Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

You are here

Disability in Media

sjryan@haverford.edu's picture

I chose this Nike ad because I think it does a bad job portraying disability. Rather than being educational for the viewer or something that uplifts the disabled community, they use disability as motivation for "normal" people. This ad is entitled "no excuses" which is targeting the viewer and basically saying that if the man in the wheelchair is working out then you have no excuse not to. Once again disability is being portrayed in media as a bad thing or something that makes people less capable, but that simply isn't true.