Diversity in Advertising, IKEA’s Price Tags, and Sheraton’s Goodnight Room

Trends

Diversity in Advertising Still Has a Long Way to Go

At Advertising Week New York, marketers acknowledged a sobering truth: brands talk a lot about diversity, but the reality often falls short. While diverse audiences represent huge growth opportunities (an estimated $6.8 trillion in buying power), many companies aren’t walking the talk. DEI roles have been cut, strategies rolled back, and campaigns still fail to consistently feature diverse talent.

The numbers paint a picture. On average, only 12% of ad talent has dark skin, 6% of screen time goes to seniors, and just 15% represents larger body types. In marketing itself, people of colour dropped from 32.3% of the workforce in 2022 to 30.8% in 2023. And consumers take notice. Three-quarters say a brand’s DEI reputation affects their buying decisions, making inclusion not just a moral choice, but a business one. Experts stress that real impact comes from approaching inclusion at a human level, not as a checkbox. Whether it’s working with diverse creators, casting talent thoughtfully, or including diverse voices in campaign planning, representation matters and it needs to stay front and center in all creative decisions.

Industry News

IKEA Lets its Price Tags Tell the Story

IKEA Sweden’s latest campaign, “Wherever Life Goes,” proves you don’t need to show a product to tell a powerful story. The campaign, which spans OOH, digital, and social, turns IKEA’s classic price tags into tiny windows into everyday life, capturing moments of change, growth, and emotion that we all recognize. Each tag tells a familiar story: moving out, starting over, welcoming someone new. Simple, relatable, and quietly moving, the work reinforces that IKEA has always been more than a furniture brand; it’s part of the lives that unfold at home and evolve around its products.

PepsiCo Unveils a New Look

PepsiCo has unveiled a new brand identity, its first overhaul since 2001, breaking from the Pepsi-inspired fonts and colours that have defined the brand for decades. The redesign includes a fresh logo, wordmark, and tagline, with each visual element representing a different part of the business: a burnt yellow motif for food and grains, a light blue shape for drinks and water, and a green leaf for health, wellness, and environmental impact.

With more than 500 brands today (up from just 13 in 2001), PepsiCo wants consumers to see it as more than just sugary drinks. The new look emphasizes health-conscious options, smaller serving sizes, and a broader focus on wellness, signaling where the company sees itself in the future. So far, the logo has been polarizing, deviating sharply from the brand’s familiar visual identity and sparking mixed reactions. But that very shift highlights just how much a visual identity can communicate about a company’s evolving story.

Sheraton Reimagines a Bedtime Classic with “Goodnight Room”

For generations, Goodnight Moon has symbolized comfort and connection. Now, Marriott Bonvoy’s Sheraton Hotels has reimagined that ritual through the lens of travel in “Goodnight Room,” a global campaign celebrating the small, human moments that make the world feel like home.

Launched to mark Sheraton’s brand transformation, the campaign follows a working mother recounting her day from a Sheraton hotel room, weaving together stories of travellers gathering, connecting, and finding comfort wherever they are. Bringing the story to life, Sheraton has also debuted a Goodnight Moon Suite at the newly renovated Sheraton Boston Hotel, an immersive, storybook-inspired stay complete with nostalgic details, from green walls to milk and cookies at check-in. Through the campaign, Sheraton continues to celebrate warmth, belonging, and the familiar feeling of home, no matter how far travelers roam.