Amputees in Advertising: Have Changes in Presentation Altered Public Perception?
By Judith Philipps Otto For decades, people with disabilities were hidden
away in closets. But in a modern society that pretends to be
enlightenedlargely by advertising messagesthe American public is
progressively developing a more widespread attitude of acceptance
toward people with disabilities in general and amputees in
particular.
 |
Haller |
|
We've come a long way in a short time, noted Beth
Haller, PhD, associate professor of journalism at Towson
University, Towson, Maryland, and co-author (with Sue Ralph) of
Profitability, Diversity, and Disability Images in Advertising
in the United States and Great Britain,* evolving within the
last ten years from condescending "pity ads" to creations with
cleverly employed wry humor and serious stopping power.
Cingular Wireless's 2001 Super Bowl ad leaps to mind: In the ad,
Dan Keplinger, who has cerebral palsy that affects his speech and
mobility, illustrated his talents as a painter and stated clearly,
"I'm unbelievably lucky," challenging viewers to notice that "there
is an intelligent person inside this body."
"My concern," said Haller, "is that we didn't see the ad again.
Cingular produced this wonderful ad, and then we only saw it during
the Super Bowl."
Lower-limb amputee Casey Pieretti's commercial got considerably
more play: The Doritos ad featured a one-on-one basketball game,
with one player (Pieretti) wearing a prosthetic leg. The two
players were well-matched athletes, until Pieretti's opponent jumps
and shoots and Pieretti cleverly creates his own advantage by
blocking the ball with his prosthesis.
 Pieretti not only passes the Doritos "bold and
daring" test, but succeeds in making this a memorable ad that helps
the audience perceive amputees in a different and perhaps more
respectful light.
Most amputees--like disabled persons in general--want simply to
be perceived as people first, rather than letting their disability
define them. The Doritos ad reminds viewers not only that amputees
can be competitive athletically, but that they can be creative
problem-solvers with a sense of humor, and fun people to know--just
like non-amputees. As Haller noted, "The little twist at the end,
when he uses the [prosthesis] to knock away the basketball, was
cute and funny, but not in an offensive way."
From 30-Second Ads to Silver Screen
Pieretti was an athlete before his amputation, and still is:
Now, as a Hollywood stuntman, he often competes with able-bodied
stuntmen for the same jobs.
 Before his amputation, "I had a full scholarship
for basketball," he pointed out, "and I could run a mile in under
four minutes. Although I keep up with people now, I'm just keeping
up; whereas if I was my former self, I would not be just keeping
up--people would be trying to catch me."
Are people getting more used to the idea of hiring an amputee
actor/stuntman for commercials and movies?
"Some people in the stunt industry won't touch me because I'm an
amputee, I'm told," Pieretti replied. "But other stunt
coordinators--usually the more established coordinators--will not
let it affect them."
Pieretti pointed out that he is often hired the first time
because he is an amputee, and they need an amputee stuntman. But
because the same job often requires that he also perform the
regular stunts leading up to the amputee stunt, he has an
opportunity to establish himself, his capabilities, and his
professionalism. And they rehire him later, for other jobs.
In additional to commercials, Pieretti's TV credits include an
appearance on Angel.
 "There was a fight scene," Pieretti remembered,
"where a monster was supposed to tear the guard limb from limb. As
the guard, I did some horseback riding and other activities before
the fight scene where they ripped off my leg."
Pieretti continued, "This was the first time I had worked for
this stunt coordinator, and it went so well that he immediately
hired me again to double a two-legged actor, which is a great
compliment to my talent."
Since his first professional stunt in 1993, Pieretti has worked
on a variety of movies, including Windtalkers with
Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater, and most recently as a stunt
rigger on Spiderman 2.
In Windtalkers, Pieretti suggested how an effect might
be improved by setting up a stunt where he arranged to shed his
prosthesis during an explosion, which made it appear that the
actor's leg had been blown off. With few people on the set aware
that Pieretti was an amputee, the stunt was accomplished so
effectively that many people watching believed that the stunt had
gone wrong, and his leg had truly been blown off by accident during
the stunt!
"My first big movie was Starship Troopers," recalled
Pieretti. "The only reason they hired me was because I was an
amputee. On that shoot, I doubled a two-legged actor until the
scene where that two-legged actor had his leg torn off. It was a
very physical shoot--lots of running, always on your feet, shooting
12 hours each day--and I was able to keep up with everyone the
whole time. In the four weeks leading up to that dismemberment
scene, they noticed that I was able to be a stuntman as well. When
I completed the scene and they didn't need the one-legged guy
anymore, a couple of scenes came up where they had questions that I
was able to answer for them, so I ended up staying for the rest of
the shoot."
 So, it's a constant state of continuing to prove
yourself in order to be able to succeed?
"Right. But it's like that for everyone," said Pieretti
philosophically.
More Amputees in Advertising?
The use of amputees in advertising isn't new, but the frequency
is certainly increasing. Since the early 1980s, Levi Strauss and
McDonald's have featured people with disabilities in their TV ads.
In the early 1990s, Target stores pioneered print ads by using
adults and children with disabilities in sales circulars that went
to 30 million households in 32 states, Haller reported.
Citicorp, Apple computers, Pacific Telesis and Nissan had also
featured wheelchair users in TV or print ads in 199091.
The Haller-Ralph 2002 study, however, found that there has been
"considerably more use of disabled people in ads in general during
the last two-three years since the previous study."
