Tesco has revealed its Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising award-winning campaign, which aims to remove some of the barriers to cooking faced by disabled people.

The campaign, was created by BBH London and WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom,

in response to Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising brief. The theme of the awards was ‘Inclusive by Design’ for the second year running.

Born from the insight that disabled people are often excluded by traditional online recipes, the campaign, which is called ‘Now We’re Cooking’, strives to make cooking more inclusive and accessible. 

Tying into Tesco’s ‘Every Little Helps’ brand promise, through the launch of accessible online recipes and the sale of adaptive cooking tools, the campaign goes beyond awareness to break down barriers to cooking.

At the heart of the campaign, a film set in a test kitchen calls out the ways that the cooking world isn’t designed for disabled people. Created by BBH London, the spot stars a cast of cooks with a range of disabilities who prepare food in the test kitchen while showcasing some of the ways cooking can be made more accessible. 

The spot opens with the question: ‘Need anything from Tesco?’The workstations come alive with the sounds of cooking and food being prepared as the chefs call out what they need. 

Tesco colleagues respond with British Sign Language (BSL) translation and audio description. A voice-over and captions say: “We know cooking needs to be more accessible. So we created tesco.com/accessible-recipes.”

The upbeat spot openly addresses the barriers disabled people face while showcasing the joy of cooking. 

The film, directed by Alan Masferrer through ProdCo, features 70-foot screens displaying open captions, entertaining audio description, clear typography and high-contrast visuals to ensure accessibility. 

The pace of editing and sound design have been carefully considered to ensure that the film is both impactful and accessible.

At the recent IPA Talent & Diversity Conference, Amy Jenkins, Sales Leader at Channel 4, shared the broadcaster's ‘continued commitment to accessibility’. Channel 4 has mandated closed captions on ads since March. ‘Inclusive by Design’ was chosen as the theme of the Diversity in Advertising award to continue this mission and address a staggering gap in the market. According to the RNID more than 18 million people are deaf, live with hearing loss or have tinnitus and the Royal National Institute of Blind People figures indicate that over two million people are living with sight loss. 20% of the population are currently not able to easily access or understand general ads.

Awareness to action

BBH London worked alongside the The Diversity Standards Collective (DSC) and the disability-founded talent and production agency With Not For to ensure inclusivity in the creation of the film, throughout the entire process. 

The Diversity Standard Collective also helped to collate research that revealed disabled communities ‘often cook more intuitively with their senses or are forced to memorise recipes because current digital formats are inaccessible.’ 

Tesco has created 100 recipes adapted to meet inclusivity standards to launch the campaign. While AI can generate captions, often they are inaccurate and can make the cooking process more frustrating. Tesco’s online recipes include measurements written in full, for e-reader legibility and use specific timings rather than visual cues.

The recipes can be downloaded as an accessible ebook or an audio file or requested in Braille, all at Tesco’s Accessible Recipes, created by Cedar Communications. They are also available using Alexa, the Amazon digital assistant, with social versions in development.

As well as the recipes, Tesco is selling a range of adaptive cooking tools that will be available to buy through Tesco Marketplace in partnership with Parkinson’s UK.

Accessible by design

"From the outset, this work was about making sure inclusion wasn’t something added on at the end, but considered at every stage of how the campaign would be experienced,” says Natalie Cummins, WPP Media President at EssenceMediacom. 

She continued: “‘Now We’re Cooking’ challenged us to think not only about where the campaign ran but also how it could be genuinely usable and accessible for as many people as possible. It’s a brilliant example of what can happen when media, creativity and purpose are designed together.”

The campaign recognises that while millions of disabled people are excluded by traditional online recipes, making cooking more accessible and inclusive is not just the right thing to do but makes good business sense. 

The campaign is an extension of Tesco’s overarching ‘Every Little Helps’ brand promise which sees the retailer seek to build community and find meaningful ways to connect with its customers. 

Speaking on the campaign, Amy Jenkins, Sales Leader at Channel 4 added: “Tesco’s focus on the cooking experience and commitment to creating accessible recipes further emphasises that inclusive practices must be embedded from the outset, rather than considered as an afterthought. It showcases the impact of small adjustments in unifying the experience of cooking and also consuming the advert.”

As the winner of the Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising award, the campaign received £1 million worth of advertising space across Channel 4. The spot makes its debut today (Thursday, 21 May) during Taskmaster. It will initially run exclusively on Channel 4.

The uplifting campaign embodies both action and awareness to break down barriers to cooking and ensure that everyone can share in the joy of food.