People Like Us Takes Aim at AI Hiring Bias in 'Reject the Rejections'
Updated: 6 days ago
TL;DR: UK non-profit People Like Us has launched 'Reject the Rejections', a research-backed film exposing how automated hiring tools reject ethnic-minority applicants at higher rates than white applicants.
A Campaign With a Data Spine
People Like Us has released a four-minute film, 'Dear [Name]', created by agency Worth Your While, directed by Amara Abbas and starring Ebenezer Gyau. The campaign, 'Reject the Rejections', dramatises the moment an automated system dismisses a candidate before a human ever reads the application.
The creative is anchored in new research: ethnic-minority applicants were rejected 41% of the time within an hour of applying, versus 32% for white applicants — the speed itself hinting at automated screening rather than human review.
The Numbers That Should Worry HR
The study also found that 70% of ethnic-minority candidates alter or hide identity elements on their CV, compared with 57% of others — evidence of a workforce already adapting to a system it doesn't trust.
Most damning for employers: 82% of those who actually checked their automated hiring tools found that outcomes differed by ethnicity. Co-founder Sheeraz Gulsher's line cuts to the governance question: good faith is not governance, and 'we didn't know' stops being a defence.
Why Adland Should Pay Attention
Automated screening is now standard across recruitment, including in agencies and brand marketing teams that pride themselves on inclusion. A campaign built on employers' own untested tools turns an abstract ethics debate into a concrete liability.
It is also a model of issues-led non-profit marketing: a single, verifiable statistic doing more persuasive work than any amount of sentiment.
Marketing Minute's Take
If your organisation uses automated hiring tools and has never audited their outcomes by ethnicity, this campaign is aimed squarely at you. The fix isn't abandoning the technology — it's testing it, documenting the results and being able to answer the question the campaign poses before a regulator or journalist does.
Quick FAQ
What is the 'Reject the Rejections' campaign about?
It is a People Like Us campaign, made by Worth Your While, exposing how automated hiring tools disproportionately reject ethnic-minority applicants, supported by new research on rejection rates and CV-editing behaviour.
What did the research find about AI hiring bias?
Ethnic-minority applicants were rejected 41% of the time within an hour of applying versus 32% for white applicants, and 82% of employers who checked their tools found outcomes differed by ethnicity.
What should employers do about automated hiring bias?
Audit hiring tools for outcome differences by ethnicity, document the results, and treat testing as a governance requirement rather than assuming good faith is enough.
This is issues marketing at its sharpest: one number — 82% of employers who checked found bias — does all the persuading. For any brand using automated screening, the uncomfortable truth is that not knowing is now an admission, not a defence. Audit the tool before someone else does it for you. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The takeaway: if you use automated hiring tools and haven't audited them by ethnicity, 'we didn't know' is no longer a defence — test and document now.
When did you last audit your recruitment tools for biased outcomes?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week, Creative Review, Famous Campaigns.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
