Superhumans

• Beginning of the advert

  1. Smoke

  2. Dramatic music

  3. Low-key lighting

  4. Creates feeling of drama and excitement
• Black woman in the center of the frame


  Adds feeling of importance and power
• Montage of audio commentary over shots


  1. Adds feeling of tension

  2. Feels like start/middle of a race or sporting event

  3. Adds sense of power for the woman
• Tracking in shot on the woman's face


  1. Heavy breathing sound

  2. Adds sense of drama and urgency
• Woman's cool, calm face


  Shows she is cool, calm and collected under pressure
• Gunshot noise


  Transitions from smoky studio shots to more realistic bedroom shot
• Woman's silk haircut


  • Conventional for black women at night to protect natural hair
  • Represents something typically underrepresented in media
• Diversity of people shown

  • Female
  • Male
  • Wheelchair user
  • Amputee
• Representation of disabilities


  • Often underrepresented in media
  • Makes disability more visible, acceptable and normalized
• Some felt certain disabilities were left out of the advert
• Strapping up of joints and tape


  Makes it feel dramatic and intense, like preparing for battle
• Hyperbolic noises of strain and pain

  Emphasizes heroism and bravery, but also the real problems and pain involved
• Low angle shot of Ellie Simmons


  Makes her seem powerful and dominant
• Jump cuts showing different races


  Emphasizes Ellie's success and multiple medals
• Cross-cut with army archive footage

  Emphasizes strength and patriotism
• Graphic match cut of wheelchair wheels and colliding planets


  Makes sports seem extreme, powerful and dramatic
• Man singing happy birthday to child on phone


  Shows reality of balancing parenthood and sports career
• Man is separated from his child, who looks sad
• Jump cuts showing different training days

  Emphasizes how much they train
• Sick bucket


  Suggests they train until they are ill
• Paralympians have normal lives and responsibilities beyond sports
• Point of view shot of cycle track


  Makes audience feel included and part of the race
• Sparks, man flying across screen


  Feels dramatic and dangerous
• Close-ups of bruises and blisters


  Emphasizes real problems and struggles they face
• Woman in wheelchair struggles to access cafe due to step
• Surreal imagery of woman chasing symbol


  Feels dreamlike and nightmarish, but also a bit comedic
• Ellie Simmons weighed down by medal


  Shows pressures they face
• References to illnesses like Covid, postponed events
• Edited clip of Boris Johnson


  Reflects Channel 4's anti-establishment perspective
• Thousands of balls falling

  Feels overwhelming, emphasizes all the things they deal with
• Phrase "to be a paralympian there must be"


  Comedic play on words, challenges outdated views on disability
• Cheering crowds


  Adds sense of success and winning
• Representations may help change perceptions of disability


  • Show paralympians as strong role models and successful athletes
  • Also show realities and struggles of being disabled
• Music familiar from Bugsy Malone


  Adds comedic value
• Channel 4 has rights to broadcast Paralympics
• Toyota sponsorship reflects high costs of broadcasting Paralympics
• Previous Channel 4 campaigns

  • Focused on paralympians as "superhuman" and heroic
  • This campaign shows more balanced, realistic representation
• Word "super" being smashed by ball


  Emphasizes paralympians are just "human", normal people
• Channel 4 known for alternative, diverse content
• Shots of child birth

  Compares the pain of training to the pain of childbirth, as well suggests that the athletes where born the same way as 'normal' people