We're the Superhumans
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"We're the Superhumans" is a television advert which was produced by Channel 4 to promote its broadcast of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Serving as a follow-up to Meet the Superhumans (which was used to promote the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London), the advert featured people of various backgrounds and disabilities (including several British Paralympic athletes) performing different activities and physical feats.[1] It was set to a performance of the Sammy Davis Jr. song "Yes I Can" by a band composed of musicians with disabilities.[2]
We're the Superhumans received wide acclaim, and won the overall award in film at the 2017 Cannes Lions Festival. The advert faced criticism for allegedly conveying unrealistic expectations of people with disabilities, stemming from Channel 4's marketing campaigns for the Paralympics having promoted the athletes as having "superhuman" traits. Channel 4 stated that it worked with disability organizations to ensure its portrayals were accurate, while participant Alvin Law argued that the broadcaster was merely intending to promote Paralympic athletes as having the same athletic qualities as Olympic athletes.
Channel 4 acquired the UK television rights to the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, succeeding the BBC. Through a major advertising campaign, the broadcaster sought to promote the Paralympics as being an "event in its own right", as opposed to an afterthought to the Olympic Games which precede them. An aspect of this campaign was a trailer entitled "Meet the Superhumans", which showcased the athletic and "superhuman" qualities of Paralympic sport.[3][4] The advert was widely acclaimed, and won a Golden Lion at the 2013 Cannes Lions Festival in June 2013, but lost the Grand Prix to the railway safety PSA Dumb Ways to Die. Sir John Hegarty, the jury president, explained that "When you've got some really outstanding work it is tragic in some ways it can't get a bigger award, but there can only be one grand prix", while jury member Carlo Cavallone added "[Meet the Superhumans] is an amazing campaign, one of the golds that went through [the judging process] immediately ... Everyone felt it had the highest level of craft. It puts an issue that was really important before London 2012 to raise awareness of the Paralympics [and] they were hyper successful — Dumb Ways to Die was a tough contender."[5]
We're the Superhumans was produced by Blink and Channel 4's in-house agency 4Creative,[6] and filmed in 12 days across Britain.[1][2] Channel 4's marketing and communications chief Dan Brooke explained that their goal was expand upon the concept of the previous advert by featuring "everyday" people with disabilities, in addition to para-athletes.[2] He stated that the ad was "an unbridled celebration of ability, by both elite Paralympians and everyday people",[6] and that "[we] wanted to say any disabled person can be a superhuman. You have everyday people doing amazing things. There are more disabled people in [this] one advert than in the whole history of British advertising altogether."[7]
Over 140 people with disabilities from various countries were cast for the ad,[6] including 39 Paralympic athletes.[2][7] Notable people appearing in the ad included wheelchair stunt performer Aaron Fotheringham, Polish driver Bartek Ostalowski (who began driving adapted race cars after losing his arms in a motorcycle accident),[7] Jessica Cox (an American who was the first armless person to earn a pilot's certificate),[7][8] as well as British Paralympic athletes Natalie Blake, Hannah Cockroft, Matthew Phillips, and Ellie Simmonds.[7]
The advert is set to a cover of the Sammy Davis Jr. song "Yes I Can", performed by a big band ensemble of musicians with disabilities.[7] Alvin Law of Canada, who is seen drumming with his feet in the opening scene, was born without arms due to side effects of his mother's use of the drug thalidomide.[9] The singer, Tony Dee of Brisbane, Australia, has spina bifida and was discovered by Channel 4 from a YouTube video of him singing "Come Fly with Me". Director Dougal Wilson personally flew to Brisbane to meet Dee and record a demo of him singing "Yes I Can". The final recording took place at Studio Two of the Abbey Road Studios.[2][7]
