The Scottish whiskey brand J&Btogether with the Madrid agency Rocky’s Russian released this week ‘Visible Room’a campaign that seeks to make visible people with disabilities and the space they rightfully occupy within nightlife. Within the framework of World Day of People with Disabilities, this action allowed a group of people with disabilities to appear in a massive electronic music streaming. The objective is to break stigmas and show that this group enjoys the night as much as anyone else, despite the social barriers they face.
‘Visible Room’ is part of J&B’s ‘My Big Night’ platform, which promotes real inclusion in nightlife. A study carried out by the brand highlights that, although 83% of people with disabilities enjoy partying, many point out that the main barrier is the lack of social empathy. With this initiative, J&B invites us to reflect on the need to eliminate prejudices and promote equal representation in nightlife spaces.
The campaign also includes a short documentary, where the protagonists relate their experience and underline the importance of inclusion. In this, we can hear directly from a group of people with disabilities the experience they have gone through from both sides of the inclusion debate. Whether this inclusion is present at a structural level in an event or not, participants emphasize the need to involve society as a whole to achieve this inclusion.
Complementing this action, J&B developed, together with Ilunion Accessibility, an inclusive nightlife guide, aimed at organizers and establishments. With ‘Visible Room’, J&B reaffirms its commitment to more accessible nightlife, bringing a strong message of inclusion to the electronic music scene.
And, more than one may wonder: Why electronic music? The answer lies in our past, present and the basis of our history. Electronic music has always been one of the truly international genres with fewer cultural barriers within it. Neither musical training, social position, resources or other external factors change the fact that in the dancefloor There is space for everyone, and we all have the right to that space.
Little by little, the values that founded our scene and gave it its singular and unique value are blurring within the commercial ocean guided by a business model in which profits are translated into the only value. On an individual level, it is difficult to fight against the machine that bids to commercialize 100% of our scene. However, it is actions like these that remind us that, as long as there are at least two people willing to recognize each other as equals on the track, the hype will continue to play for years and years.
