FORD
BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE COVERS
Client: Ford UK
Agency: W+K London
Creative Directors: David Colman, Alex Sattlecker
Creatives: Winona Wee & André Mezzomo
Director/Editor: Yago Hunt-Laudi
Head of Bodega: Gabriel Marchi
Producers: Dom Felton, Hestor Manning-Marsh
Account Handling: Alice Shaw, Siham Zerkak & Jide Olaofe
Comms: Cristelle Fornesi
PR: Danny Hernandez
Since Rihanna’s American Sign Language Superbowl performance went viral,
more ASL song covers have been trending on social – yet, British Sign Language (BSL) hasn’t been given as much of a spotlight in culture.
(Yes, they are two different languages and sign language isn't universal!)
& even though BSL has been in use for hundreds of years, it's only been legally recognised as a language by the British Parliament in 2022.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E is the 1st car in the UK that has a hands-free mode. And when you use your hands to communicate, you deserve the option to go hands-free. So we created Ford BSL Covers: in partnership with the British Deaf Association, starring Deaf talents Charis Townsend & Lisa Kelly. This became a social campaign spurred by BSL creators who encouraged their followers to sign-sing along to our videos.
To ensure we were repping the Deaf community authentically, we:
- Partnered with the British Deaf Association
- Created an open-call for Deaf talents
- Went for a BSL intro class to make sure we knew the right terminology & ways to work with the Deaf community
- Worked with a BSL influencer from the community
- Had BSL interpreters on every single call
- Prepped our talent by working with a BSL performance coach
- Ensured the shoot was fully accessible for deaf talent
- Sent every edit to our BSL performance coach to make sure the signs were signed accurately.
- Worked with the client to make sure that we truly highlighted BSL & continue to work with the BDA to make both W+K & Ford more inclusive
- Made sure our press release was Deaf-inclusive with a BSL video version attached to the written version
