Tesco and BBH cook up inclusive design campaign

Tesco, alongside BBH London and EssenceMediacom, has unveiled its Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award-winning campaign, Now We’re Cooking, focused on improving accessibility in cooking for disabled people.

The campaign follows Tesco’s win in Channel 4’s 2025/26 Diversity in Advertising Award competition, which awarded £1 million worth of advertising space across the broadcaster’s portfolio. For the second consecutive year, the award focused on the theme Inclusive by Design.

Rather than centring solely on advertising representation, Tesco’s entry also aimed to address barriers disabled people face when accessing recipes and cooking tools.

The campaign launches with 100 recipes adapted to inclusive accessibility standards, including full written measurements for e-reader compatibility and detailed timing instructions instead of visual cues. The recipes are available through Tesco’s Accessible Recipes platform as downloadable ebooks, audio files and Braille versions.

Campaign focuses on accessible design

The campaign’s 60-second film, created by BBH London and directed by Alan Masferrer through ProdCo, is set in a large TV kitchen studio featuring cooks with a range of disabilities.

The film opens with the question: “Need anything from Tesco?” before participants explain the barriers they face in the kitchen and what would improve accessibility. The advert incorporates British Sign Language translation, open captions, audio description, high-contrast visuals and carefully designed sound and editing choices.

Tesco says the initiative reflects its broader aim of making cooking more accessible and inclusive.

Murray Bisschop, UK Marketing Director at Tesco: “We work hard to make Tesco a place where everyone is welcome. We are grateful to Channel 4 for their support and the opportunity for us to try and change the status quo. This campaign is about rethinking how we help people cook in ways that work for them, and shows how we can be inclusive by design, with recipes, adaptive cooking tools and a supportive shopping experience both in our stores and online.”

BBH London collaborated with The Diversity Standards Collective and disability-founded talent and production agency With Not For during development to ensure accessibility was integrated throughout the production process.

Research highlights accessibility barriers

Channel 4 selected the Inclusive by Design theme to address accessibility challenges in advertising and digital content.

According to figures cited in the campaign, more than 18 million people in the UK are deaf, live with hearing loss or tinnitus, while more than two million people live with sight loss.

Research conducted with The Diversity Standards Collective also found that many people with sight or hearing loss rely on memorising recipes or cooking intuitively because standard digital recipe formats are difficult to access.

Holly Fallows and Charlotte Watmough, Associate Creative Directors at BBH: “The kitchen isn’t inclusive for everyone. We learnt that for those with sight or hearing loss, the ‘standard’ recipe format is a barrier, not a bridge. As one of the nation’s most visited recipe sites, Tesco Real Food, receiving over 1.6 million unique monthly visitors, Tesco had a responsibility to change the status quo. This isn’t just about an ad; it’s about redesigning the utility of cooking authentically and recognising the importance of detail.”

Campaign extends beyond advertising

Alongside the recipes, Tesco is introducing adaptive cooking tools through Tesco Marketplace in partnership with Parkinson’s UK. The recipes are also compatible with Alexa, while social media versions are currently in development.

The campaign debuted during Taskmaster on Channel 4 and will initially run exclusively across the broadcaster’s channels, supported by out-of-home activity planned by EssenceMediacom UK.

Amy Jenkins, Sales Leader, Channel 4: “Over the ten years we’ve been running the Diversity in Advertising Award we’ve seen some important strides forward to advertising becoming more inclusive, with clear evidence of its positive impact on both our clients’ business objectives and viewers, as well as some iconic and creative ads. Tesco’s focus on the cooking experience and commitment to creating accessible recipes further emphasises that inclusive practices must be embedded from the outset, rather than considered as an afterthought.”

Natalie Cummins, WPP Media President at EssenceMediacom: “From the outset, this work was about making sure inclusion wasn’t something added on at the end, but considered at every stage of how the campaign would be experienced. ‘Now We’re Cooking’ challenged us to think not only about where the campaign ran but also how it could be genuinely usable and accessible for as many people as possible. It’s a brilliant example of what can happen when media, creativity and purpose are designed together.”

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