Tesco: Now We're Cooking
Client
Tesco
Year
2025
Agency
BBH London & EssenceMediacom
Cooking is something many of us take for granted. But for millions of people with sight or hearing loss, everyday recipes can create unnecessary barriers, making something that should feel enjoyable far less accessible.
Tesco's Now We're Cooking campaign, winner of Channel 4's 2025 Diversity in Advertising Award, set out to change that. Built around Tesco's Every Little Helps brand promise, the campaign shows how accessibility can create better experiences for everyone when it’s considered from the very beginning.
This is brought to life in BBH London's 60-second launch film, directed by Alan Masferrer through ProdCo, set in a vast test kitchen TV studio and opening with a simple question: "Need anything from Tesco?"
The stars - a cast of cooks with a range of disabilities - don't hold back. They call out the ways the world of cooking hasn't been designed for them, and what would help make the experience better. As captions, British Sign Language, and audio description are introduced, the kitchen comes alive with the sights and sounds of food being prepared.
The film features 70-foot screens displaying open captions, entertaining audio description, clear typography and high-contrast visuals, with carefully considered editing and sound design helping ensure as many people as possible can experience the advert.
Working alongside The Diversity Standards Collective and disability-founded talent and production agency With Not For, the campaign was shaped by people with lived experience throughout the creative process. The film features 70-foot screens displaying open captions, entertaining audio description, clear typography and high-contrast visuals, with carefully considered editing and sound design helping ensure as many people as possible can experience the advert.
As the kitchen comes to life, Tesco delivers a simple message: "We know cooking needs to be more accessible. So we created tesco.com/accessible-recipes."
"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."
The campaign launched on 21 May 2026, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, premiering during Taskmaster on Channel 4.
Alongside the campaign, Tesco launched 100 accessible recipes after research highlighted the barriers many disabled people experience with traditional online recipe formats.
Every recipe was adapted to meet the latest inclusive standards, with measurements written in full for e-reader legibility and specific timings replacing visual cues. The collection focused on some of Tesco's most searched-for recipes, spanning a range of meals and dietary needs.
The recipes are available online as downloadable ebooks, audio files and Braille versions, and can also be accessed through Alexa, helping more people cook with confidence in ways that work for them. Tesco extended the campaign further through Tesco Magazine, OOH and introduced adaptive cooking tools through Tesco Marketplace in partnership with Parkinson's UK, demonstrating how the campaign inspired meaningful change across the wider customer experience.