The Paralympics puts viewers in the shoes of a blind sprinter in ad for next year's Games

The first spot for next year's Paralympic Games opens with a totally black screen as it recreates the perspective of a blind sprinter at the starting line. For 17 seconds, we experience the world as David Brown did during the men’s 100m T11 final in Rio including the sounds of the crowd, in-race commentary from Jerome Avery, his guide runner, as well as his feelings. Finally, the black screen changes to reveal Brown, the fastest fully blind sprinter in the world, running 100m in under 11 seconds. The ad, airing in the U.S. and U.K. run on NBC, Channel 4, and online, is the first work for the International Paralympic Committee from agency adam&eveDDB. The agency won the account in 2019 and was briefed to create a campaign that would keep the spotlight on Paralympians despite the postponement of the Games till 2021. “Faced with unique circumstances and a historic first postponement of the Paralympic Games, we have a Groundhog Day scenario whereby we are once again celebrating one year to go until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games," said Craig Spence, Chief Brand & Communications Officer at the International Paralympic Committee, in a statement."To mark the occasion, maintain interest in the Games and generate excitement for next year we wanted an impactful global campaign that would appeal to Paralympic Games rights-holders and sport fans around the world." As well as the main film, which features music from the new Netflix film "Rising Phoenix" about the Paralympic movement, adam&eve has also made an audio-described version for people with a vision impairment and a subtitled version for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The Paralympics puts viewers in the shoes of a blind sprinter in ad for next year's Games

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