Seek Out Your Creative Spirit & Fight Disability Injustice

Last night at the D&AD Impact Awards show, a new initiative called Creative Spirit was unveiled urging the creative industry to employ more people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD's).

Launched in partnership with the non-profit under the same name, the supporting campaign created by Publicis New York premiered halfway through the event.

The spot featured a number of high profile ad luminaries - Fallon's CCO Jeff Kling; Joan Creative's co-founder and CCO, Jaime Robinson; Deutsch's CCO Pete Favat; and Barton F Graf's ECD/Partner Jeff Benjamin. In it, they fondly remembered a pitch they put forward for the Creative Spirit initiative, reflecting on how many ideas they had and how creatively brilliant they were.

However their moments of pure genius are brought into sharp focus when the people living with IDD's reveal how they experienced the pitch - admitting to feeling ignored, undermined and undervalued.

The comedic spot aims to shine a spotlight on the treatment of people living with IDD's in the workplace, as currently 85% of them are unemployed and struggling to secure full-time employment.

The Creative Spirit initiative has already partnered with 50 companies and plans to get 130,000 people living with IDD's in jobs by 2020. 

"We believe the optimism of the campaign matches the potential of these talented individuals," says Publicis ECD, Adrian Flores. "Hiring an individual with an intellectual disability is a privilege not charity."

The movement is set to travel and establish itself globally, heading to Australia in 2018. So take the pledge and show your support of Creative Spirit to tackle disability prejudice within the industry. Visit Creative Spirit for more.