Superhumans

Cards (40)

  • 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