AMV Spots Find the Droll in Disability

People with disabilities make up around 20 per cent of the UK population, yet they remain largely invisible on our TV screens; responding to Channel 4’s Superhumans Wanted competition, which invited entrants to create ads featuring the disabled, Mars Chocolate UK and AMV BBDO won £1m of the broadcaster’s airtime to develop a bold idea that championed diversity.

The resulting three spots take a jocular approach to the pitfalls of being physically challenged and are part of the ‘Look on the Light Side’ series for Mars Chocolate UK’s Maltesers brand. They’ll at first be broadcast on Channel 4 during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games on 7th September.

Directed with subtlety by Biscuit's Clay Weiner, the spots are all inspired by real-life stories, with the funniest boldly broaching the subject of sex and the disabled. In Boyfriend, a woman giggles with her besties about her new lover’s misinterpretation of her spasming while getting jiggy with it. In Theo’s Dog (below), a hearing-impaired woman relates how a naughty mutt has swallowed her hearing aid and she'll have to wait till it comes out the other end before retrieving it... ew! In a UK first, this spot is to be aired in silence using British Sign Language and no subtitles.

In Dance Floor, (below), a woman in a wheelchair laughs with her mates about attending a wedding and having an awkward moment on the dance floor when she crushed the bride’s toe with one of her wheels.

Cat Collins, Strategy Partner, AMV BBDO commented: "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.”