A True Inspiration

The Super Bowl is one of the most highly anticipated sports events of the year — granted, it’s one of the most popular annual events, period. Part of the fascination with the grand day of football lies in the emotional commercials, which typically include beer ads with irresistible puppies, catchy Dorito campaigns, and a surplus of Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Chevy promotions. This year Toyota changed things up, showing a series of emotional commercials that didn’t display the company’s vehicles at all.

Eight-time Paralympic alpine champion Lauren Woolstencroft was the focus of one of the commercials. Born without legs below the knees and missing one arm, Woolstencroft’s moving story of her determination and relentless training to conquer the slopes is highlighted in the advertisement. Changing captions on the bottom of the screen reflect the likelihood of her becoming a gold medalist—1 in 486,336,204 to 1 in 114,337,061 to 1 in 29,035 and finally to 1 in 1.    

The ad not only provided publicity for this winter’s Olympic Games, but it also contrasted with this year’s predominantly comedic lineup of Super Bowl ads. A now retired Woolstencroft will be joining the CBS broadcast team for the Winter Games, and there is sure to be fierce competition that you don’t want to miss.