Leonard Cheshire drive targets marketers

Leonard Cheshire, the charity which cares for the physically disabled, has launched a new campaign to persuade advertisers to feature more disabled people in marketing campaigns.

“VisABLE” launches in South London this week with an advertisement featuring the wheelchair-using model Shannon Murray and the line: “What an amazing figure”.

The campaign coincides with the publication of new research by NOP into the attitudes towards disabled people in advertising.

It reveals that 80 per cent of people would welcome more disabled people in ads while 70 per cent of those questioned said they would not assume an ad featuring disabled people was directed at disabled people, rather than the general public.

The ad is part of a £1m campaign developed by advertising agency FCA to update Leonard Cheshire’s brand identity.

Leonard Cheshire director of public affairs Jeremy Hughes says: “There are good business reasons for ads to reflect more realistically the communities we live in.”