The advertising industry helps define what success, status, attractiveness and masculinity look like to millions of young men every day: the aspirations we project, the voices we amplify and the talent we bring in. That is not a peripheral responsibility- it’s a central one. And right now, despite the hugely growing conversations tackling the topic of masculinity, I’m not sure our industry is taking seriously enough the role it plays in either reinforcing or reshaping those narratives.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have seen that last week the BBC broadcasted Sir Gareth Southgate’s documentary Changing the Game for Young Men. It is a portrait of what is happening to young men in England today, as Southgate travels the country speaking with young men about the difficulty finding work and the impact that has on their sense of identity.

When he zoomed out and looked at a wider context, we also learnt about the widening educational gap between boys and girls, a disproportionate presence in the criminal justice system (96% of people in jail are men), and a growing burden of loneliness and poor mental health. Having worked in this field for years, I assumed these issues were widely understood. Yet the documentary suggests they are still a revelation. Having a respected and trusted public figure like Gareth Southgate raising these to wider society matters.

But what struck me most was not the diagnosis, but Southgate’s instinct to move quickly to action. As a results-driven person, he does not dwell on the problems, he looks for specific things to do: finding community work placements to connect young men with employment, identifying mentors, engaging with authorities to rethink school curricula, visiting prisons to talk about resilience and second chances.

That is the new angle for me, and what really made me think. What would it look like if our industry approached this challenge with the same practical urgency?

Our role in the game

I have been working in marketing to men for more than two decades. In the last ten years, I have worked actively on how brand communications can create more positive narratives for men and boys. Building new male aspirations beyond the narrow and materialistic definition of success that the documentary rightly calls out. Expanding that definition is not just socially valuable; it is proven to work for audiences and for brands. Many men see self-care as either feminine or self-indulgent, a belief that quietly undermines their mental health. A Dove Men+Care campaign I led in the US tackled that head-on, showing that self-care helps men care better for others. It shifted the belief, drove double-digit sales growth, and strengthened brand equity.

But there are other ways our industry can play an active role. When I was at BBD Perfect Storm, we partnered with Making the Leap, a social mobility charity that supports young men and women into their first jobs by offering work placements, going into schools to help with interview preparation, and teaching practical skills. The results have been good not just for the young people and the charity, but for the agency; a new and effective way to recruit strong talent, with lower risk and genuinely different perspectives.

Another opportunity lies in rethinking our approach to diversity. During my time at Dove, we often focused on dimensions of diversity that are visible and measurable, while paying less attention to socioeconomic background and life experience. All are important but extending that thinking to include people from different life stages and socioeconomic backgrounds brings something else: new perspectives and genuine freshness. In a moment when many agencies are leaning heavily on AI for short-term efficiency gains, that kind of human diversity could be the most powerful source of long-term creative value we have.

Movember, the leading charity for men's health, recently published important research. One of its most striking findings is that the manosphere’s appeal is not purely negative: 43% of young men report short-term feelings of motivation and optimism from this content, even as the same research shows it is making their mental health measurably worse.

In other words, a creator can be making a young man feel good about opening an app while quietly narrowing his sense of what success, strength and masculinity are allowed to look like. If brands reward creators solely for attention, they risk funding narratives that undermine the very audiences they hope to build relationships with.

At a time when brands are moving large amounts of budget toward digital influencers as brand voices, that should give us pause for thought. Most decisions about which creators to invest in are made almost entirely on reach and engagement. If those metrics are blind to this dynamic, they are not just insufficient, they are the wrong metrics.

Alongside engagement rates, agencies could evaluate whether creators broaden or narrow young people's sense of identity, aspiration and belonging. Adding a qualitative assessment of the broader impact influencers have on young men’s confidence, mental health and self-concept could be a genuinely powerful tool for change.

The business and social cases for acting on this are, ultimately, the same. Young men are a significant and often misread consumer group. Brands and companies that understand what they are going through will be better placed to build genuine relevance and lasting loyalty. Those that don't will keep investing in voices that quietly undermine the very audiences they are trying to reach.

Like the former England manager, the advertising industry is action-driven and results-oriented. Southgate led by example. I think it is time for us to respond in kind.