The Warehouse has received a flurry of praise on Facebook after including a wheelchair-using child in its latest catalogue. The image caught the attention of a reader who was moved enough to post it on the retailer’s Facebook page where it has since gathered over 15,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
Ana Gray wrote the post pictured below. She thanked The Warehouse for its representation of children like her daughters in its mailer catalogue, which reaches over a million people each week.
The post has 15,0000 likes and hundreds of comments. Most were others joining in to praise the retailer, with Lin Tozer saying: “My 86 year old mother is also excited to see these changes. She has fought for 86 years for disability to be accepted in our society. To see this us a mighty step forward. Please do not let this be the last time!!!”
The model The Warehouse used is Jaden Movold, a 12-year-old disability ambassador who lives with spina bifida.
The Warehouse Group head of PR and media Tanya Henderson says Movold was selected to be used as one of its models after a successful audition.
“As a New Zealand business, we are always looking to represent the diversity and dynamic make up of our population,” she says.
“Essentially we want a fair representation of New Zealanders across our various advertising channels and therefore we are very proud to have New Zealanders with disabilities model some of our clothing range in our mailers and online.”
New Zealand has a record of low and often inaccurate representations of people with disabilities in the media, yet according to Statistics New Zealand, almost one in four Kiwis are disabled.
In contrast, Vogue Brazil recently showed how not to go about inclusive advertising when it photoshopped limbs away from able-bodied modelsto make them look like Paralympians.
- This story was originally published on The Register.
