A series of incredible ads that smash common perceptions of people living with disability have taken the world by storm, as the 2016 Paralympic Games begin in Rio De Janeiro.

Confectionary brand Maltesers and British television network Channel 4 have led the advertising field for the 2016 Paralympics, with stunning and powerful representations of disability in everyday life and sport.

An advertising expert told The New Daily the ads were “a breath of fresh air”, while industry mogul Russell Howcroft said on the ABC’s Gruen that the Channel 4 ad was “as good as it gets” for advertising.

Channel 4’s ad – titled “We’re the Superhumans” – is a three-minute epic featuring disabled athletes, dancers and singers.

A cover of the Sammy Davis Jnr song Yes I Can anchors the epic production.

The Maltesers campaign, a series of short ads, focus on the conversations between those living with disability, and those not.

Watch them:

https://youtu.be/lYIEAIogarI

“They are fun, cheeky, not hard-hitting and they are real,” Brand Newsroom podcast co-host Nic Hayes told The New Daily.

“The Maltesers brand fits in beautifully and doesn’t look like it was introduced. Friends having a chat over chocolate.

“The Channel 4 campaign is compelling and hard to take your eyes away from … beautiful content, produced professionally and it’s inspiring for the viewer something that is missing in advertising today.”

Canada’s Paralympics campaign is particularly powerful. Photo: Canadian Paralympic Committee

The Maltesers’ campaign won a competition run by Channel 4 for Paralympics advertising. Maltesers gets free advertising during the Games as its reward.

Gruen’s Todd Sampson was full of praise for the Channel 4 ad during the program two weeks ago.

“Imagine the amount of times they have heard ‘No, you can’t do this’ … this ad is deviant, it is [saying] ‘f*** you’.”

Howcroft added: “They deserve every single award they have received.”

We ‘underestimate’ the Paralympics

Mr Hayes said the Paralympics were an underrated advertising event, given the saturation the Rio Olympics just presented viewers with.

Channel 4 ran this campaign during the 2012 Paralympics. Photo: Twitter

“We might underestimate the power of the Paralympics in today’s world where we are confronted every day in the news by the worst that humanity has to offer,” he said.

“I suspect more people will be tuning into this event than they have in the past both via traditional and online means just to celebrate what the human endeavour is capable of.”

Samsung is another advertiser to use the Paralympics for promotion. This ad, where British comedian Jack Whitehall teams up with UK Paralympic athletes Ellie Simmonds and Susie Rodgers. It is part of a series of ads that features Whitehall with different Paralympic athletes.