.
At the Forum, the Industrial Gender Committee on Advertising (IGKR) was established, the main tasks of which were: consideration of complaints from consumers; determination of the degree of violation of standards and current legislation.
In addition, in 2011, training for advertisers was held with the support of UNDP in order to inform the advertising community about such an initiative.
In order to expand the information field and foster the attitude to the Standards as business norms among young advertisers, a training for advertising teachers was held. 30 teachers representing universities from different regions of Ukraine took part in the training. Among them: KNU named after Taras Shevchenko, Vadym Hetman KNEU, KNTEU, KNUTD, NTUU “Lviv Polytechnic”, KhNU, PVZ “European University”, Kryvyi Rih branch of KNEU, DTZE named after E. Paton, KURO.
According to the results of the training, the issue of overcoming sexism in advertising is included in the training programs of the disciplines: marketing policy of communications, advertising management, advertising creativity.
In 2012, the Standard was registered by the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Research Center for Standardization, Certification and Quality Problems” as a Standard of Organizations of Ukraine under SOU number 21708654 -002-2011
The Industrial Gender Committee on Advertising closely cooperates with the Ministry of Social Policy within the framework of the work of the Expert Council under the Ministry of Social Policy.
According to the results of work in 2011-2012, 2 trademarks – members of professional associations – changed their advertising.