Channel 4’s ‘Superhumans’ campaign was hugely influential, but a decade on, some disabled people pointed out we had inadvertently created a new disability stereotype: sports superhero. So this year, instead of presenting the athletes as ‘super’, we showed their human side: Super. Human. Because what sets these athletes apart is not their disability, but the human qualities of obsession, competition and sacrifice they take to the next level: To Be A Paralympian There’s Got To Be Something Wrong With You. This work emphasises Channel 4’s unique commitment in British broadcasting to champion unheard voices, shift attitudes and create positive change.

Channel 4 is a UK public service broadcaster with a unique remit to be a disruptive force in television, giving a voice to lesser heard groups and challenging the status quo. It has had the rights to the Paralympic Games since 2012 and revolutionised broadcasting of the event across the globe.

Business objective: Drive viewing of the Paralympic Games on Channel 4. Cultural objective: continue to positively shift attitudes around disability, promoting inclusivity and societal progress. Comms objective: Reframe the iconic ‘Superhumans’ campaign thought, moving it away from perpetuating the new stereotype of ‘sports superhero’ and instead showing the human side of the athletes.

We told the emotional, human story of what it’s really like to give 4-5 years of your life to training for the Paralympic Games. The highs, the lows, the very lows, the very highs. From juggling motherhood with training, loneliness, missing birthdays and overcoming injury to the triumph of a win. The sacrifices made and the obsession within. Final script was written with the paralympians featured.

The Paralympic Games is a huge for Channel 4 – it is key for our remit of representing unheard

voices. The challenge this time was to retain the brand equity we have in ‘Superhumans’ but having listened to many journalists, commentators + disabled people, to reframe it in a way that didn’t ‘other’ disabled people further. And to drive viewing of a live sporting event with a 9 hour time difference!

Fri 16th July – 25th August 2021

Film:

TV/VOD

YouTube

All 4 Tokyo 2020 Paralympics microsite

Paid Facebook activity

Paid YouTube activity

Athletes’ & Partners’ Twitter accounts

OOH: nationwide

Press: The Sun / Metro papers

Tik-Tok: TikTok

Being such a unique UK public service broadcaster, our remit is always at the heart of everything we do. This means our objectives need to be focused on delivering against this locally and nationally first, in this case creating a nationwide buzz behind our Paralympians. However, with the event viewed globally, the impact of our

Our work on the Paralympics helped the channel’s coverage and supporting TV content reach 19.7 million people, that’s 32% of the entire UK TV population, plus 2.9 million views through the All4 platform. On top of this, a massive 81% of people were aware of the Tokyo games with over half of them citing our TV spot as the main source of awareness. All of this in the space of weeks.

It’s not easy to change the way a nation thinks and talks about disability. But over 57% of British adults now say that the Paralympics has made them more positive about what disabled people can achieve! That’s a shift in over half the country’s attitudes towards people with disabilities! We also started new conversations, with 43% of viewers talking to others about the issues raised.