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Brand · 2 min read1 July 2026

Half of Gen Z Australians Have Switched Brands Over Inclusion. Almost None Can Name a Good One.

A new Inclusion Imperative report finds more than half of Gen Z Australians have switched brands over a lack of inclusion, and almost half cannot name a brand doing disability representation well. The empty space is the opportunity.

The gap is the opportunity. Almost half of Gen Z cannot name one brand doing disability representation well. That space is open for the brand that shows up first.

2 min read

Over half of Gen Z Australians have switched brands because of a lack of inclusion. Almost half cannot name a single brand currently doing anything on disability representation. That is the finding from a new Inclusion Imperative report, and for any brand chasing younger buyers it is a direct commercial signal.

The detail matters. This is not Gen Z saying they would prefer more inclusive brands in a survey designed to make them say yes. It is more than half of them reporting they have actually changed who they buy from. Inclusive advertising moved money in the last six months too, with 15% of Australians overall saying they switched brands because of it.

Why it matters

Disability is the largest minority group in the country and one of the least represented in advertising. Around one in five Australians lives with disability, and they, their families and their friends all buy things. When a generation tells you they switch brands over inclusion and then cannot point to anyone doing it well, you are looking at unclaimed ground.

This is not about a campaign for a day on the calendar. It is about whether the people in your advertising look like the people in the country. For a younger audience that has decided this is a buying criterion, getting it wrong is not neutral. It costs you the sale.

More than half

The share of Gen Z Australians who have switched brands due to a lack of inclusion.

What to do about it

Look at your last year of creative. If disability does not appear anywhere in it, that is the first thing to fix.
Make it real, not tokenistic. Casting one person in one ad and moving on reads as exactly what it is. Build representation into how you work, not a single shoot.
Involve people with disability in making the work, not just appearing in it. Authenticity is the difference between connection and a misstep.
Treat accessibility as part of the brand. Captions, alt text and a site people can actually use are inclusion too, and they are easy wins.

A generation has told you what moves them and pointed at an empty space. Show up before a competitor does.

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Filip Ivanković
The Debrief / From Filip Ivanković
One every morning. Six months in, you'll see the patterns most don't.
Strategy, benchmarks, and what's actually moving in Australian marketing. Four-minute read. The reps compound.
Filip Ivanković·Founder, New RebellionAboutLinkedIn