Cheeky Ad For UK Candy Maltesers Centers On Actress With Cerebral Palsy [Video]
A recently-released advertisement for the British sweet Maltesers has gone viral, thanks to the naughty yet hilarious tale relayed in it by an actress who suffers from cerebral palsy.
As reported by Refinery 29, the 30-second visual, which made its debut following the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympics in early September, features television star Storme Toolis having a bit of “girl talk” with two other women. As the trio snack on bags of the milk chocolate confection, Toolis, who is just one of a few notable disabled actresses from Britain, shares a story about a recent date she had with a gentleman suitor.
'Brilliantly filthy' Maltesers advert is the talk of Twitter during Paralympics https://t.co/HIB5ucSmi0 pic.twitter.com/zzLAnBYxlg
— HuffPost UK Entertainment (@HuffPostUKEnt) September 10, 2016
“We go back to his [place],” she states, “[and things start] getting a little bit…”
“Frisky,” one of her companions deduces.
“My hands may have been wandering slightly,” Toolis admits unabashedly.
Her friends begin to giggle at the admission, when suddenly, the story seemingly takes a turn for a worst.
“And then,” she continues, “I start having a spasm.”
After a pause for dramatic effect, she speaks again.
“Which he misinterprets.”
“So awkward,” another of her friends offers.
Without missing a beat, Toolis explains that her inadvertent shaking was more helpful than harmful in that particular situation.
“He wasn’t complaining,” she states with a huge smile, shaking the bag of Maltesers to properly display what occurred during the private moment. As she jerks her hands back and forth, several pieces of candy suddenly fly out of the bag, signaling that she was able to give her date what we’ll call a “happy ending.”
“You’re so bad,” the first friend responds.
“That’s what he said,” Toolis counters, as the trio burst into laughter once again. The commercial then ends with the tag line, “look on the light side.”
https://youtu.be/YgUqmKQ9Lrg
Many who have seen the cheeky Maltesers commercial have showered heaps of praise onto it, stating that it was great to witness a person with a disability speaking so freely and normally about sexual relations. In a behind-the-scenes clip for the ad, Rosemary Frazer, the campaign manager for disability charity Scope, remarked why it was so necessary for to have someone like Storme involved in a major ad campaign.
“There are around 12 million disabled people in the UK,” she says. “That’s roughly about 20 percent of the population, which is a huge number of people and yet, we’re largely invisible on our television screens.”
Interestingly, Toolis is incredibly familiar with this type of acclaim and the underlying importance, not just because of her disability, but thanks to her role as Holly Griffin, the disabled daughter of Detective Chief Inspector Dan Griffin (Nicholas Lindhurst) on the now-defunct BBC One comedy-drama, New Tricks.
In 2013, during Series 10 (also known as the tenth season) of the show, Holly was seen having sex with an onscreen boyfriend who also suffers from cerebral palsy. According to the Mirror, the instance was one of few that involved disabled characters not being shamed for their sexual proclivities. In fact, Holly only becomes embarrassed thanks to her father accidentally catching her in the act with her lover.
“I think [the scene] is extremely important,” Toolis remarked during an interview with Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour that year. “I think society is very uncomfortable with the notion of disability and relationships in general. There are TV shows that alienate disabled people and relationships, and they don’t [treat] them as [being] part of the mainstream. [I think] it’s amazing that the BBC [did] this.”
On her Twitter page, the 23-year-old, who is said to be currently taking a bit of a break from acting to attend university, warmly thanked those who reached out to her regarding the Maltesers commercial.
[Featured Images by Maltesers/Facebook]
