Mars Chocolate UK Wins £1M Of Free Advertising From Channel 4 For Paralympics

Mars Chocolate UK has secured £1M ($1.3M) of free advertising airtime from Channel 4 "with a Maltesers campaign championing diversity and disability for the Paralympics," according to Jake Kanter of BUSINESS INSIDER. Channel 4 selected Mars and creative agency AMV BBDO's campaign from 90 entries "and their collection of three adverts" will launch on Sept. 7, during the Paralympics opening ceremony. Titled "Look on the Light Side," the adverts star "four disabled actors celebrating universally awkward situations, such as embarrassing moments with new boyfriends" and bad behavior at weddings (BUSINESS INSIDER, 9/5). MARKETING WEEK's Leonie Roderick reported Mars Chocolate UK VP of Marketing Michele Oliver admitted the company previously "did not fully represent the diversity of the consumers who buy and enjoy its brands." The advertisements fit in with Maltesers' "Look on the Light Side" series and were developed in response to Channel 4’s "Superhumans Wanted" competition, which "sought to encourage advertisers to feature disability in their ads." Oliver: "In terms of why we hadn’t featured disability in our ads before, the honest answer is that we had not sufficiently thought about it" (MARKETING WEEK, 9/6). In London, Mark Sweney reported Channel 4 "is to air what is believed to be the first TV ad ever to use sign language." The 30-second ad "will not initially air with subtitles," leaving most viewers "unable to understand the commercial." In a U.K. first, one of the adverts "features two women telling a joke about a dog that eats a hearing aid using British Sign Language and no subtitles." Some subsequent airings of the ad "will feature subtitles so viewers can get in on the disability joke" (GUARDIAN, 9/6).