Join us on The Upside

IDEA
We created ‘The Upside’, a campaign that went beyond the client brief of a celebrating a milestone anniversary and created a platform that will live beyond this 50th anniversary and exist until people with Down syndrome are afforded the same rights in healthcare, employment, community and education as everyone else. Using a positive lens we set out to show the entire nation ‘The Upside’ to meaningfully including people with Down syndrome in all aspects of society has for everyone. Featuring real people, real issues and facts, we will show the value that including people with Down syndrome brings to the economy, society and the spirit of communities and the nation as a whole. However we know there is still a ways to go on our journey to inclusion.  So, as well as showing the benefits for all when people with Down syndrome are included, we commissioned a report and drafted a manifesto of 21 Demands designed to highlight the gaps and barriers still in place to achieving this goal while outlining the steps and actions that people can take.
EXECUTION
The Upside became a philosophy, platform, a movement with positivity at its core showing that not enough is being done to make society accessible and accepting. Using first person stories we have set out to show that people with Down syndrome are so much more than their diagnosis, they are people with the hopes, fears, dreams and ambitions just like everyone else and deserve the same opportunity as everyone else. Our mission was to ensure that people understood The Upside of inclusion. Our campaign gave voice to people with Down syndrome and what they were saying loudly is that ‘you don’t need to talk down to me’. This statement became manifest in a 60ft piece of street art from well known artist and activist Joe Caslin. We used the mural as the launch point for a multifaceted campaign that included a new manifesto for the organisation, a report that outlined all the ways in which change is needed and a list a of 21 demands that mapped out how to move the dial.
IMPACT
The campaign has only just kicked off but the it is fair to say that the launch garnered wall to wall media coverage that included TV news slots, radio and print articles with an initial reach of over 5 million. The online response was just as significant with the Taoiseach Tweeting his appreciation and support of the campaign . The real metric will come in the form of real change and so far the campaign is helping open the right doors and getting Down Syndrome Ireland conversations with the people with the power to make change happen…