Hardly earth shattering news that teenagers like playing music, chatting at coffee shops, learning to cook (if their parents are lucky) and hanging out with their mates – but how often do you see learning disabled teens doing the same things?

Young people with learning disabilities can face massive barriers when it comes to enjoying the same things as their mainstream peers – often because of prejudice rather than because of a physically inability to cope with the task involved.

I’ve had the misfortune to experience this prejudice with my sister, as have the family of 12-year-old Gregor Morris – forced to leave a West End show for laughing too loudly (it was Wicked for crying out loud – not Chekov).

Which is why we need more of the kind of ad campaign that Mencap’s just launched. The learning disability charity filmed Ellen Goodey, Ben Morse, Kirstie Andrews, Matthew McCarthy and Dharmesh Ladd carrying out everyday tasks like any other young people.

Now I can’t stand reality TV, but frankly, I’ve never been more pleased to watch a bunch of young unknowns doing extremely ordinary things.

Mencap’s new ad, says Mark Goldring, the charity’s chief executive, is a step towards a more inclusive society: “We need to see more positive role models of people like Ellen, Ben, Kirstie, Matthew and Dharmesh on our TVs and in public life to help remove the stigmas associated with disability.”

The national TV, radio and print advertising campaign aims to raise £300,000 – the short film explains that if you buy any Procter and Gamble products available at Co-operative Food and Co-operative Pharmacy stores, you help raise funds for Mencap and sister charity ENABLE Scotland as part of The Co-operative’s Charity of the Year Partnership. The promotion will run for six weeks nationwide, with Procter and Gamble donating 3p on each product sold from over 20 of their brands. So now (can’t resist this…) you can wash, and go raise awareness.

Money raised will go towards launching a programme called Inspire Me, aimed at working with young people with a learning disability aged 16-25, their parents, carers, and local communities, to overcome the exclusion and prejudice by providing activities and training, together with volunteering and employment opportunities.

You can watch the ad here:

Ben, one of the stars of the new ad campaign, also features in this previous Mencap film where he and his mother explain how he’s been verbally abused, spat on, pelted with stones and “too scared to leave the house” because of bullying. As his mother, Charlotte says, you can’t wrap a child with learning disabilities in cotton wool “because they’re not learning any of those things they need to learn to be indepdendent”. No better words to show why the campaign is worth supporting.