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| Maltesers’ ads with disabled actors make me feel queasy. But at least they’re trying Maltesers’ ads with disabled actors make me feel queasy. But at least they’re trying | |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| The recent adverts for Maltesers featuring deaf and disabled actors, first broadcast during this year’s Paralympics, have been the cause of much debate. After Mars Chocolate UK won a competition run by Channel 4 with the brief “look on the light side of d..isability”, the multinational was given £1m-worth of the broadcaster’s commercial airtime for “developing a bold, creative idea which puts disability and diversity at the heart of their campaign”. | The recent adverts for Maltesers featuring deaf and disabled actors, first broadcast during this year’s Paralympics, have been the cause of much debate. After Mars Chocolate UK won a competition run by Channel 4 with the brief “look on the light side of d..isability”, the multinational was given £1m-worth of the broadcaster’s commercial airtime for “developing a bold, creative idea which puts disability and diversity at the heart of their campaign”. |
| Sounds great. So why was I disturbed? I talked to friends at length about the ads, on social media, face to face – and it was quickly apparent I had dropped a very hot potato into the disability activism lap. | Sounds great. So why was I disturbed? I talked to friends at length about the ads, on social media, face to face – and it was quickly apparent I had dropped a very hot potato into the disability activism lap. |
| There are three advertisements. In the cheekiest one, a disabled woman (actor Storme Toolis) is joking with friends about her spasms, intimating that her boyfriend “isn’t complaining”, and ejaculates over her as a result. In another, a chirpy young woman (Samantha Renke) makes a joke about running over the bride’s foot, but getting “the best man’s number”. The third features a deaf actor (Genevieve Barr) and British Sign Language, in a skit about a dog eating a hearing aid, demonstrated by munching on Maltesers – obviously. | There are three advertisements. In the cheekiest one, a disabled woman (actor Storme Toolis) is joking with friends about her spasms, intimating that her boyfriend “isn’t complaining”, and ejaculates over her as a result. In another, a chirpy young woman (Samantha Renke) makes a joke about running over the bride’s foot, but getting “the best man’s number”. The third features a deaf actor (Genevieve Barr) and British Sign Language, in a skit about a dog eating a hearing aid, demonstrated by munching on Maltesers – obviously. |
| First, without restraint, a big cheer for the actors. Disabled actors – they exist after all. And are doing a great job here. Three all at once in an ad campaign, coming along just like buses. Out in the shiny mainstream world, Metro positively drools and declares the ad has been “widely lauded”, and quotes a viewer from Twitter: “Best Maltesers advert ever!!”. On the Maltesers YouTube page, the comments range from hilarious, to worried, to downright weird – perhaps presenting a grim equality of sorts. | First, without restraint, a big cheer for the actors. Disabled actors – they exist after all. And are doing a great job here. Three all at once in an ad campaign, coming along just like buses. Out in the shiny mainstream world, Metro positively drools and declares the ad has been “widely lauded”, and quotes a viewer from Twitter: “Best Maltesers advert ever!!”. On the Maltesers YouTube page, the comments range from hilarious, to worried, to downright weird – perhaps presenting a grim equality of sorts. |
| What these adverts also do is highlight an interesting truth; most disabled activists and academics can spot from a wheelchair-mile away when something is made to educate others – ie the non-disabled – rather than to present us inclusively as three-dimensional human beings. | What these adverts also do is highlight an interesting truth; most disabled activists and academics can spot from a wheelchair-mile away when something is made to educate others – ie the non-disabled – rather than to present us inclusively as three-dimensional human beings. |
| It’s bound to get messy. It’s about selling a chocolate product after all – and is it really worth some of us feeling unhappy? It does grate on me given that the advertising industry is part of the capitalist agenda. And sadly, featuring a few disabled actors in an advert isn’t really likely to be a major skirmish in its downfall. Nor is it likely to explode barriers and negative attitudes. Or is it? | It’s bound to get messy. It’s about selling a chocolate product after all – and is it really worth some of us feeling unhappy? It does grate on me given that the advertising industry is part of the capitalist agenda. And sadly, featuring a few disabled actors in an advert isn’t really likely to be a major skirmish in its downfall. Nor is it likely to explode barriers and negative attitudes. Or is it? |
| Lisa Hammond, who plays Donna Yates in EastEnders, said: “All of the actors in the ads are great … that they are all women makes me happy. The issue is the fact that every one of the adverts’ focus is impairment, as part of the story. We’ve been banging on about this for years – feels like we are in a perpetual loop! And I’m interested in the deeper story.” | Lisa Hammond, who plays Donna Yates in EastEnders, said: “All of the actors in the ads are great … that they are all women makes me happy. The issue is the fact that every one of the adverts’ focus is impairment, as part of the story. We’ve been banging on about this for years – feels like we are in a perpetual loop! And I’m interested in the deeper story.” |
| I know what she means. I’m always interested in a deeper story. But this has parallels with the way that race is always the issue in the representation of BAME people on screen. But I don’t want to be forever a bloody issue – only an issue – even if it’s just an advert. | I know what she means. I’m always interested in a deeper story. But this has parallels with the way that race is always the issue in the representation of BAME people on screen. But I don’t want to be forever a bloody issue – only an issue – even if it’s just an advert. |
| Maltesers might be trying hard, but there is something in the scripts that makes me queasy, an uneasiness echoed by disabled academic Dr Alison Wilde. “The scenarios [in the sex one] have an audience of two (presumably) non-disabled people being curious about the disabled person’s somewhat ‘naughty’ sexuality, which re-inscribes the fact that they have stepped out of role,” she says. “And as for the one with a deaf woman – doesn’t it rather trivialise the need for an aid, as important as a Malteser?” | Maltesers might be trying hard, but there is something in the scripts that makes me queasy, an uneasiness echoed by disabled academic Dr Alison Wilde. “The scenarios [in the sex one] have an audience of two (presumably) non-disabled people being curious about the disabled person’s somewhat ‘naughty’ sexuality, which re-inscribes the fact that they have stepped out of role,” she says. “And as for the one with a deaf woman – doesn’t it rather trivialise the need for an aid, as important as a Malteser?” |
| Scope was also involved in these adverts. The charity and disabled activists do not by and large have a happy relationship. This highlights a situation that cleaves many of us apart: Scope is not user-led; disabled people do not control or have ownership of it. These ads make that abundantly clear. | Scope was also involved in these adverts. The charity and disabled activists do not by and large have a happy relationship. This highlights a situation that cleaves many of us apart: Scope is not user-led; disabled people do not control or have ownership of it. These ads make that abundantly clear. |
| But along with my friend the broadcaster/writer Mik Scarlet, I can be pragmatic: “I was part of the focus group [for the ads] and found that some of the stories were taken but not portrayed exactly. This led to the cringey stuff. But disabled people in ads? Big turning point, they mark a historic point.” | But along with my friend the broadcaster/writer Mik Scarlet, I can be pragmatic: “I was part of the focus group [for the ads] and found that some of the stories were taken but not portrayed exactly. This led to the cringey stuff. But disabled people in ads? Big turning point, they mark a historic point.” |
| Most responses settle here: tried hard, not perfect, we want more. A begrudging sense of this being better than nothing. I know that until disabled creatives are allowed into the fold, all the way up to writing scripts for adverts, change will be slow. | Most responses settle here: tried hard, not perfect, we want more. A begrudging sense of this being better than nothing. I know that until disabled creatives are allowed into the fold, all the way up to writing scripts for adverts, change will be slow. |