A cheeky new Maltesers ad featuring a disabled protagonist has been lauded on Twitter for its deliciously naughty use of innuendo.
It’s part of the brand’s ‘Look on The Light Side of Disability’ campaign in collaboration with Channel 4. The chocolate manufacturer beat 89 other applicants to win the opportunity to work on a series of ads which put more disabled people on air.
The first ad, named New Boyfriend, aired during the Paralympics Opening Ceremony earlier this week. The response on Twitter to the “brilliantly filthy” trailer was immediate and rapturous, with many claiming it helped to break the stigma about disabled people and sex.
The scene opens with three friends around a table eating Maltesers, with disabled actress Storme Toolis playing Jo, who is relaying a story about her new boyfriend.
She says they had been hanging out when things started “getting a little frisky.”
“My hands may have been wandering slightly. And then I start having a spasm, which he misinterprets,” she says then she gesticulates with her Maltesers packet, and as a result her chocolates spill all over the table.
No prizes for guessing what she’s miming. She then quips: “He wasn’t complaining.” And her friends reply: “You’re so bad.” With Storme joking in return: “That’s what he said.”
There are two further ads to come in the series – one about a wedding-themed mishap involving a wheelchair and the bride’s foot, and the other about a hearing aid that goes missing thanks to a new dog.
Let’s hope this is the start of a more consistent number of adverts featuring disabled people in key roles. As the behind-the-scenes video for the ad series reminds us, 12 million people in the UK are disabled – or 20% of the population. “And yet we’re largely invisible,” notes Rosemary Frazer, campaign manager for disability charity Scope.
