During Advertising Week Europe in April this year, Channel 4 launched an advertising competition, Superhumans Wanted, as part of its Year of Disability.
Up for grabs was £1 million of air-time awarded to the brand or agency that submitted the strongest “bold, creative idea which puts disability and diversity at the heart of their campaign.” The winning brand or agency was also offered an exclusive launch spot in the first break of the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games Opening Ceremony on Wednesday September 7.
The competition was won by AMV BBDO from 90 entries for a campaign of 3 ads for Maltesers.
Here’s why: “Rather than creating distance by putting disabled people on a pedestal, we believed we could achieve more by showing disabled people simply as … people. For Maltesers, that meant seeking out the hilarious stories from their lives that they look on the light side of, just as the characters in the rest of our campaign do. It meant using a powerful weapon to break down discomfort, division and prejudice — a good laugh,” explained Cat Collins, strategy partner at AMV BBDO.
In the campaign, Look on the Light Side star, four disabled actors share anecdotes based on real life stories from disabled people.
Stories like this:
…this:
…and this:
Michele Oliver, vice president of marketing at Mars Chocolate UK, commented, “As one of the UK’s biggest advertisers, we have a responsibility and a role to play in reflecting diversity in everyday media. This is a first step for us.”
Channel 4 sales director Jonathan Allan added: “The calibre of competition entries demonstrated that the UK ad industry can be world-leading in improving representation of disability in advertising.”
Credits:
Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
Creative director: Tim Riley
Art director/copywriter: Dave Buchanan
Agency Planners: Catriona Collins & Elly Fenlon
Account management: Philippa Field, Rebecca Kavanagh & Abbi Brown
Agency producers: Lizzie Mabbott & Frankie Burwell-Wright
Production ompany: Biscuit
Director: Clay Weiner
Producer: Toby Courlander
Media Agency: MediaCom
Client: Mars Chocolate
Vice president marketing: Michele Oliver
Brand director: Fabio Alings
