Ad Standards gives its first ‘Kinder Conditions’ award to Booking.com
An ad for Booking.com which demonstrates its ability to filter for hotel rooms that have wheelchair access has won the first ‘Kinder Conditions’ award, as decided by the Ad Standards Community Panel.
The award was spurred by Ad Standards’ own advertising campaign which challenged the industry to move away from using stereotypes and increase representations of people from diverse backgrounds.
The Booking.com ad sees a man cheering as he speeds down a hill, and then turns a corner to reveal his wheelchair.
I’m not sure whether to chuckle, roll my eyes or sigh – so I’m doing all three.
The irony of this article is not lost on me.
It was less than a year ago that a colleague and I flew to Sydney specifically to meet with Mumbrella’s head-honcho, Tim Burrows. We proposed that the Mumbrella awards follow the lead of the Walkley Awards (thanks to Media Diversity Australia) and celebrate/honour those who were doing diversity and inclusion well.
Hence an inaugural award for such.
We were told in no uncertain terms that our ‘big idea’ couldn’t happen because there simply, “wouldn’t be enough interest/advertising to warrant an award.
Ummm… Based on this particular Mumbrella article, both the CEO of Ad Standards and I would strongly disagree.
We’d be more than happy to have another coffee with you, Tim, should you decide to put representation back on that Mumbrella radar 🙂
Cheers,
Lisa Cox – Copywriter on wheels
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for your comment.
Seeing your note is quite a confronting example for me of how I can leave a meeting with a completely incorrect sense of the impression I’ve left.
I do of course remember our meeting well. You might recall, we did it away from my office because I was on a day off to move house, but thought it was important we met. So I certainly had no intention to be dismissive of the issue.
And I went away from our coffee feeling inspired by your own story, which you were kind enough to share with me. I went home with my minor moving day stress in perspective after having just met someone who’d overcome such bigger challenges.
I’ve talked about you, and our meeting, a lot since. The issues you raised stayed with me.
When I talk about representation (or otherwise) within our industry, I consider disability in a way I had not previously. By coincidence, it’s something I wrote about just yesterday in my weekly Best of the Week email. This was as a result of speaking at an event in Melbourne a few days ago which was about gender equality, but I’d made the point that the industry has a wider number of diversity challenges including age, race and disability.
As I wrote on Saturday: “Those with disabilities are almost invisible on screen. Can you think of an ad featuring a wheelchair user simply as a character?” That point was entirely inspired by what you told me in our meeting.
And while I left our meeting with many new insights into the issue – thank you – I did not come away understanding that your main intention of getting together had been to pitch an awards idea. I treated your suggestion far too casually, and I apologise.
Although I don’t recall our discussion when you raised the Mumbrella Awards, I suspect the point I might have made, as it’s my first thought now, is that in order for there to be an award, the industry needs to have made sufficient progress for there to be enough work to be recognised.
As I wrote above, I struggle to think of examples where a person with a disability is simply incorporated in an ad (or TV show, come to that) as a person, rather than a plot point. (Mr Inbetween is the only one I can think of immediately.)
Would there be a strong shortlist? Depressingly, I just can’t think of enough examples.
But from sheer self-interest, I’d be delighted to be wrong. Given that this is an open forum, I’d welcome to hear other examples below from readers, from the last year or so of work that should be recognised.
All the best,
Tim – Mumbrella