Words are more than a medium for sharing ideas. The choice of words can either make someone feel seen and valued or alienated and excluded. Even the most well-intentioned message may fail to reach its audience if the communication is not inclusive. Let us look at key examples from 2024 to understand what needs to change in the stream of inclusive communication in 2025.
Take a recent campaign by PUMA India featuring star cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh, launched under the bold tagline: “You need balls.” The Instagram caption added, “To be the best in the world takes balls,” subtly implying that success depends on a trait traditionally associated with masculinity. The way the campaign communicated its ideas made it feel like success comes with a gender label. Such a poor choice of words turned what could have been an empowering message into one that feels tone-deaf, overlooking not just women but also non-conforming individuals.
Biased narratives in campaigns: Creating barriers for inclusive communication in 2025
Much like PUMA India’s “You Need Balls” campaign, which missed the mark on inclusive communication, 2024 has seen other campaigns that had the opportunity to promote inclusivity but fell short. One such example is the breastfeeding campaign by Philips Avent.
The Philips Avent Breastfeeding campaign, launched for Breastfeeding Week 2024, aims to normalise the use of breast pumps and highlight the often challenging journey of breastfeeding. While it introduces the concept of “sharing the care” and the support fathers can provide through pumping, the campaign overlooks the diverse experiences of all caregivers, particularly those of transgender and non-binary parents.
Additionally, the campaign reinforces outdated gender roles by presenting fathers as passive observers. This portrayal suggests that fathers don’t need to understand or be involved until someone else tells them about the problem. By doing so, the campaign unintentionally supports the old idea that caregiving and the struggles of motherhood are mainly the mother’s responsibility. At the same time, the father remains an outsider until an urgent moment demands attention.
Inclusive communication in 2025: A must for campaigns
Inclusive communication, especially in marketing, is essential for every brand. After all, your audience isn’t just a middle-aged white man or a 25-year-old POC woman. They come from a variety of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds, each with their own views, voices, perspectives, and needs.
Above everything else, inclusive communication is not just about using the right words. It’s also about better representation, diversity, raising awareness of social issues, and their willingness to create positive change. Here are some campaigns from 2024 and their inclusive communication styles that we enjoyed seeing.
Zivame’s Museum of Boobs: Inclusivity in intimate wear
If there is one company often criticised for its lack of inclusivity, it is the lingerie and intimate wear companies. For years, they’ve paraded professional models in lingerie, all fitting a cookie-cutter size standard. Women of all shapes, sizes, and stories were nowhere to be seen, especially women recovering from mastectomies. It makes you wonder: are lingerie ads made for women or men?
Zivame’s Museum of Boobs campaign is an inclusive perspective in an industry that has long been stuck in a single, narrow idea of what women’s bodies should look like. The campaign uses a clever approach to make a point about body diversity. It compares different breast shapes to everyday objects, from mushrooms to umbrellas, showing that breasts, like any other part of the body, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
The tagline, “We make bras as diverse as breasts,” is inclusive communication at its best. Instead of just selling a product, Zivame is creating a conversation around body positivity, inclusivity, and intimate comfort. Zivame has also made 52 unique frames and 13 cup shapes to ensure that every woman, no matter her size or shape, can find something that fits her perfectly.
For more insights about Zivame’s Museum of Boobs campaign, read here.
The Mystree campaign: A powerful message on women’s financial independence
Shaadi.org, the social initiative wing of Shaadi.com, has launched a campaign called The Mystree to raise awareness about the low participation of married women in the workforce. The story takes place around a bonfire, where a father tells a story about a ‘Stree’ (woman) in a bloodied saree with wild hair terrorising a village. Despite the villagers’ efforts to stop her, they fail—until she mysteriously disappears for two months.
The father then asks the children where they think she went. One child eagerly responds, “She got married and had to quit her job!“
The child’s innocent response shows how deeply ingrained gender roles are in society, even among the younger generation. While the other kids laugh, the adults exchange knowing glances, almost as if they’re silently acknowledging biased societal expectations placed on a woman once she marries.
Inclusive communication in 2025: Learning more from the data
In India, the employment rate for women decreases by 12-13% after marriage. That is roughly one-third of the rate before marriage. This decline occurs even in the absence of children, highlighting how marriage alone can significantly impact a woman’s participation in the workforce. In fact, nearly 68% of married women are still not part of India’s workforce.
What makes this campaign particularly inclusive is its ability to engage people across different segments of society. It uses humour, familiarity, and relatability to make its point without alienating any viewer. The film brings attention to the struggles women face. At the same time, it also talks about creating a space for conversations around financial independence. It also shows that the “Stree” could be anyone, as the struggle for financial independence is not limited to a specific group of women. Instead, it affects all women, regardless of their background.
For more insights about Shaadi.org’s The Mystree campaign, read here.
A look at social media’s role in inclusive communication
In 2024, social media trends also showed that inclusive communication is about giving a platform and amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced. Take the #WomenInMaleFields trend. This trend was about women across the world mimicking toxic, sexist behaviours and ridiculous patriarchal norms in a way that’s both relatable and eye-opening.
Read more about the #WomenInMaleFields trend and its impact here.
More for brands to learn
In 2025, brands should examine social media platforms more closely as a key space for inclusive communication. More than 40% of consumers believe social media content is much more diverse and inclusive than traditional TV shows and movies. This figure rises to 60% among Gen Z and over 50% for Black, multiracial, Hispanic, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ consumers.
The reason behind this is simple: on social media, people see others who look like them, think like them, and share similar experiences. These are the building blocks of inclusive communication. It’s no surprise that consumers feel more represented here. That is especially true when compared to TV or movies, where diversity often seems like a last-minute decision.
The final thoughts on inclusive communication in 2025
Even if a campaign is created with good intentions, it will not have the desired effect if it uses language or visuals that unintentionally leave out or misrepresent certain groups of people. Communication must be both accessible and representative of all genders, backgrounds, and experiences.
In the year ahead, let’s learn from 2024’s missteps and successes. Let’s make the conscious choice to prioritise inclusive communication in every message, ad, and campaign we create.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the writer’s insights, supported by data and resources available both online and offline, as applicable. Changeincontent.com is committed to promoting inclusivity across all forms of content, which we define broadly to include media, policies, law, and history—encompassing all elements that influence the lives of women and gender-queer individuals. Our goal is to promote understanding and advocate for comprehensive inclusivity.
