In a groundbreaking move for the advertising industry, Bupa’s latest Paralympics campaign, ‘Beyond the Games’, created by Thinkerbell, is the first commercial production to be officially certified Inclusively Made. This campaign marks a significant step forward in the realm of inclusive advertising, ensuring that diversity and accessibility are prioritised at every stage of production.
“I realised I had been overlooking the role of diversity and inclusion in the work that I’d been creating,” said Jim Ingram, founder and chief tinker at Thinkerbell. This powerful acknowledgment set the stage for a campaign where inclusivity was to be business as usual.
“Inclusion was non-negotiable from the start of this project, and that’s why we wanted to work with a partner like Inclusively Made so that authenticity of that inclusion was represented throughout the project,” said Bupa’s senior manager of brand campaigns, Ainsley Campbell. Bupa’s commitment to authentic representation and accessible healthcare is at the heart of this initiative, extending its support beyond the games and into the everyday lives of Australians.
The campaign, which positions Bupa as the official healthcare partner of the Australian Paralympic Team, is a shining example of how inclusivity can amplify creativity and effectiveness. “Often we don’t consider inclusivity until kind of further down the track, but partnering with Inclusively Made allowed us to think about that from the outset, which made including an inclusive process really easy and seamless throughout,” Sean McNicholas, head tinker at Thinkerbell said.
Through their collaboration with Inclusively Made, Thinkerbell ensured that people with disability were represented both on-screen and behind the scenes. This included having inclusive mentees on set and addressing accessibility challenges during post-production. “Inclusion seemed a little overwhelming to start with, but as we worked our way through the program, we realised that little by little, just small changes through the whole production process really added up to a lot by the end,” said Di Nash, head production tinker at Thinkerbell.
The success of this campaign not only demonstrates the importance of planning for inclusion from the very beginning but also challenges the industry to view inclusivity as an enhancer of creativity, not a hindrance. “My hope for other agencies and brands is that they just embrace inclusion and diversity in the same way that we have, and see it not as a barrier to success or creativity, but as something that can actually amplify all those things,” said Ingram.
With the Beyond the Games campaign, Thinkerbell and Bupa are setting a new standard for how advertising can—and should—be made, proving that when inclusivity is woven into the fabric of production, the results are impactful and resonant.
