Judges’ Award 2024 Gold £15-50 Million
Scope's Cost of Breathing Crisis campaign shows how disabled people are being hit hardest by the cost of living crisis. And it lets disabled people and their families know that Scope is here to help.
We also wanted to inspire more organisations to prioritise accessibility, and create more inclusive media.
The story we wanted to tell
This campaign is inspired by the real stories that Scope hears every day.
In the 12 months leading up to this campaign, the Scope helpline supported almost 38,000 disabled people. In many of those calls, disabled people told us about the difficult decisions they are forced to make because of the cost of living crisis. These include switching off medical equipment to save money.
Nobody should face the anxiety of not knowing whether they can afford to breathe, speak or get out of bed. That’s why we partnered with ITV to create an accessible advert to raise awareness of the devastating impact that the increasing cost of living is having on the lives of disabled people. And to let disabled people and their families know that Scope is here to help.
An accessible campaign
Our campaign is one of only a few accessible TV adverts. From planning through to launch, this advert was approached with accessibility at its heart. We wanted to show that accessibility shouldn't be a barrier to creating a brilliant advert.
We worked with the ITV casting team and agencies representing disabled to talent to find 6 brilliant disabled actors. And we worked with each actor to ensure their needs were met. This included:
- Ensuring that the shooting location met the accessibility needs of our cast and crew.
- Having a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter available on the day.
- Providing a quiet room, and an accessible toilet and changing area.
The advert had burnt in subtitles, meaning that they would automatically appear when the advert played on television.
A fully audio described version was available for viewers who wanted it, accessible by changing their ‘audio description’ preferences in their TV’s settings.
This campaign was developed from ITV Creative’s winning entry into 2022’s Promax Charity Challenge. It was produced by ITV Creative and it ran in ITV gifted airtime.
If you prefer the audio described version it is available on YouTube.
We're Scope, the disability equality charity in England and Wales. We won’t stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness.
