Case study | Unilever: Inclusive Set Commitment & Inclusive Production Toolkit

Persons with disabilities make up around 16% of the global population (source). However, they are still hugely underrepresented in media on-screen with only 8.3% of roles and 6% off screen in the UK and 52% in the US, feeling inaccurately represented (source). This is particularly true in advertising.

As one of the world’s biggest advertisers, Unilever saw the opportunity to eliminate the barriers for persons with disabilities to work behind the camera in its own commercial productions. It wanted to make both its production sets and advertising more inclusive and encourage the industry to do the same.  

In 2023, as part of Unilever’s Act 2 Unstereotype initiative, which is committed to eradicating harmful stereotypes from marketing and advertising, we launched the 'industry first' ‘Inclusive Set Commitment’ - ensuring all Unilever master triple-bid productions over €100k included at least one person from the disability community working as part of the crew. To support this, we collaborated with Inclusively Made, founded by Bus Stop Films & Taste Creative, to develop and open-source ‘The Inclusive Production Toolkit’– a resource to enable people at all levels of the industry to become disability-confident.

Since launching the initiative, Unilever has successfully placed over 100 mentees from the disabled community on brand productions across China, US, Brazil, UK, France, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, for a range of brands, such as Dove, Ponds, Rexona, Dirt is Good and many more.

We have witnessed the transformative power of diverse perspectives, fostering innovation that goes beyond expectations and creating campaigns that resonate with the richness of our global audience. We are committed to a future where every voice is heard, every talent is recognised, and every story is told.

Please watch the short film here to see how one small initiative is making the change.