In the United States, colloquial use of the words “retard” and “retarded” is so widespread that it’s almost culturally accepted. Yet to people with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends, these words are hateful, injurious, and marginalizing.

Ironically, most people who use the r-word would never use it to describe someone with intellectual disabilities. Instead, they’re using the r-word as slang to mean anything from “stupid” to “clumsy” to “drunk” to “silly,” with no thought of how damaging this can be. And most people who use these terms don’t even realize that they’re offensive to people with intellectual disabilities.

We wanted to avoid the somewhat-expected photographic style of most public-service ads while maintaining a look with a great deal of impact. We also wanted a simple, minimal layout that did not draw too much attention away from the power of the words themselves.

Our effort was written up on CNN.com, with a link to the article on the front page (March 20, 2009). It was also written up in the advertising section of The New York Times (March 31, 2009).

To date, over 40,000 people have gone to the Special Olympics website to pledge their support to eliminate the demeaning use of the r-word.