PepsiCo Australia signs on to Shift 20 Initiative
PepsiCo Australia has been recognised as an official brand partner of Dylan Alcott’s Shift 20 Initiative, with new and inclusive campaigns for two of its brands to launch.
The Shift 20 Initiative, led by the Dylan Alcott Foundation and independent agency Special Australia, focuses on increasing disability representation, inclusion, and accessibility in Australia’s advertising and media landscape.
With nearly one in five Australians having disability, yet only being represented in less than 1% of advertising, the initiative is working hard to change the status quo and give people with disability equal opportunities.
PepsiCo is the latest brand to sign on as a partner, with new spots to be developed for its Gatorade and Red Rock Deli brands.
“We are so proud to join the Shift 20 Initiative in its mission to influence positive change for every Australian living with a disability,” said Kyle Faulconer, CEO ANZ at PepsiCo.
“Creating a diverse environment that puts its people first is at the heart of how we operate at PepsiCo, and we look forward to furthering our efforts in this space with Shift 20.”
Priya Addams Williams, Shift 20 Initiative lead at the Dylan Alcott Foundation added: “We are so excited to have PepsiCo on board as a Shift 20 partner.
“To have such iconic brands recognise the importance of disability representation and inclusion is huge and we’re looking forward to consulting on future campaigns for Gatorade and Red Rock Deli to ensure that we’re representing the nearly 20% of Australians who live with disability.”
PepsiCo staff will also partake in Shift 20’s training and education around disability representation and inclusion, alongside other brand partners.
Speaking at Mumbrella360 earlier this year, Dylan Alcott reminded brands that they need to want to do the work and give a social investment to prove they want to do better, not just reach out to people with disability when they need to meet a DE&I target.
“There are nearly four a half million people with disability in Australia, how many do you reckon are in wheelchairs like me?,” he asked.
“It’s only like 4%. Yet when people think of disability, they think of a wheelchair. I mean, the disabled parking symbol is even a wheelchair, yet only 4% of the millions of people living with disability in Australia use a wheelchair.
“Brands need to be doing better and finding talent from across the board.”
In September, the initiative launched the Shift 20 Casting Call, a TikTok channel dedicated to helping talent with disability secure work in front of the camera, and help brands do just that – find talent from across the board.
It also recently celebrated one year since its launch, and to mark the occasion, Mumbrella spoke to leading CMOs from Tourism Australia, Anytime Fitness, nib, McDonald’s, and TikTok on why their brands got involved, and what’s next.
Other brand partners include ANZ and Uber.
PepsiCo’s partnership with Shift 20 is already in motion and will last for 12 months, until October 2025.
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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topics
DE&I
disability inclusion
Dylan Alcott
Dylan Alcott Foundation
Kyle Faulconer
PepsiCo
PepsiCo ANZ
Priya Addams Williams
Shift 20
Shift 20 Initiative
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