Representation Redefined: McDonald's and Sport England

Inclusive marketing has long since progressed from a nice-to-have to a critical must - but why do some brands do it better than others? It's because they make audiences feel like they belong.

And that is abundantly clear from conversation at the IPA’s Talent and Diversity Conference 2026, where discussion delves into the gaps between intent and execution, audiences identifying when diversity being used as a checkbox, and the brands that are getting it right.

“The UK research is clear: people care about representative advertising,” begins Carly Avener, CEO at Leo UK. “When brands get it right, they outperform in both affinity and sales. Representation isn’t just the right thing to do - it’s the smart thing to do.

“However, many groups remain underrepresented, and the stories we see are often tokenistic rather than authentic.”

The industry’s version of representation is starting to shift; brands are trying to reach those who have been overlooked in the past, and are doing so in ways that resonate with audiences and certainly stick to memory.

Representation comes from belonging

While representation in media is paramount, the conversation of inclusion goes beyond just being seen; audiences want to belong. 

This Girl Can - one of the UK’s most lauded campaigns of the last decade aims at encouraging women and girls to take up exercise. Now 11-years old, the campaign still resonates, however, its latest iteration looked so bridge the gap for categories of women who were inadvertently overlooked. 

“Our focus now is on the women left behind,” explains Kate Peers, head of campaigns (strategic lead) at Sport England. “The least active women often face the greatest barriers - social, structural, economic and cultural. Data shows these are more likely to be women on lower incomes, including those from Black and South Asian communities, Muslim women, new mothers, and women over 55.”

Barriers preventing such women from being active, through qualitative and quantitative research, ranged from a lack of affordable classes, childcare issues, the lack of women-only spaces, and environments not meeting cultural needs, according to Peers.

‘We Like The Way You Move’ celebrates diverse women being active in ways that works for them; “Belonging starts with inclusion. If you don’t feel you belong, you won’t engage,” she continues. 

The work uses real women’s lived experiences in a way that celebrates different communities in advertising like rarely seen. 

“We continued to street cast our women, but spent a lot of time getting to know them,” explains Sharon Jiggins, VP managing partner at 23red. “We showed off their houses, the families they cared for, the communities that they're part of. It was the messy chaos of real life, and that's what made it feel different."

Gen Z as an authenticity barometer

The trope that young people are lazy and don’t work hard is one McDonald’s challenges - and is certainly one that its work proves is anything but true. 

“Gen Z are a major growth driver for us and are highly attuned to authenticity,” outlines Hannah Pain, marketing director at McDonald’s. “They expect diversity in advertising and quickly reject anything that feels performative.

Leo UK’s PopPulse report, according to Pain, informs such work, which identified that Gen Z can “sniff out inauthentic brands instantly”; “85 per cent of Gen Z expect and demand authentic, diverse advertising.”

Not only does the demographic drive business growth for the fast food giant, they’re the beating heart of its stores: “We also employ over 100,000 people under 25, so it matters that we represent them accurately.”

The brand’s latest work with creative agency Leo UK, ‘Making it happen at McDonald’s’, challenges the stereotypes that surround young people working at McDonald’s, highlighting the realities of the hard work it requires, and the skills it develops. 

The ad aims to be as authentic as it comes, featuring real life Gen Z McDonald’s workers on their nightshift at one of its busiest branches: London’s Liverpool Street Station.

It goes beyond a campaign

Creating an environment that is inclusive and harnesses feelings of belonging begins before cameras are rolling - it starts with partnership and an openness to new avenues of working. 

“The key question isn’t ‘Is this representative?’ but ‘Who was in the room when it was created?’,” explains Jiggins. “Be prepared to work differently. Bring in new voices. Be open to challenge - even when it’s uncomfortable. That’s how you get to better work.” 

This Girl Can’s aim to harness the voices of women overlooked by previous work didn’t just come from internal research but from community members: “We formed advisory panels made up of influential Black women and Asian Muslim women, where their feedback shaped not just the creative, but where and how the campaign showed up,” continues Jiggins.

AI presented another layer in identifying a scale for the levels of underrepresentation and how the work can play a role in closing discrimination gaps, which identified that only around “1.5 per cent of fitness imagery featured women of colour”.

McDonald’s Gen Z campaign with Leo UK also includes a partnership with the Diversity Standards Collective (DSC) to ensure inclusion was embedded throughout. 

“We briefed with communities in mind, gathered insights from the DSC, and used that to shape the work throughout development,” says Pain. “That ensures relevance and helps us identify both opportunities and risks early on.

And although processes a such are paramount for the industry, the work doesn’t begin and end with a campaign. 

“We have long term-commitment to young people, given they're the cornerstone of our business,” Pain outlines. “We have opened up the UK's largest internal work experience program within the UK which offers 2,500 paid internships for people that want to come and spend five working days understanding some of the core fundamentals of working in teams, communication and all of those real base pieces that you learn as part of one of your first jobs. 

“That partnership is through our franchisees in every single community across the UK - it's about reaching those real deep pockets of the community, and not just having hubs in London or Manchester.” 

Off the back of its work, Sport England is seeing “really good engagement across government”, says Peers. “I recently attended a parliamentary roundtable where we were discussing the importance of diversity and representation of women in sports and in leadership positions, and it's those sort of conversations that can then help lead to systemic change and policy change.

“This is a three year campaign, so we're at the very beginning, but it's really amazing to see women understanding that they feel seen. We're seeing women actually seeing the world of sport and physical activity as a place for them that they feel welcome. And long may that continue.”

The role of the agency

Perhaps often an unsung element at times when it comes to inclusivity is the role of the agency in driving the message. For This Girl Can, that story and its impact is well told and it's certainly what 23red has been built on over the years. But for Leo UK and McDonald's it is perhaps unexpected to focus on a positive societal focus.

Pain, however, makes sure to sign the long-standing agency partner's praises having built "trust, open dialogue, and healthy challenge" as a consequence of their decades together and both sides can push each other constructively.

She also warns that many brands are so afraid of making mistakes that they end up doing nothing, which is worse. "They have also given us healthy pushback. That's exactly what we're looking for and what we need throughout that creative development. And the final bit that I would say as well is that it's about progress and not perfection."

Pain's advice to other marketers looking to create impact: find partners they genuinely trust and who will challenge them in the right ways, leading to the strongest creative work.