Disabled zero love TV campaign
Christina Johnson, a reader of Ouch from Canada, has alerted us to a bad, but quite beautifully bad, anti drink driving ad campaign going on in her neck of the woods.
It's for MADD - Mother's Against Drunk Driving - an admirable campaign which correctly highlights that you must be 'mental' (Mad/Madd?) to sup beer and then get behind the wheel of a car.
In a thirty second public information film entitled 'girlfriend' we see a couple having a loving touching embrace then the camera pulls back to reveal a disabled man in a wheelchair looking down sadly at them.
The message being gently rammed home to the viewer here appears to be that disabled people cannot have loving relationships ... so you'd better think twice about drinking else you might become disabled and then it'll be your turn not to have any love. real or stereotype?
The film is on the . Scroll down to 'Girlfriend'. It's 30 seconds long. You'll need quicktime for this masterpiece that you might mistake for irony.
The 91Èȱ¬ would like to reiterate that drinking and driving is dreadful. don't do it. Ever. Terrible things can happen. But Ouch would like to say also maybe think twice about the adverts because there's enough unhelpful disability images around, no?
It put me in mind of Dave who ended up a stereotypical wheelchair spaz in a road safety campaign on British TV in the 90s. Remember him? Played by actor Daniel Ryan according to on the UK Department for Transport site which mentions it wouldn't be deemed politically correct today. Was it then?
Memories of other classic public information films can be found on .
And does anyone recall Stevie Wonder's bad 80s classic, "Don't drive drunk, cos drinking's no sign of a man". Remember those words, girls.
Comments
Who cares if anything is "politically correct"!?
The fact is that was *pretentious* and degrading. Not to mention, ignorant. But if Canada had bans on ignorance the advertising marketers would be out of a job!
The most disturbing thing for me is that there is no email address to contact them in order to make them aware of the damage this campaign will cause to the perception of Disabled people.
The advert is saying something even worse than "you won't have a loving relationship if you're disabled"; it's saying that your loving relationship will be taken away from you because you're disabled. The 'loving couple' are 1 your best mate and 2 your girlfriend so, either 1 has stolen 2 or else 2 has abandoned you for 1, neither or which, presumably, would have happened if you had not become disabled.
I could not believe that any one can produce such a bad advert. Please collect all comments and deliver to producers.
After an annoying amount of digging on their Web site, I found an email address for their Campaign and Development Manager, who sounds like the right person to contact:
Robin Atkinson, Campaign and Development Manager, ratkinson@madd.ca should work. Or just plain info@madd.ca as well.
I suggest folks write there with complaints.
This is perhaps one of the worst examples of advertising I've ever seen. To imply that a disability will bring anyone an isolated, void and lonely life is such a shame and disservice.
To suggest that someone may become a pariah for drunk driving is one thing. But, to suggest that acquiring a disability will may you an outcast is quite another. They have reinforced one of the worst misperceptions of disability.
MADD loses a bit of credibility for this one.
Oy, cant you see its made just to be controversial and get lots of publicity,, complaints etc..well its obviously working.
diamond, yes, MADD is trying to be controversial, but does that mean we should let them get away with what is at best, false advertising, and at worst the promotion of the idea that disability is to be feared and abhorred?
I am proud to say the publicity continues with a story by the CBC here in Canada (https://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_madd-ad20060616.html).
Thanks Ouch! for blogging the story - it was in fact this post that brought attention to the story to the CBC!
Dear Sir.
Disability, in my experience (I have Cerebral Palsy, mild, no wheelchair) DOES ensure a very lonely life. I'm 42, never had any friends/support network, have had all my teeth kicked out, legs badly burned by strangers who didn't like disabled people; never had a proper job in spite of having 14 perfectly good qualifications (including an HND equivalent) and have been kicked off 2 College courses after one day because the teachers didn't think I LOOKED capable of doing them! (That's what they said when I called in the supposed Disability representative. "Look at him. You can SEE he isn't capable of doing the courses!) Great. On the other side, I have been to 2 disabled person's colleges, Portland Training College and QETC, and in BOTH colleges I was ostracised by the other disabled people. Why? I never quite got to the bottom of it, but it seemed to be because I was more able-bodied than a lot of them, so they thought of me as an 'infiltrator'. I've seen that advert and, while the image may be distasteful, I think it's distasteful because it's absolutely accurate and the truth hurts, a little, sometimes. If you're disabled, in our social structure, you're buried in a corner and forgotten about. Right now, I'm scared every time I leave my flat. Accept the image. It's true. Then try to do something about it's truth, rather than just railing against it or, even worse, just saying 'it's wrong'! That ad was made for able bodied people and, to them, the ad's scary becaue 'the attitude's right!'
That IS how they see us. What we have to do is think of ways to make them change their minds.
Christopher Burke.