 The best part, said Haller, is that it's no longer
a big deal. "It's become acceptable; nobody really takes notice and
points out that there is a blind person in the ad, for example. I
think the barriers have fallen since the ADA [Americans with
Disabilities Act] has opened up society and there is less shame, so
people are more willing to admit hidden disabilities.'"
Where most other areas of society haven't connected disability
to diversity, advertisers have now recognized that disability is a
part of diversity, Haller explained. With about 52 million
Americans identified as having some legally defined disability,
that amounts to a significant 20 percent of the general
population--not only a sizeable segment, but a sizeable market for
advertisers to consider.
As Haller pointed out, amputees and people using wheelchairs are
actually one of the smallest segments of the disabled population,
but "that's what ads want--a visible disability."
She added, "It's kind of an ironic twist that people with
invisible disabilities aren't as useful to advertisers, who want
the kudos for recognizing both ethnic and ability diversity in
their marketing efforts."
Having developed this awareness themselves, however, marketers
are now leading the general public to wider acceptance.
"Great Britain was much slower to move into putting people with
disabilities into their ads," Haller explained, "partly because of
regulations in Britain. But primarily, I think, it was because
advertisers in the UK are really afraid that such advertising would
be viewed as exploitation, or the viewing public would
misunderstand the product as being associated with a charity. Here,
once we got over the hump in the 70s and there was more disability
legislation, we ended up with a much better understanding.
Marketers began to realize that people weren't upset by having
people with disabilities in ads--in fact, they liked it.
"Parents who have a child with a disability want that child to
be watching TV and see another child who looks just like them,"
Haller said, adding, "It's understandable."
Haller pointed out that one criticism in particular is
frequently aired regarding the appearance of disabled persons in
ads: "Critics mention that these are the best-looking disabled
people alive. But that's going to be true in any aspect of
advertising. They're not going to use unattractive people from any
public segment in an ad."
What troubles her more than the way advertising portrays people
with disabilities, is how the news realm treats them, ignoring more
important issues to marvel at the accomplishments of disabled
athletes who excel, sometimes called "SuperCrips."
Focusing on the SuperCrip could be called the "backside of
pity," claimed Haller. "It's elevating people for doing nothing.
There are a lot of disabled people who don't want to be seen as
inspirational--they just want to be like everybody else."
One newspaper, she reported, wrote a story on a wheelchair
"athlete" who played bocce ball--the Italian lawn bowling game. "It
was ridiculous!" said Haller. "There was no value to the story. Guy
in Wheelchair Plays Bocce Ball!' So what? I swim occasionally, but
who's interested?
"This story is presented instead of covering other issues, like
people who are unable to vote in privacy during elections because
they don't have Braille ballots, and why a huge percentage of
polling places are still not wheelchair-accessible," she
continued.
"I guess that a lot of the disability community will accept a
SuperCrip because it's better than being locked out totally from
news and advertising coverage," she concluded.
Disabled Consumers View Ads Differently
 |
Hardin |
|
Marie Hardin, assistant professor of journalism at
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, explored the
reactions of people with disabilities to seeing other people with
disabilities in ads, and found that disabled people are extremely
sensitive regarding how they are portrayed. Her study, in the
Winter 2003 Disability Studies Quarterly, "Marketing the
Acceptably Athletic Image: Wheelchair Athletes, Sport-Related
Advertising and Capitalist Hegemony," found that disabled consumers
are also much more brand-loyal than other consumers--largely as a
result of their reactions to ads that include people with
disabilities.
"Participants reported that while they ignore most advertising,
they are highly sensitive to positive, integrated images of
disability in ads," said Hardin.
One participant in Hardin's study explained his lack of interest
in advertising: "Maybe it's because there's not as many people like
me in those ads."
Some participants were offended by the "SuperCrip" image some
ads perpetuate--e.g., the Nike ads that focus on amputees who excel
at athletic pursuits despite their disability.
Like the rest of us, not all disabled people are super
athletes--yet Nike chooses to spotlight that tiny minority of the
disabled population. But considering the nature of their "made for
athletes" product, their market, and their image----who can blame
them?
On the other hand, one highly popular double-page Volkswagen ad
examined in Hardin's study contained a large wheelchair-user
symbol, reconfigured for a more athletic look. As a result, one
gratified wheelchair athlete who saw the ad began collecting
Volkswagen memorabilia. Likewise, another disabled consumer "goes
out of his way to eat at Burger King instead of McDonald's, because
he believes Burger King has been more supportive of disabled
athletes," Hardin noted.
"Portraying disabled consumers in ads is just good business,"
disability activist Cyndi Jones said, noting that most places
people go to work or play have at least one disabled person, and
perhaps more.
Haller pointed out that a 1996 study found that "households with
(49 percent) and without (35 percent) a disabled person valued
accurate advertising images of disabled people and were likely to
buy products and services that showed sensitivity to disabled
people's needs."
Thus, as attitudes are changing, so is the way in which
advertising portrays amputees and others with disabilities: A 2000
Nuveen ad featuring Christopher Reeve focused on the predominant
hope that the future will bring cures for disabilities, implying,
said Haller, "that disabled people are broken and should be
fixed."
Today's attitudes, as expressed in Keplinger's statement, "I am
unbelievably lucky," reveal that disabled persons are comfortable
and happy being who they are--simply another diverse part of the
population--and prefer to be viewed that way.
Typically, advertising led the way in sharing that perception
with all of America on Super Bowl Sunday. And that can only be a
good thing for all concerned.
*Spring 2001 Disability Studies Quarterly 
Table Of Contents - March 2004
|
