One of the world’s largest advertisers is looking to increase inclusion by pledging to hire people with disabilities for major productions to promote brands like Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, Vaseline and more.

Unilever, the multibillion-dollar company behind hundreds of brands spanning everything from beauty and personal care to food and cleaning products, said the new commitment to hire at least one crew member with a disability will apply to all advertising productions worldwide costing over 100,000 euros or roughly $107,000.

“We are committed to changing the way we operate on commercial productions to ensure we harness all the great talent from the disabled community,” said Dana Cadden, Unilever’s global head of advertising production. “Whilst we still have much to learn, if more brands can make their production sets more inclusive, they will not only create more opportunities for persons with disabilities, but also benefit immensely from the creativity they will bring to our industry.”

The move is part of Unilever’s new “Believe in Talent” campaign, an effort to get more people with disabilities working behind the camera in the advertising world.

As part of the initiative, the company is releasing a toolkit outlining best practices for supporting people with disabilities in advertising production. The “Inclusive Production Toolkit” was developed in collaboration with members of the disability community and is freely available to agencies and production companies, Unilever said.

Already, major players in the advertising and marketing industry including WPP and IPG are on board to support the new push to include people with disabilities, Unilever said.

Read more stories like this one. Sign up for Disability Scoop's free email newsletter to get the latest developmental disability news sent straight to your inbox.