Why This Wheelchair Ad Is Funnier Than Your Brand’s Last Campaign

In partnership with

Hello Creative Souls,

Here’s a trick most brands are too scared to try:
Instead of hiding your product’s flaws, invent one.
Not something fake, the kind your audience will understand, nod and laugh at.

The “problem” becomes the hook.
And in Jaccede’s case, that hook dismantled stereotypes.

🎬 The Idea

Jaccede exists to make life more accessible for people with reduced mobility. But instead of showing ramps, lifts, and tear-jerking testimonials, TBWA\Paris flipped the script.

The ad follows a man in a wheelchair reluctantly attending a pretentious contemporary art show. He’s not here because he has to be, but because — thanks to Jaccede’s mission — now he can be.

The “downside”? Accessibility means you get to experience everything… even the things you don’t like.

The humor lands because it treats him as an ordinary person with ordinary gripes, not as an inspirational object. It subverts the tropes while apologizing for making a great product.

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🎯 Why This Worked

1. It humanized without patronizing.
   The ad never asked for sympathy. It asked for a laugh — and got it.

2. It reframed the product benefit.
   The twist wasn’t “now you can go anywhere” — it was “now you can go anywhere… even to things you’d rather avoid.”

3. It challenged the default narrative.
   Most disability-focused ads default to solemn piano music and “look how hard life is.” This one was cheeky, fast, and human.

4. It made accessibility feel universal.
   By putting a wheelchair user in the same social trap we’ve all been in — an awkward art show — it made inclusion feel everyday.

🧠 The Takeaway
If your product truly improves life, it will create new, harmless “problems” too.
Highlight those. Laugh at them. Own them.

When you do, your brand stops talking down to people and starts sitting with them.
That’s where the magic happens.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.