Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

Question 1

What was the Super. Human. advertisement made to promote?

Answer 1

2020 Paralympic Games.

Question 2

Who devised and created the advert?

Answer 2

Channel 4’s in-house creative agency 4Creative.

Question 3

Who produced the advert?

Answer 3

Serial Pictures.
Somesuch.

Question 4

Is the advert part of a bigger campaign?

Answer 4

Yes.
Part of a bigger campaign including posters and social media.

Question 5

What does the advert explore?

Answer 5

The sacrifices made
and the trials endured by Paralympic athletes
in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic
Games.

Question 6

What is a key aim of charity advertisements, and those designed to raise awareness of issues and events? What does this mean the adverts have to be?

Answer 6

To have an
immediate impact upon the audience to make
them take notice.
Need to be more memorable and hard-hitting

Question 7

The procedures of these types of advertisements are aware of compassion fatigue. What will this mean for the advert?

Answer 7

Will often aim to make
advertisements that offer a different perspective
on the issue or event, usually one that is more
positive and upbeat.

Question 8

How is the procedures aim to avoid compassion fatigue in its audiences evident in the advert?

Answer 8

Use of audio codes.
The choice of the soundtrack of So You Want
to be a Boxer from Bugsy Malone effectively
communicates the struggles of the disabled
athletes whilst giving the advertisement a
positive feel.
The more typical conventions, for example a voice-over and dramatic music, appear at the start of the advertisement, but change to the alarm and the realities of daily life.

Question 9

Advertisements have a limited amount of time to
convey their message and so rely on technical
codes and editing to do this rapidly. How can this be seen in the advert? What is an example?

Answer 9

Uses close-up shots of expressions to engage the audience and to portray aspects of disability in a non-victim way, emphasising that this is part of their lives.
For example, a range
of shots are used to convey the strength and
determination Ellie Simmonds, cutting between an establishing shot showing her alone in the pool, a close-up of her putting on her swimming goggles, a low angle shot creating power and an extreme close-up of her eyes connoting concentration.

Question 10

What is slow motion used to show in the advert? What effect does this have?

Answer 10

The cycling track crash.
This is combined with muting the sound for a more dramatic
effect.

Question 11

What is an example of where the iconography and settings are related to
the athlete and the sport in the advert?

Answer 11

Ellie Simmonds putting on her goggles in the pool.

Question 12

The iconography and settings relating to the athlete and sport are juxtaposed with what? What does this suggest?

Answer 12

Domestic scenes of everyday life as a disabled person.
Suggests the normality
of their situation.

Question 13

What do the gesture codes in the advert communicate?

Answer 13

Frustration, competition and celebration, visually highlighting the result of their hard work.

Question 14

Who does the narrative follow the lives of?

Answer 14

The Paralympians and their battles through training.

Question 15

What is an example in the advert that shows the
clash between sport and family? What does this establish?

Answer 15

Where the athlete is trying to sing “Happy Birthday” to his daughter on a mobile
phone whilst training on a bike.
Further establishes the athletes as real people.

Question 16

Why does the advert use humour? Where is there evidence of this?

Answer 16

To convey information.
The image of the hamster on the wheel and the “puke bucket” are
recognisable visual signifiers of struggle.

Question 17

How can semiotics be applied to adverts?

Answer 17

As advertisements have to communicate
meaning rapidly, they use recognisable codes
and conventions that signify messages for
audiences to decode.

Question 17

What is an example of semiotics in the Super. Human. advert?

Answer 17

Clothing is used to rapidly place the athletes within their sport.
For example, the track cyclist’s clothing or the swimming costumes contrast with the athletes in their everyday life, such as the hospital clothing when the woman is giving
birth.
These signs serve to
illustrate aspects of the lives of the people and
creates realism.

Question 17

Levi-Strauss explored how texts are constructed using binary
oppositions. What is an example of this in the advert?

Answer 17

The images of gruelling training regimes are contrasted with the celebratory images at the end of the advertisement when success is achieved.

Question 17

What did Lynsey Atkin, 4Creative’s Executive Creative Director say about the advert in relation to Channel 4’s two previous advertisement campaigns for the Paralympics?

Answer 17

“Following the
last two Paralympics adverts was no small task –
they exploded attitudes around disability …..Yet we
spotted an opportunity to present Paralympians in a
way they hadn’t been shown before – by pointing a camera at the realities of their lives.”

Question 17

Where is an example of a conceptual binary opposition in the advert?

Answer 17

The on-screen graphic “To be a Paralympian
there’s got to be something wrong with you” creates a conceptual binary opposition
between audience perception of Paralympic
athletes and the reality.
The language in the advert doesn’t match up with the positive images being shown.
It is this
opposition that the audience is encouraged to
reflect upon.

Question 17

What decisions were made when creating the advert in relation to “Super” and “Human”?

