Bronze
Creativity In Media
Health & Pharma

With the backdrop of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, UK-based private health insurer Bupa wanted to challenge the public perceptions of health by championing an authentic representation of people living with a disability; and rebuild media environments to be entirely inclusive to all.

Historical Paralympic campaigns have always shown para-athletes as ‘superhumans’, and while well-intentioned, it shifts focus from their achievements to their “inspirational” disability.

However, it’s not just the messages themselves that are a problem, but it’s also the media that communicates them. Even in a moment meant to celebrate human potential, such as the Paralympics, media formats actively exclude the very people they’re meant to empower.

As the Official Healthcare Sponsor of ParalympicsGB, Bupa had the perfect platform to challenge existing societal stereotypes and dismantle the structural barriers that have historically excluded disabled audiences from engaging with brands. Awareness was not the issue.

Access was. This campaign needed to prove that accessibility should not be an afterthought. The aim of the campaign was to redesign media itself, push boundaries, and get the media industry to set new standards against which to hold itself accountable.

24% of the UK live with a disability, but only 4% of advertising is inclusive.

Media isn't being overlooked by disabled audiences, it’s overlooking them. 16.4M people are excluded from advertising by design.

• OOH is positioned above wheelchair height, making it physically inaccessible. • Entire channels remain unusable for blind audiences. • The majority of TV and video ads still lack basic subtitles, excluding millions of deaf viewers. • Digital ads are often incompatible with screen readers, shutting out visually impaired users.

How could we use media to celebrate human potential when it’s a major hurdle to inclusivity? It creates a fundamental paradox. This was the genesis for our idea to execute the most accessible campaign in media.

To solve this problem we had to rewrite the rulebook and reimagine every part of the campaign.

We needed to redesign media to dismantle exclusion. We went beyond a brand campaign to live our brand purpose of inclusivity and use this opportunity to start a movement for lasting change.

Media networks were forensically analyzed and scored on inclusivity and potential for accessibility improvements. Next, we worked with partners to reimagine how their media could embrace, not exclude, the disabled community.

Actionability underpinned every aspect of this collaboration, and accessibility underpinned every execution - if something couldn’t meet our accessibility threshold, it didn’t make the plan, no matter how well it might perform against Brand KPIs. Accessibility was imperative, and other outcomes would follow.

This commitment challenged the industry to wake up and finally see this excluded community, shifting accessibility from a consideration to a societal imperative. Processes, distribution channels, and media placements were re-engineered from the ground up – media made more than a statement, it made a difference.

We transformed London St Pancras International railway station into the UK’s first fully inclusive advertising space:

• Billboards lowered to wheelchair height • New Braille OOH media was pioneered on railings • Spatial audio narration engaged those with visual impairments

Typography and contrast levels were tested for legibility, making accessibility an integral design principle across every channel. Rather than simply featuring our ParalympicGB ambassadors in ads, we empowered them to help shape the campaign. In-depth interviews with them ensured we represented the lived experience of the disabled community.

Autistic voiceover artist Samuel Parish provided authentic narration. Filmmaker Chris Lynch pioneered the world’s first wheelchair-mounted camera system, capturing perspectives never seen before in advertising.

We hijacked Channel 4’s ad breaks with a question no brand had asked: where are the disabled people in advertising? This wasn’t a moment of inclusion, but a demand for systemic accountability.

We turned a moment into a movement and started a legacy:

• 91% improvement in Brand Opinion, vs 50% Bupa baseline* • 89% overall Brand Consideration score, vs 49% Bupa baseline * • 35% total Partnership Awareness score among key audiences • 52% of audiences recognize Bupa as ‘champions of inclusion’ and 45% agree that Bupa ‘is making a positive difference to society’ • Relevancy among disabled audiences increased to 34% • We changed OOH forever with JCDecaux pledging to integrate Braille and wheelchair-height ad placements across its network • Channel 4 committed to making 100% of its inventory accessible by 2026 • 100 pieces of editorial have been published to continue the conversation sparked by our campaign • We contributed to core business KPIs with organic search volumes increasing +27% during the campaign window with no increased investment in search or expected seasonal lift.

This campaign proved inclusivity isn’t just good ethics—it’s smart business.

*Amongst the key consumer cohort