Channel 4's Paralympics Push Explores Shared Adversity

Britain’s Channel 4 takes a new approach to the 2024 Paralympics Games, challenging patronizing attitudes about the event’s athletes.

Themed “Considering What?” the work includes a short film, gritty with dark tones, conveying notions of gravity, friction and time. The main message: Paralympic competitors face adversity like everybody else.

The effort was done in-house by 4creative.

It’s an intense about-face from Channel 4’s previous (and much praised) “Superhumans” initiatives, which used music and athlete personalities to great effect.

“It was important to us that this felt different to any previous Paralympics work,” says Lynsey Atkin, executive creative director of 4creative. “If you keep making similar films, it’s difficult to move the conversation. Even if your message is new, the way you package it makes it feel familiar.”

Atkin notes the purposefully stepping away from music–a hallmark of past efforts–to focus on spoken narratives, which the Paralympics had never explored before. 

In terms of visuals, Channel 4 wanted to shoot sport as drama, “so the whole piece feels more cinematic, rooted in a sense of reality,” Atkin says.

The campaign includes such British Paralympians as Aaron Phipps (wheelchair rugby), Dame Sarah Storey (cycling and swimming) and Emmanuel Oyinbo-Coker (track).

As they compete, a series of messages flashes onto the screen, such as “Wind Doesn’t Care About Disability” and “Heat Doesn’t Care About Disability.”

For the first time, Channel 4 focuses on the event’s audience.

“While the Paralympics campaigns are always about trying to shift attitudes, we had never before turned the lens on the viewer and challenged ablism quite so directly,” says Atkin. 

“Considering What?” is supported by OOH elements. A mural created by artist Florence Burns, part of the disabled community, will live in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood until Aug. 5. Experiential agency Fever assisted.

CREDITS

Title: “Considering What?”
Client: Channel 4
Agency: 4Creative
Executive Creative Director: Lynsey Atkin
Creatives: Andy Vasey & Dan Warner
Agency Executive Producer: Fiona Wright
Agency Senior Producer: Lauren Holden
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks x Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers