This document summarizes and provides examples of advertisements over time that have featured people with disabilities. It begins with early 20th century examples of little people in shoe promotions and ads featuring the tallest man in the US. It then outlines a number of high profile ads from the 1950s onward featuring people with disabilities to promote brands like March of Dimes, Wyeth, Liberty Mutual, Cingular Wireless, Nuveen, Nike, Reebok, Air Jordan, UPS, Benetton, Milk-Bone, Target, JC Penney, Microsoft and more. It concludes with some international examples from the UK and Belgium.

1. Capitalizing on disability:
Will advertising images persuade
the public?
Presentation by
Beth Haller, Ph.D.,
Author of Representing Disability in an
Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media

2. Little people played Buster Brown for
shoe promotions, 1904-1930

3. Shoe ad from 1930s featured tallest
man in the USA, Robert Wadlow

4. March of Dimes ad, early 1950s

5. Wyeth ad for braces, 1942

6. Liberty Mutual TV ad,
starring Teal Sherer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vvr8E-OzK8

7. Cingular Wireless ad,
starring artist Dan Keplinger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_rVZrC8Hw

8. Christopher Reeve in Nuveen ad, 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWf4ujg8NRY

9. Paralympian Oscar Pistorius Nike ad

10. Paralympian/“Murderball” star
Mark Zupan, Reebok ad, 2005

12. Paralympian runner April Holmes, 1st woman &
first disabled person to represent Air Jordan
athletic shoe brand

14. UPS Paralympics ad

15. Benetton ad

16. Benetton ad

17. Milk-Bone partnered with Canine Assistants for
ad: Jake Jeter & Baxter, 2009
http://archive.montgomeryadvertiser.com/VideoNetwork/74261998001/Mon
tgomery-s-Jake-Jeter-stars-in-Milk-Bone-commercial

20. Target ad 1995

22. Target ad 1995

23. Target ad 1993

24. Target ad

25. Target ad 1994

26. JC Penney ad

27. Strawbridge-Clothier Ad

28. Microsoft ad

29. Controversial Nike ad

30. British TV ad with employee at B&Q
(like a Home Depot)

31. Disability awareness ad from Belgium
(recreates a bra ad)