Disabled Rights Commission calls ad pitch

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has called an advertising and media pitch for a &£1.5m campaign.

It has invited DDB London, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and McCann Erickson to pitch for the task, although the DRC has not disclosed the names of the media agencies involved. The pitches will take place this month and a decision is expected in November.

The campaign, which will break in the spring, aims to raise awareness of the impact and effect that discrimination has on disabled people and individuals with long-term illnesses.

It also aims to change perceptions of what disabled people can achieve. DRC assistant director of communications Agnes Fletcher says that disabled people are on the “receiving end of the worst possible outcomes” when it comes to work, education or using services.

She says: “Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions are twice as likely to have no qualifications and be out of work, have poorer health and confront barriers using services.”

The aim of the campaign will be to change attitudes and perceptions, but it will also show that the end result of challenging these issues will eventually help disabled people to become more active in society.

The DRC was set-up in 2000 to review the effectiveness of disability discrimination law and to advise government . It also promotes best practice in disability equality in the private and public sectors.

The last agency to be appointed to a disability brief was HHCL/Red Cell (now United) in November 2003, but no work was produced, (MW November 6, 2003).