2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Children with Special needs are considered different and are often subject to sympathy and pity from society. Even today, people often label individuals with a disability according to their condition or limitations. In reality, children with special needs are no different from anybody else and labels like ‘special’ don’t always do them justice. Their perseverance and desire to overcome handicaps makes them much more than just special.it makes them super! All children dream about being a superhero and it’s no different for special needs children. But instead of fighting super-villains, their struggle is trying to change people’s perceptions towards them.

Results and Effectiveness

The Initiative proved to the world that every child holds unlimited potential The Campaign delivered earned media value of over 1.2M$ and over 2Million views on YouTube and Facebook The initiative became a talking point, thanks to the coverage from leading local media stations and a special tweet by Bollywood’s leading Star Hrithik Roshan, that reached out to over 13M followers. Dubai is now on its way to be a disabled-friendly city by 2020 and the word ‘Special’ has now been dropped by the school But above all, the world now sees these children for who they really are. Super!

Creative Execution

In fun, immersive sessions, we asked twenty young special needs children to describe their favorite superhero and what would they be like if they had superpowers. A black and blue cloaked Batwoman, Thor wearing cricket pads, and a Tennis racquet wielding Super-girl was what they described, all of which were sketched in real time, followed by a 3D face scan of each child to capture their facial features. The sketches were then digitally converted, and 3D printed to life in the form of custom-made superhero figurines with each child’s face and superhero body as described by them.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Using this insight and wanting to portray special needs children as real life superheroes, we approached Al Noor Centre for Special Needs Training in Dubai. The inspiration was to take focus away from the children’s ‘disabilities’ and instead bring to light their ‘abilities’ in a fun, tangible and relatable manner. Since all children grow up wanting to be a superhero, the idea brought to life the inner superhero of each of these special needs children, literally!