ASL Pepsi ad for Super Bowl on YouTube

[Mark A. Mandel]

My sister informed me of this Chicago Tribune article:

>>>>>>>>
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/chi-deafbowl_30jan30,0,4336089.story

Super Bowl ad scores with deaf community
Schaumburg man is PepsiCo star

By Vikki Ortiz | Tribune reporter
     January 30, 2008

Two deaf men are driving down a dark residential street trying to find a 
Super Bowl party at another deaf friend's house. But neither of them brought 
the address, so how do they figure out which door to knock on?

On Sunday, Darren Therriault, 45, of Schaumburg will help deliver the punch 
line to millions of Super Bowl viewers when he stars in a 60-second PepsiCo 
commercial during the pregame show.

Therriault, who works at the corporation's Chicago office and was born deaf, 
hopes viewers with disabilities will catch the light-hearted commercial and 
be inspired. Since the ad debuted last week on YouTube,
 	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffrq6cUoE5A
  he says hundreds of deaf people across the country have contacted him and 
offered congratulations.

"I just can't believe that it's happened," Therriault said. "I'm 
overwhelmed. I wanted to do something that would make a difference to people 
with disabilities. ... I'm so proud."

The information technology specialist had only been on the job for a few 
weeks when a PepsiCo employee from the company's Plano, Texas, headquarters 
approached him. That employee, Clay Broussard, was active in the company's 
Enable organization, a network that tries to create a welcoming culture for 
people dealing with various disabilities.

Broussard, who is not deaf but learned sign language after working for years 
in the hearing-impaired community, thought it would be fun and eye-opening 
to turn a joke well-known to deaf people into a commercial for mainstream 
audiences.

Corporate executives quickly got behind the idea. Broussard contacted 
Therriault, and another hearing-impaired man, a forklift operator at a 
different company location, to play the two men on their way to the party.

Therriault, who had never so much as been in a school play, was surprised by 
the request.

"I looked at him like, 'Are you serious?' I don't think I can act that 
well," he said.

But after more thought, Therriault decided the experience would be a good 
idea.

He grew up in Vermont in a family where his parents, two sisters and three 
brothers could hear. They moved around the East Coast so that he could be 
enrolled in good schools for the deaf, he said.

Yet even though Therriault excelled in school, he worried that he wouldn't 
be able to land the right job, have a family and live comfortably as a deaf 
adult.

"Back then, you don't know if deaf people can succeed in life," he said.

After Therriault graduated with degrees from National Technical Institute 
for the Deaf and from the Rochester Institute of Technology, he discovered 
challenges in different work settings.

Sometimes, corporate meeting rooms were not designed so that he could read 
his colleagues' lips, he said. Therriault, who got cochlear implants five 
years ago, often pulled co-workers aside after meetings to ask for help. 
Many said they were too busy and promised to get back to him, but then never 
did, he said.

By the time Therriault landed the job at PepsiCo last January, he was 
delighted to learn of the company's Enable network. He credits the group's 
influence for the Video Relay Service he uses to watch callers speak or sign 
on his computer screen through a video camera.

And, of course, they also helped with his 60 seconds of fame.

Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president of the National Association of the Deaf, 
said she and other members of the deaf community are thrilled about the 
commercial. Deaf and hearing-impaired people have appeared in commercials 
before, but never one with this kind of mega-audience, which she believes 
will inspire greater awareness and respect.

"It is the first time we, as deaf people, got to tell one of our stories," 
Scoggins said.

Therriault and the other actors flew to Los Angeles for a weekend of filming 
in December. When he returned to Chicago, Therriault and his wife, Sheri, 
sent e-mails to their friends and former classmates telling them about the 
experience.

The couple plans to watch the game with their children, Jami, 13, and Kenny, 
12.

Therriault hopes viewers will be able to connect with the commercial's 
message and laugh at the punch line.

"I hope people of all walks of life will have a good understanding of who we 
are and why we are that way," Therriault said.

-----------

vortiz at tribune.com
<<<<<<<<<

Mark A. Mandel
_______________________________________________
SLLING-L mailing list
SLLING-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/slling-l