Coordown, Italy’s national coordination of associations of people with DOWN syndrome, has launched “The Hiring Chain,” a global awareness campaign from New York-based creative agency SMALL. The work carries an important message to employers worldwide–hiring a person with Down syndrome not only changes the life of that worker but can also trigger a virtuous circle of new opportunities for many others.
Seventeen-time Grammy-winning artist Sting performs the original song “The Hiring Chain,” which helps drive this campaign video produced by Milan, Italy-based Indiana Production and directed by Rich Lee.
In the first scene, a young woman named Simone is at work at the bakery, showing customers her skills. One of these customers is a lawyer who is impressed and decides in turn to hire a young man and give him a chance. From there, a chain reaction ensues: the young men and women featured in the video and song show that the more people with Down syndrome are seen at work, the more they are recognized as valuable employees, breaking through the myth of low expectations fueled by prejudices. Opportunities are thus created for new hires.
The public service film rolls out with World Down Syndrome Day (Sunday, 3/21) coming fast upon us.
Prospective employers inspired by the film can visit www.hiringchain.org (created by Adoratorio) where they can find contact details for organizations around the world that can provide info, support and encouragement to bring people with Down syndrome into their places of business. They can also access in-depth information on employment and answers to frequently asked questions about creating an inclusive workplace.
Karim Bartoletti, partner/managing director/executive producer of Indiana Production, shared, “The Coordown diamond we were given to produce by SMALL already had a light of its own even before we produced it: a powerful insight, a strong creative idea, a memorable song, an overall entertainment value, a celebrity appeal and, more importantly, a heartfelt purpose and request for activation and engagement through a brand content soaked with a powerful message. All this was already within the meanders of the original script; all we needed to do was make the diamond shine as brightly as possible. That’s what we did. We cannot be more proud of Rich Lee’s direction, Chris Probst’s cinematography, Luca Angeleri’s editing, Drive Studio’s postproduction efforts in creating–with our team at Indiana Production–the perfect content for CoorDown to allow the Hiring Chain to be as engaging and as ‘long’ and as successful as it can in maximizing, through the power of the content itself, the spreading of a fundamental cause for people with Down syndrome.”
