UN Women highlights stereotyping in ads in this eye-opening short 'casting call' film

Male and female actors audition for roles in commercials that are all too familiarly recognizable in a short film from UN Women highlighting gender and diversity stereotypes that debuted at Cannes.

A man auditions to play a "hopeless dad" who puts a red sock in the laundry, a "mother" irons and does housework with a rictus grin on her face and an Asian actor is told to "do it in an Indian accent."

Later on, we see interviews with the various actors relating how they are always put up for the same roles despite having more to offer-- for example a young female dancer who trained with the Royal Ballet who is usually cast as a "sexy dancer." It's thought-provoking stuff, and the film ends with the actors holding up boards describing roles they want to play, rather than the ones they are cast in.

The tagline of the film, now running on social media following its premiere in Cannes, is "the problem is not seeing the problem." It was directed by Joanna Bailey of Snapper Films and created by MullenLowe London on behalf of its client Unilever for UN Women's industry-led Unstereotype Alliance movement.