Disability Spot, Actually Using a Disabled Person

Wirestone, an ad agency from Chicago created a spot for Health & Disability Advocates where it urges employers to hire people with disabilities and look beyond the labels. The main character in the spot, Alana Wallace, is an actual wheelchair user due to getting polio as a child. The other employees in the office all demonstrate their own particular disability. For example, unable to dress properly is considered a disability. The spot gets the point across without pittying the disabled employees which I think whenever you see anything disability related on TV. Kudos to the folks at Wirestone.

Best,
A.B.

Sprint's Present to Twitter

The spot above created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners must have been Sprint’s gift to Twitter. What other reason could they have for giving them free product placement in their television spot that I believe is airing nationally. The spot gives a shout out to several Web 2.0 product and services such as YouTube and Google. The question is why are they doing this in a nationally aired spot? Are these other Internet companies helping pay for the spot?

I read a few blogs that claim the mobile phone network provider wanted to show that their network and can be used for more then just making phone calls on the go. Almost everybody now has a device that that makes calls, browses the net, sends email, and connects to social networks. But the question still remains, why give those other companies free advertising? The title of this post is “Sprint's Present to Twitter” and that’s because they get a name mention and their stupid birds flying all over the screen. No offense to Twitter, of course.

Usually when products and services other then the one being promoted are mentioned, they are a direct competitor and they aren’t usually mentioned in a positive light. Also, the other social networks mentioned in the spot are mentioned quickly unlike Twitter and its blue birds.

Anyway, if anyone can find solid reasoning for all these product placements in this ad please comment and I’ll thank you and link to your site on my blog if you have a site.

Best,
A.B.