Movers & Shakers
LATITUDE
BRING HOME THE HARDWARE, BRING IN THE VIEWERS—A PARALYMPIAN’S REMARKABLE JOURNEY IS PORTRAYED IN A TOYOTA COMMERCIAL
As the commercial opens, a nurse pulls a baby girl from a crib. The baby has no legs below the knee and no left arm below the elbow. The text on the screen reads: “Odds of winning a gold medal?” Answer: not that great. In fact a counter in the frame lists them at one in 997,500,000. The ad follows the little girl as she grows, first learning to walk, then to ski, and then to race. All the while, the counter shows the odds improving. As the determined young athlete rockets down a slope at the Paralympics, the counter reaches one in 10—and then she crosses the finish line. “When we’re free to move, anything is possible,” the skier says at the end of the commercial. The skier is Lauren Woolstencroft, P.Eng., of Calgary, and the Toyota commercial—the first ever by a major car manufacturer not to feature an actual car—is her story of beating incredible odds. Before retiring from the sport in 2010, Ms. Woolstencroft won 10 medals (eight of them gold) in alpine skiing during three Paralympics Games. She capped her skiing career by becoming the first Canadian to win five golds at a single Winter Paralympics—in giant slalom, slalom, super-G, downhill, and super combined. Her fourth gold medal at those Games set a record for Canada for the most golds at a Winter Paralympics. It’s estimated that the commercial reached more than 100 million viewers in the United States during the Super Bowl alone. A tech company special- izing in video advertising gave it top marks for its emotional, social, and business influence.
-photo courtesy Lauren Woolstencroft, P.Eng.
EMPHATIC MESSAGE DELIVERY Retired Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft, P.Eng., has sent a strong message on the slopes and, through a car manufacturer’s support of Paralympians, in a TV commercial, too. Her story aired in February before millions of Super Bowl viewers who were watching the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots. (Odds of Philly winning the championship, calculated a year earlier: one in 42.) Her journey to becoming one of the world’s leading alpine skiers resulted in a flood of support, even rivaling her Paralympics success. “The amount of messages I’ve had from around the world, and people reaching out who have kids with disabilities, saying it inspired them—it’s incredible,” she says in a Canadian Press story. The ad also ran during coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, in Pyeongchang. “I think the intent was to kind of show my spirit, which was, espe- cially as a youngster, a kind of determined, sort of stubborn young girl determined to do anything and everything,” says Ms. Woolstencroft in a CTV News story. “Anytime there is a Paralympian that is in some kind of spotlight is amazing,” says Ms. Woolstencroft. “And I think just watching these Olympics in Pyeongchang, there were numerous ads, not just mine, that featured Paralympians, so I think that speaks to the fact there’s interest, there’s great stories, and yeah, I hope it translates into more viewers of the Paralympic Games, and more people getting involved in Paralympic sports. I think that’s the most important thing. That’s the goal.”
SUMMER 2018 PEG | 47
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