Superhuman

• Super. Human.

  Title of the Paralympic Games audio-visual advert
• The advertisement was created to promote the 2020 Paralympic Games
• The advertisement

  • Explores the sacrifices made and the trials endured by Paralympic athletes in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games
• The advertisement was created by Bradford Young, the Oscar nominated cinematographer and the first African American cinematographer to be nominated for an award in 2017 for his work on the film Arrival
• The advertisement was devised and created by Channel 4's in-house creative agency 4Creative and produced by Serial Pictures and Somesuch, a global production company
• The trailer is the third campaign for the Paralympics undertaken by Channel 4, who were broadcasting the event, and was part of a bigger campaign including posters and social media
• Advertising form


  Recognisable repertoire of elements but also has a set of conventions specific to their sub-genre
• Charity/awareness advertisements


  Aim to have an immediate impact upon the audience to make them take notice, so they need to be more memorable and hard-hitting
• Compassion fatigue

  Producers are aware of this and will often aim to make advertisements that offer a different perspective on the issue or event, usually one that is more positive and upbeat
• Audio codes

  The choice of the soundtrack of So You Want to be a Boxer from Bugsy Malone effectively communicates the struggles of the disabled athletes whilst giving the advertisement a positive feel
• Audio codes

  • Voice-over and dramatic music at the start, then alarm and realities of daily life, sound effects underscore the music, emphasising the battle of training including grunts, groans and tape being applied
• Visual codes


  • Close-up shots of expressions to engage the audience and to portray aspects of disability in a non-victim way, emphasising that this is part of their lives, slow motion used to show the cycling track crash combined with muting the sound for a more dramatic effect
• Visual codes


  • Iconography and settings related to the athlete and the sport, juxtaposed with domestic scenes of everyday life as a disabled person, suggesting the normality of their situation, gestures communicate frustration, competition and celebration
• Narrative


  Follows the lives of the Paralympians and their battles through training, sequence where the athlete is trying to sing 'Happy Birthday' to his daughter on a mobile phone whilst training on a bike reinforces the clash between the sport and the family and further establishes the athletes as real people
• Stylised sequences


  • Dream sequence reappears later in the advert and is edited with a Channel 4 news clip announcing the postponement of the Games, the impact of this is shown as the athletes fall 'over the edge'
• Humour


  • Used to convey information, e.g. the image of the hamster on the wheel and the 'puke bucket' are recognisable visual signifiers of struggle, the animated sequences also insert aspects of the comic into what is a gruelling regime
• Semiotics - Roland Barthes


  Advertisements use recognisable codes and conventions that signify messages for audiences to decode, clothing is used to rapidly place the athletes within their sport and contrast with their everyday life, creating realism and challenging myths around disability
• Structuralism - Claude Lévi-Strauss


  Texts are constructed using binary oppositions, e.g. gruelling training regimes contrasted with celebratory images of success, dreamlike sequences with dramatic images, music and rich colour palette contrasted with reality conveyed through ambient lighting and strident alarm clock sound, animated and archive footage included in opposition to real-life actions to introduce humour and reinforce the narrative, on-screen graphic 'To be a Paralympian there's got to be something wrong with you' creates a conceptual binary opposition between audience perception and reality
• The previous 'Meet the Superhumans' campaign was changed to emphasise the 'Human' rather than the 'Super' and to juxtapose the images of the training regime with those of the everyday lives of the athletes, with the intention of making them relatable to audiences
• Representation of disability


  The advertisement attempts to address the marginalisation of those with disabilities, giving a voice to those who are not usually represented positively in other areas of the media, the positive representation changed attitudes with 65% of viewers feeling the coverage had a positive impact on their perceptions of disabled people and 82% agreeing disabled athletes were as talented as able-bodied athletes
• Representation construction


  • Choices made by the producers to create representations that challenge accepted ideas regarding disability and disabled athletes, avoiding negative stereotypical representations and instead creating realistic, 'blood and guts' feel, covering different genders and giving a different view of the world of disability
• Representation construction


  • Narratives centred around real people, with re-presentation constructing a representation of reality focusing on the challenges the athletes face, filming, editing and audio codes combine to construct a representation of this social group, raising awareness and creating positive representations of the Paralympians as athletes first, rather than disabled people 'doing their best'
• Stuart Hall's theory of representation

  Meanings are communicated through signs, very true of the advertising form where easily recognisable signs rapidly communicate messages for audiences to decode
• Representations in Super. Human.


  • Avoid stereotypes of disabled athletes as having to 'overcome' their disability
  • Celebrate them as high-performance athletes in their own right
• Media language used in Super. Human.

  • Close-up shots of the athletes and their challenges during training and home lives
  • Fast-paced editing to highlight a range of narratives and athletes with different disabilities, disciplines, and challenges
• Stuart Hall's theory of representation


  • Meanings are communicated through signs
  • Stereotyping occurs when there are inequalities of power
  • Excluded groups, such as the disabled, are constructed as different
• Super. Human. advertisement avoids simplifying representations of disabled athletes
• David Gauntlett's theory of identity


  The advertisement gives visible recognition to those with disabilities and allows disabled people to see themselves represented positively in the media
• Many disabilities are not featured in the Paralympics
• Target audience for Super. Human.

  • Channel 4 viewers 16-34 age bracket
  • Fans of sport
  • Those who desire to see more inclusive representations of social groups
• Techniques used to target audience


  • Personalisation to encourage audience identification with athletes' stories
  • Close-up shots, some uncomfortable, to hold audience attention
  • Editing cuts between gruelling routines and cartoon moments to engage through humour
  • Upbeat, stirring soundtrack with connotations of struggle and hard work paying off
• Unique selling point of Super. Human.


  No voice-over or graphics moralising, instead an attempt to give a realistic portrayal of disabled athletes' lives
• Super. Human. was successful in reaching its audience, with 20 million viewers and 81% of the UK population reached
• Audience interpretations of Super. Human.


  • Challenges perceptions of disability
  • Regular Channel 4 viewers may be familiar with the broadcaster's approach
  • May make some audiences feel uncomfortable with shock tactics
  • Encourages audiences to examine their use of outdated language to categorise disabled people
• Social and cultural context of Super. Human.


  • Advertising campaigns reflect societal concerns and issues
  • Representation of disability affected by social and cultural circumstances
  • Channel 4 presents athletes as ordinary sports men and women facing extraordinary challenges
• Reception theory - Stuart Hall


  • Upbeat soundtrack, personalisation and positive representations encourage preferred reading
  • Negotiated position may acknowledge legitimacy but feel distanced from sporting theme
  • Oppositional responses may come from those not supporting Channel 4's ethos
• Cultivation theory - George Gerbner


  • Audiences may become 'immune' to conventions of advertising raising awareness of social groups
  • Alternatively, advertisement can challenge assumptions and open audiences to more realistic perceptions of disability