Channel 4’s Meet the Superhumans commercial for the 2012 Paralympics made an incredible impact on how the world sees disabled athletes and helped the Paralympics to achieve its highest viewing rates ever. It made an incredible impact on how adland sees Channel 4’s agency, 4Creative, too. The ad won a D&AD Black Pencil.
How do you follow that?
With We’re the Superhumans. The new ad is a Broadway musical. It’s joyful. It’s fun. It triggers the same awe and admiration but you don’t cry. You smile. You might even tap your feet. And mostly, you have to include the Superhumans in the group that’s just called “people”. Perhaps that is this campaign’s greatest achievement.
The 3 minute spot features everyday (and accomplished) disabled people as well as paralympians from around the world…everyday disabled people whose incredible feats are lifting their child or playing the drums with their feet, tap dancing with one false leg, playing the piano with an arm stump as well as rally drivers and mountain climbers achieving things ordinary people rarely accomplish.
The ad is set to the Sammy Davis Jr. track, Yes I Can, performed throughout by a specially assembled Rat Pack style group of disabled musicians, The Superhumans Band, led by Tony Dee.
Keep your attention riveted to the screen for the clever quick cuts that juxtapose everyday and Paralympic humans in parallel scenes.
4creative creative director, Alice Tonge, commented, “In a Britain where everything seems a bit less certain and, at times, less caring, we wanted to create a huge powerful Superhuman message of positivity. Whether you’re blind and you’re running at the Rio Paralympics or you’re a double leg amputee and you’ve got to get the bus every morning to work, being a Superhuman is a state of mind. It’s time to stop focusing on disability and focus on superability instead.”
The Yes, I Can cover was recorded at Abbey Road studios> It is to be released by Universal Music, with all profits going to the British Paralympics Association.
Credits:
Agency: 4Creative
Client: Channel 4
Production company: Blink
Director: Dougal Wilson
