AMV BBDO Looks to the Light Side with Braille OOH

You may not know it – we’ll blame it on the New Year’s heads – but today is actually World Braille Day.

And to commemorate the birth of Louis Braille, the inventor of the tactile writing system, AMV BBDO has extended its disability-normalising campaign, Look on the Light Side, for Maltesers.

Earlier today, the brand unveiled an OOH display in Farringdon, London, in which a bus stop billboard was converted into a braille poster, using Maltesers for dots.

While many will not be able to read the Braille-inscribed message, the billboard is not intended to alienate these readers, instead it's hoped that it will highlight the awkwardness felt by some disabled people when out in public.

The billboard will release audio descriptions every five minutes to describe its purpose and reveal its message - which spells ‘Caught a fast bus once – turns out it was a fire engine’ - as well as providing translations on the brand’s Facebook page.

This activation continues AMV BBDO’s campaign which ran earlier last year, following its win of Channel 4’s Superhumans Wanted competition, which urged agencies and brands to champion disability in their advertising. 

"Campaigns like these are vital in helping to overcome this awkwardness and ensuring that disabled people are more visible in the media and public life," says Scope’s head of marketing Danielle Wootton - the disability charity that inspired the original initiative.

The billboard will run until January 15.