On the 15th September 2023, during the Sunday Project, in an iconic and unignorable moment for Australian advertising, 10 of Australia’s most well known brands came together in support of disability representation with the “Unignorable Adbreak”. Swapping out key scenes in their advertising to include a person with disability to launch the Shift 20 Initiative. This initiative was conceived by Special and the Dylan Alcott Foundation over two years ago.
The altered spots from ANZ, AAMI, Bonds, Kia, McDonald’s, Oral-B, nib, Pantene, Uber and Weet-Bix ran in the lead up to the Sunday and culminated in a complete media roadblock during the prime time Sunday Project. A moment designed to make Australia take notice of the lack of disability representation in our advertising and launch an initiative designed to combat it, the Shift 20 Initiative. In addition to the brands who have altered spots, Tourism Australia, Virgin Australia and TikTok have also come onboard as foundation partners.
The Shift 20 Initiative is a coalition of leading brands, led by the Dylan Alcott Foundation, which is focused on increasing disability representation, inclusion and accessibility in Australian advertising and media. Australians with disability make up almost 20% of the population. Yet in advertising, they are only represented 1% of the time.
The majority of the production re-shoots was led by Revolver, featuring both talent and crew with disability. There was also essential oversight from a variety of disability consultants and production partners such as Bus Stop Films to ensure the production environment was inclusive. This included consultancy on the casting process, production considerations for people with disability, disability riders, crew attachments and Auslan translators.
The Glue Society was a key creative partner in the early development of this campaign. Working closely with Special from the initial agency brief, the team formed a clever and restrained production approach that would allow brands incorporating talent with disability to have maximum effect, ensuring the work prompted focus and discussion on the issue.
Rumble Studios, working across a number of the revised TVCs, as well as the supplementary behind the scenes films, brought to life with their thoughtful music, composed by Guy Brown.
The coalition of launch partners will lead the way in commitment to fair representation of people with disability within their ads and marketing communications, providing opportunities and opening doors for people with disability. Each brand has their own unique way of showing up in the space from product development, influencer strategies, accessibility innovations, community support and employment with further innovations to come off the back of the initiative.
A dedicated website has been built to give brands access to best practice resources to create more accessible and inclusive communications. Brands can sign-up and find out more about the Shift 20 Initiative at shift20.org and be part of the change.