The Cost of Breathing Crisis: Creating a fully accessible advert for broadcast

When everyone has been talking about the cost of living crisis for months, how do you capture people’s attention with a new angle??

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This was our challenge going into our work with ITV, developing an advert to show what this crisis means for disabled people.??

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The campaign was developed from ITV Creative’s winning entry into 2022’s Promax Charity Challenge, was produced by ITV Creative, and runs in ITV gifted airtime.?

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To make an impact, the advert needed to be embedded in the real-life experiences disabled people have had in the past 6 to 8 months. It had to faithfully show a national audience, most of whom are probably not disabled, what life is like as a disabled person in the UK right now.??

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But it also needed to be done accessibly. It would have been no good developing an advert advocating for disabled people’s needs, while ignoring them in the development, filming, and end result of the advert.??

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Here’s how we worked to create an accessible advert, staying true to our organisational principles while capturing the hearts and minds of a primetime TV audience.?

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Choosing the story we wanted to tell?

Every day through our Scope helpline and services, we hear from people who are experiencing a variety of cost-of-living related concerns and issues.? We used this evidence, taking real-life quotes and stories to inform the scenarios from our stories, as well as lived experience from our disabled colleagues and various disabled networks.???

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This left us with 6 scenarios to feature in the advert, reflecting the real ways in which the current crisis is affecting disabled people. The outcome, we hoped, would be a powerful and important 60 second film.??

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Location, location, location??

One of the most important things for us was making the shooting of the advert itself, as well as the planning around it and the campaign launch and beyond, as accessible as possible. It’s a way of living our values at Scope and showing how accessibility isn’t a barrier to creating a brilliant advert.?

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We shot the advert on location in one big house in Surbiton. The very talented set dressers and art directors at ITV managed to transform it in to 6 totally different rooms, including a Scope call centre! This meant we could film in one day and ensure that the shoot was run as efficiently as possible.??

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When the location scouts were sourcing the place for the shoot, we had to make sure the location met the criteria to ensure the accessibility needs were met:??

• Were the doorframes wide enough to accommodate a power wheelchair user??
• Was the front of the house accessible by wheelchair???
• Were there enough spaces in the house for people to go and have some quiet to decompress if they needed it???
• Was there space for a wheelchair user to turn around???
• In case of emergencies, were all exits fully accessible???

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There was a lot to consider but the team at ITV were brilliant and asked all the right questions. We were also lucky to have the expertise of Ryan and Andy from the Scope team, who were on hand to advise and approve location options.??

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Choosing the talent??

Timing for the advert was tight, so because of this, we decided that using disabled actors would be the best way to move forward.??

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We worked with the casting team at ITV and various agencies who represented disabled to talent to find actors. The result was 6 superb performers who did an excellent job, and were a total pleasure to work with!??

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Lights, camera, action??

We were of course working with professional actors and crew who had experience of being on set. However, ensuring that their needs were met, and that the set was as safe as possible, was of the upmost importance to us.??

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To make this happen, we made sure that no one was called for longer than they were needed to avoid fatigue. We also provided a quiet room, as well as an accessible toilet and changing area.??

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Each actor had different transport needs, so we worked with each to ensure these needs were met.? Finally, we made sure to have a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter available on the day.??

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It was a long shoot day but everyone on set was an absolute pleasure to work with. Excellent catering also helped! The opportunity to be at a fully accessible television shoot was incredible, and certainly an experience I will relish for a long time.??

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Heading in to edit??

With the shoot complete, it was time to edit the ad and make sure it was ready for air.??

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For accessibility, the ad has burnt in captions, meaning that they will automatically appear when the ad plays on television.??

It was decided that the ‘cost of independence crisis’ scenario, which is signed, would not have audio description over the top as standard. This is because the vocalisation that our actor makes when using BSL is incredibly important to the deaf community, and we didn't want to undermine or do a disservice to that. However, a fully audio described version is available for viewers who want it, accessible by changing their ‘audio description’ preferences in their TV’s settings.??

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Live on air??

As our advert airs on TV, we hope that people at home watching it feel a genuine sense of inclusion, and appreciation for the seamless accessibility features incorporated into the advert. We aim to inspire other organizations to prioritise accessibility, and create a more inclusive landscape across various media platforms.?

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You can watch the advert here, or if you prefer the audio described version it’s available on YouTube here.?