SCOTTISH people are depicted as working class and tight with money in TV advertisements, a new study has suggested – with ad executives admitting they are “very lazy” with portrayals of different people.

The new research shows that advertising executives adopt stereotypical portrayals of Scots when using them to promote products.

The study was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of its Mirror on the Industry project and questioned 100 advertising executives and 1000 members of the public.

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Characters with Scottish accents are three times more likely to be working class in adverts than those with southern English accents.

Research also showed Scottish people are favoured in banking adverts because, as one executive said, they are thought to be “really tight”.

One executive told researchers: “What we do is we borrow from lazy stereotypes. When you’re writing an ad, for example, there’s some lazy stereotyping around accents – always put a Scottish voice on a bank ad because the stereotype says they’re really tight.

“If you want somebody to be a little bit thick, West Country accents. If you want to signify dirty-handed working class, stick a Brummie in it.”

Another chief creative officer at a London advertising agency commented: “We are very, very lazy and we think that we’re at the cutting edge of culture, and that we inform it. We’re not, we’re at the back end of the pantomime horse.

“Advertising is really, really bad. We’re our own echo chamber and that echo chamber is well-spoken, and for well-spoken we read being intelligent.”

The report concluded that “accent and manner of speech” are often used as “stereotypical signifiers of class in ads”.

“This is a technique commonly acknowledged by media professionals, highlighting how the class issue we have in the ad industry is infiltrating our creatives and reinforcing negative biases,” it said.

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“Representation and portrayal of working-class people can be improved by increasing awareness of industry and personal biases, leveraging insight and thinking carefully about how language and how the subjects in briefs are written and defined.”

Research manager at Channel 4 Samantha Cannons said: “Working on this project has made us unpick some of the assumptions around social grade and class and question whether this is ok – and what impact does this have on the ads being produced and broadcast to the nation?

“We don’t have all the answers – but we do want to raise some of the key issues surrounding the topic and provide some ideas to think differently about when it comes to advertising.”