Four-year-old Seb White from the U.K. debuted as the first model with Down syndrome in a British television commercial for a major brand on Wednesday. He appears in Marks and Spencer's 2012 Christmas ad -- a highly anticipated annual campaign.
According to The Sun, Seb's mother Caroline had noticed a lack of commercial models with disabilities and wanted their family to remedy that situation. After a number of "brutal knockbacks," White posted a photo of her son on Marks and Spencer's Facebook page requesting that the department store consider him as a potential model.
"Almost instantly there were comments from complete strangers saying they thought using Seb as a model was a brilliant idea," White told The Sun.
Marks and Spencer contacted the family to book Seb as a model in their Christmas catalogue. After a job well done, they asked Seb to participate in their TV commercial too.
“Our initial involvement with Seb was due to the overwhelming response to Caroline’s post on our Facebook page... However, he won his place in our TV ad thanks to the natural charm and magical personality he showed on set at our magazine shoot," Steve Sharp, executive director of marketing of Marks and Spencer told This Is Bath.
Seb is thrilled to see himself on TV, the Daily Mail reports, and his mom hopes his presence will also help normalize his disability. "If Seb appearing in a TV campaign raises awareness of Down's, challenges stereotypes and helps other parents feel better about having a child with it, I will be very happy," she told the Mail.
Seb is at the end of the commercial running and jumping.
Very exciting!
Until Next Time!
Lots of Love,
Seb is at the end of the commercial running and jumping.
Very exciting!
Until Next Time!
Lots of Love,
2 comments:
Great post about a special little boy and his mom. I wish I could see the video ad, it wouldn't play for me. Maybe when I see you on Thursday, you can show me.
Yay, I was able to see the video today (I couldn't yesterday) and saw Seb right away. that was great.
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