Answer 17

To emphasise the
“Human” rather than the “Super”.
To juxtapose the images of the training regime with those of the everyday lives of the athletes, with the intention of making them relatable to audiences.

Question 17

Dominant groups in society largely control what is produced. What does the advert aim to do?

Answer 17

Address the marginalisation of
certain social groups, in this case, those with
disabilities.
Its aim, reflecting the ideology and ethos of Channel 4, is to give a voice to those who are not usually represented positively in other areas of the media.

Question 18

What did YouGov find about how the advert changed attitudes?

Answer 18

65% of viewers felt that the coverage of the Paralympics had a positive impact on their
perceptions of disabled people.
82% of viewers
agreed disabled athletes were as talented as
able-bodied athletes.

Question 19

What type of representation does the advert avoid? What does it focus on instead?

Answer 19

Avoids negative stereotypical representations of Paralympians as victims to be pitied, or heroes, "superhumans", to be viewed in awe. The representation focuses on both genders and gives a different view of the world of disability to that of "having something wrong with you".

Question 20

What is an example of how the representations in the advert are created through media language?

Answer 20

Close-up shots of the athletes and their challenges during training and their home lives create positive representations of ordinary people who eat their breakfast, give birth, and play the drums, with whom the audience can positively associate.

Question 21

According to Hall, meanings are communicated through signs. Where can this be seen in the advert?

Answer 21

Expressions of endurance and struggle are easily recognisable and understood.

Question 22

How can Gauntlett's theory of identity be applied to the advert?

Answer 22

In addressing an under-represented social group, the advert gives visible recognition to those with disabilities and allows disabled people to see themselves represented positively in the media. Super. Human. offers audiences a more diverse and inclusive range of identities and broadens general understanding of what it means to be disabled as an athlete and in everyday life.

Question 23

Who is the target audience for the advert?

Answer 23

Relatively broad demographic. Channel 4 viewers who largely fall into the 16–34 age bracket. Fans of sport. Those who desire to see more inclusive representations of social groups.

Question 24

How will the use of personalisation in the advert help to reach audiences?

Answer 24

Super.Human. deals with real, human stories focusing on the day-to-day struggles of being an athlete in training and disabled. The individual narratives are constructed to encourage the audience to identify with the athletes and their lives.

Question 25

How do the technical codes in the advert help to reach audiences?

Answer 25

Gives the audience access to views they may be unfamiliar with, such as the attaching of a prosthetic blade, all of which hold their attention. The editing cuts between the athletes’ gruelling routines and clips of cartoon moments, lightens and engages the audience through humour.

Question 26

How do the audio codes in the advert help to reach audiences?

Answer 26

The soundtrack is a recognisable song from the musical Bugsy Malone, So You Want To Be a Boxer. The choice of this upbeat, song grabs the audience’s attention with its connotations of struggle and hard work paying off. Older audiences will be familiar with the film from which it is taken.

Question 27

What evidence is there that the advert was successful in reaching its audiences?

Answer 27

Channel 4’s Paralympic coverage was viewed by 20 million people, a third of the UK population. 22% were 16-34 years of age. The marketing campaign reached 81% of the UK population.

Question 28

How may regular audiences of Channel 4 view the advert?

Answer 28

They may be familiar with the approach taken by the broadcaster when promoting the Paralympics as the other two campaigns were successes in their own right.

Question 29

Who is Alex Brooker? What did he say about Channel 4's Paralympic adverts?

Answer 29

Co-presenter of The Last Leg. Has disabilities. “For me, waiting for the Channel 4 Paralympics advert every four years is like waiting for the John Lewis Christmas advert.”

Question 30

Why may the advert make some audiences uncomfortable?

Answer 30

Uses shock tactics to make audiences aware of the issues facing disabled people in their sport as well as in their everyday lives. For example, time lapse photography is used to show a bruise developing.

Question 31

What may the advert challenge audiences to do?

Answer 31

To examine how they may use outdated language to categorise disabled people by the on-screen slogan at the end of the advertisement "To be a Paralympian there’s got to be something wrong with you".

Question 32

What in the advert encourages an audience to accept the intended meaning of the advert? (Stuart Hall)

Answer 32

The upbeat soundtrack, use of personalisation and positive representations of the event and the athletes as both "Super" and "Human".

Question 33

Why may some audiences adopt the negotiated position when watching the advert? (Stuart Hall)

Answer 33

They may feel more distanced from the sporting theme of the event. However, this audience may be more open to the positive approach of the advert and examine their misconceptions about disabled people and their lives more generally.

Question 34

Where may oppositional responses to the advert come from? (Stuart Hall)

Answer 34

Those who are not supporters of Channel 4 and its ethos of a giving voice to those who are underrepresented. They may be older, not regular viewers of Channel 4 or not interested in sport of any kind.