Inclusion Daily Express -- SuperBowl Ad Invites Viewers Into "Deaf World"

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SuperBowl Ad Invites Viewers Into "Deaf World"
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 30, 2008

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA--So, two football fans are running late when they go for the first time to their deaf friend Bob's house to watch the SuperBowl. They know which block he lives on, but neither knows Bob's actual address. How do they find Bob's house before the big game starts?

That's the set-up for a Pepsi commercial scheduled to air Sunday on the Fox Network's pre-game show. It's also part of a long-running joke within deaf culture.

PepsiCo employees with connections to the deaf community created the 60-second spot, working with the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management's Leadership Institute for Managers with Disabilities, in consultation with the National Association of the Deaf.

The creators of the advertisement, entitled "Bob's House", deliberately made it silent. The characters in the ad use American Sign Language. There are open captions for hearing viewers.

"We live in a hearing world, where deaf people have to operate within that hearing world," explained PepsiCo employee Sheri Christianson in an online video about the making of the commercial. "In this ad, what we've done is kind of reversed the roles. It's a deaf world and we've included the hearing world."

Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president of the NAD, said in a press statement: "This ground-breaking ad creatively uses humor to provide a glimpse of deaf culture and heightened awareness to millions of Super Bowl Sunday viewers."

In case you miss it, the "Bob's House" ad and the video showing how it was made are available on the PepsiCo website.

[Editor's note: Unfortunately, "Bob's House" is not audio-described for people who cannot read ASL or the captions.]

Related:
"NAD Works With PepsiCo on Super Bowl Ad in American Sign Language" (National Association of the Deaf)
http://www.nad.org/site/pp.asp?c=foINKQMBF&b=3841531
"Bob's House" (Pepsi USA)
http://www.pepsi.com/bobshouse

Copyright © 2008 Inonit Publishing
Please do not reprint, forward, or post without permission.

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