Tesco, BBH and EssenceMediacom are the winners of the Diversity in Advertising Award 2025/26

Nov. 10, 2025

Channel 4 Sales today announces Tesco’s campaign will win one million pounds worth of advertising space across Channel 4’s portfolio. The leading multinational retailer was entered with agencies BBH and EssenceMediacom.

The campaign answers the brief, Inclusive by Design which underscores Channel 4’s dedication to driving meaningful change in the advertising industry. In its winning advert Tesco is looking to change the way we produce recipes, so the kitchen is a place everyone feels welcome. Inclusive Cooking (w/t) will embed inclusive practices into every stage, from development, and production and storyline, demonstrating how co-creation can act as a powerful catalyst for creativity, connection, and authentic representation.

Tesco, BBH and EssenceMediacom’s campaign was chosen from five finalists which included Morrisons, Maltesers, The Open University and Bodyform. However, Channel 4 remains committed to nurturing the ideas of the four runners-up by offering them the opportunity to secure match funding to get their entries on air.

Murray Bisschop, UK Marketing Director at Tesco said: 

“We are immensely proud to have won this award. At Tesco, we work hard to create an inclusive workplace, and it is one of our core values that we make everyone welcome. Our fantastic team is always working to ensure that the campaigns that we create speak to the diversity of our customers and I am thrilled at the recognition by Channel 4 for this work.”

 

Karen Martin, BBH CEO said: 

"Winning the Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award is an absolute honour. We are committed to nurturing inclusive creativity wherever we can and we are so proud we can do this together with Tesco and EMC. We hope this campaign will inspire and empower people in the kitchen across the nation."

 

Natalie Cummins, CEO of EssenceMediacom said: 

“We are incredibly proud to have been able to work with Tesco and BBH on the Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award, a wonderful recognition of our collective commitment to ensuring all customers feel truly welcome in the kitchen.”

 

Amy Jenkins, Sales Leader at Channel 4 added: 

“This is the first time we’ve repeated a brief, word-for-word, for the Diversity in Advertising Award, but we know as an industry, accessible advertising is still so far behind where it needs to be, so we had no concerns around brands pitching new innovative ideas. We were right! Despite the competition being very strong, Tesco, BBH and EssenceMediacom’s campaign stood out to us. It explores something we all do every day and will make many stop and think about a small change that can unlock so much potential. This is what this initiative is all about and I can’t wait to see the final advert.”

 

By repeating this Diversity in Advertising Award brief for a consecutive year, Channel 4 is hoping to encourage more brands to innovate in the craft of advertising, to make it possible for all consumers to fully engage with brands. This will also offer the potential to reach around 18 million additional people in the UK who have different diverse experiences of hearing loss, deafness, and are registered blind or partially sighted according to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB)’s 2024 research.  Not to mention that the 2024/5 winning ad campaign from Currys and AMV BBDO has generated a sales ROI of 23:1.

The emphasis on making advertising accessible is further reflected in Channel 4 Sales’s commitment that from Spring 2026 all adverts delivered to Channel 4 (across linear and streaming) will mandatorily require closed captions. As well as striving for all creative partnerships to have subtitles as the standard.