C4 launches major campaign for Rio Paralympics: We're The Superhumans

Category: News Release

 

  • Follow-up to the multi-award-winning Meet the Superhumans launches across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from 8.00pm on Thursday 14th July
  • Campaign believed to include more disabled people than ever featured in a UK ad
  • Most accessible campaign ever produced by Channel 4 – subtitled, signed and audio described versions available

 

Channel 4 tonight launches a major new advertising campaign ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games: We’re The Superhumans.   The new ad launches as part of Channel 4’s 2016 Year of Disability and is the follow up to the multi-award-winning Meet the Superhumans campaign of London 2012, which helped shift perceptions of disability within the UK.

The centrepiece of the campaign is a three-minute advert, We’re the Superhumans, conceived by Channel 4’s in-house 4creative team and directed by Blink Productions’ Dougal Wilson.   The film features a cast of more than 140 disabled people – including Paralympic athletes, musicians and members of the public from all walks of life – and celebrates the abilities of people with a range of impairments. It includes inspirational scenes such as a mother with no arms holding her baby with her feet; children with prosthetic limbs running, jumping, and playing football; and a woman flying a plane with her feet. It is believed to include more disabled people than ever before featured in a UK ad – and will be the most accessible campaign ever produced by Channel 4, with subtitled, signed and audio described versions available.

The advert is being premiered at a star-studded event at Channel 4’s Horseferry Road headquarters before being launched across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at 8pm on Thursday 14th July – and then broadcast as a road-block across Channel 4’s portfolio of channels at 9pm on Friday 15th July.

The ad is set to the iconic Sammy Davis Jr track, Yes I Can, which has been re-recorded by a specially assembled band of disabled musicians drawn from around the world, The Superhumans Band, featuring lead vocalist Tony Dee.  It was recorded in the famous Studio 2 of Abbey Road studios and the track will be released by Universal Music with all profits being donated towards the British Paralympics Association.

The film will be accompanied by a powerful poster campaign shot by Nadav Kander which features both Paralympians and disabled members of the public – and will roll out across Britain in the run up to the Rio Paralympics Opening Ceremony on 7th September.

Channel 4’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Dan Brooke said: "We’re the Superhumans is an unbridled celebration of ability, by both elite Paralympians and everyday people. In 2012 we saw athletes like never before, but now we see that Down’s Syndrome graduates and wheelchair users in the workplace are just as Superhuman as blind sprinters and amputee weightlifters.

“With our unique remit to champion diversity, innovation and new talent, the Paralympics is a public service bullseye for Channel 4. This campaign is the most important we have ever undertaken and isn't just about Rio, it's about revolutionising public attitudes to disability forever."

The marketing campaign will promote Channel 4’s ground-breaking coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which will include more than 700 hours of sport broadcast across Channel 4 platforms – and will feature the largest ever team of disabled presenters on UK television.

The Rio Paralympics are the centrepiece of Channel 4’s 2016 Year of Disability – launched in January as part of the channel’s ongoing 360º Diversity Charter commitments – which includes major on and off screen commitments to improving representation of disabled people.

In 2012, Channel 4’s Meet the Superhumans campaign had a huge public impact and helped drive more than 11 million viewers to the opening night of the corporation’s live coverage of the London Paralympic Games.  The multi-award-winning ad was named Campaign of the Year and, alongside Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning coverage of the Games, helped to change attitudes to disability sport and disability more generally.

 

-ENDS-

Further details for editors:

The trail was made by Blink Productions’ multi-award winning director Dougal Wilson who was set the enormous task of filming the 60 scene advert, featuring a cast of more than 150 people.

Of the 100 plus people who feature most prominently in the advert, 17 are musicians, 39 are Paralympians and 53 are non-athletes. And in keeping with the inclusive feel of the advert, it features a mix of people from around the world – 78 from Britain and others from Australia, America, Brazil, Canada, Haiti, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The film will launch on social media at 8.00pm on Thursday, 14 July and, following promotion on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the three-minute trail will premiere on UK television at 9pm on Friday, 15 July across Channel 4’s portfolio of channels – Channel 4, E4, Film4, More4, 4Music, and 4seven.

The full three-minute version of the trail will air in prime-time  every evening on Channel 4 from 15-21 July and then shorter versions will broadcast through until 22 August.

The advert will be the most accessible ever produced by Channel 4 and include subtitled, signed and audio described versions, available on All 4, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The trail will also air in cinemas across the country and signed and subtitled versions of the advert will play at cinemas holding hearing impaired screenings.