From USA Today , the Dallas Morning News and Youtube:

It sometimes seems that viewers watch the Super Bowl more for the commercials than for the football. With through-the-roof ratings in store, sponsors and advertising agencies can be counted on to trot out their most daring and entertaining work. Remember the frogs that croaked “Budd” “Weis” “Er”?

This year, Pepsi’s trying to capture hearts and minds with a 60-second spot that will have viewers across America reaching for their remotes. It has no soundtrack — just silent video of what is described as a classic joke from the deaf community. It goes like this. A couple of guys drive to their friend Bob’s house at night. When they can’t figure out which house is his, they honk the horn. A lot. The house that doesn’t turn on the lights is Bob’s.

Two of the actors featured in the ad are deaf; another is Clay Broussard, the Pepsi employee who came up with the idea.

Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president of the National Association of the Deaf, told the AP that it’s a historic first for an ad featuring American Sign Language to get such prominent play. And who knows? Perhaps this public celebration of human diversity will win Pepsi a few more customers — which is, after all, what it’s all about.

For more on portrayals of people with disabilities in advertising, check out this perceptive essay by Beth Haller from the Baltimore Sun. She has just launched a new blog called “Media Dis&Dat: Reflections on media images of people with disabilities and disability issues …”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, advertising, deaf/hearing impairment, exercise/sports, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post