Look on the Light Side of Disability: World Braille Day Poster
Mars Chocolate
Issue 42 | March 2017
Agency
AMV BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Director Rosie Arnold Creative Team Chaz Mather Lucy Jones Art Production Deborah McCartney Photography Jack Lawson Project Management Rachel Ardeman
Production Team
Strategy Emily Harlock Elly Fenlon Account Management Philippa Field Rebecca Kavanagh Abbi Brown Charity Partner Scope
Date
January 2017
Background
In September 2016, Maltesers became the first brand to air an advert completely in British Sign Language, without subtitles. The advert was part of a suite of work under the 'Look on the Light Side' platform, and all three ads featured characters with disabilities looking on the light side of a potentially awkward situation.
Following on from the success of the TV ads, Maltesers wanted to continue broadening the scope of the 'Look on the Light Side' platform to include other disabilities and other forms of media.
Idea
Playing on the idea of reverse exclusivity, where an ad is accessible to disabled people but non-disabled people need assistance to access it, Maltesers decided to produce an ad written entirely in braille.
Partnering with disability charity Scope, focus groups were held with blind people. The headline came from a true story from Michelle from Glasgow. The line reads 'Caught a really fast bus once, turns out it was a fire engine.' It was written in specially made model Maltesers, and was installed at a bus stop on Farringdon Road on World Braille Day, 4th January 2017.
An audio recording set into the frame of the poster let people know that it was written in braille, and a translation of the poster was available on Maltesers' Facebook page.
Results
Total reach: 104,727,752
Total media value: £37,711
Our Thoughts
This is the latest iteration of a startlingly brilliant campaign created by Tim Riley and Dave Buchanan. You rarely see disabled people on TV, let alone in the commercial breaks. Inclusivity is a modern buzz word but there is precious little of it around. To exclude enabled people by creating an ad they can’t understand unless it is translated for them by a blind person is so smart. It positions Maltesers as a brand with a heart but acknowledges that the heart is light.
A lot of brands talk about their values but forget the product. Here is a good old-fashioned product claim, an evolution of the same story of lightness Maltesers has been telling for decades, but with a very modern and relevant twist.
I am convinced this whole campaign will both win a ton of awards and propel sales of Maltesers skywards. As Peter Field and Les Binet have shown in ‘The Long And The Short Of It’, outstanding creativity like this always leads to outstanding results.