Visual Representation, Ethical Storytelling and Our New Standard for Authentic Representation.

Formal Statement: NS Communications Ltd, 20th July 2025.

NS Communications Ltd is proud to have signed the Chiesi Limited pledge at the True Faces of Rare event in London on Thursday 17th July 2025.

The pledge:

“We aim to ensure that whenever our organisation creates content or materials about rare diseases, any images of real people featured reflect individuals who are directly affected by those specific conditions.”

We fully support the movement towards more ethical and authentic representation of individuals living with rare diseases and beyond that, all communities historically misrepresented or misused in communication and visual content.

Effective immediately, we are embedding this commitment across all NS Communications Ltd practices and projects. This includes a formal and permanent ban on the use of stock imagery that:

• Misrepresents or generalises the lived experience of individuals from rare, chronic, disabled, racialised, or otherwise marginalised communities

• Reinforces visual tropes or aestheticised suffering, including clichéd depictions of pain, poverty or vulnerability as a communicative shortcut

• Depicts fictionalised portrayals of real conditions, communities or realities without direct involvement, consent or co-creation

• Fails to reflect the specific identities, geographies, and contexts of the people or issues it seeks to represent

This policy applies not only to our healthcare and rare disease work, but to all sectors in which we operate, inclusive of (but not limited to); education, sustainability, corporate responsibility, mental health and social equity campaigns.

We are committed to working with real people, real stories and real imagery, collaboratively produced, respectfully sourced and contextually accurate.

“This is not about image selection. It is about ethical strategy, trust and accountability. Representation is never neutral and every visual shapes who is seen, how they are seen and why. Signing the pledge marked a point of alignment for us. We are investing in alternative pathways that prioritise consent, authentic representation and co-collaboration at every stage of visual communication.”

Natalie Swanser, Chief, NS Communications Ltd

Our clients, collaborators and suppliers will be expected to align with these principles. We will support partners in transitioning toward more ethical visual practices, including access to inclusive sourcing models, co-creation frameworks and consent standards that go beyond formality.

For those who have already begun this work, including Chiesi and its partners, we invite you to share your learning. For those considering change, we are here to support it.

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Disclaimer: While NS Communications Ltd has voluntarily signed the pledge initiated by Chiesi Limited, we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Chiesi Limited or its partners. Our decision reflects our own values and independent commitment to ethical representation.