As part of Teletón 2024, an annual fundraiser in Mexico for children with disabilities and special needs, MullenLowe SSP3 and Unilever’s LatAm ice cream brand Helados Holanda partnered up to challenge stereotypes around disability.

The TV commercial, called “Diego es de chocolate” roughly translates to “Chocolate Diego”. It centres around wheelchair-bound Diego and opens with a group of teenagers playing basketball. Then comes a painful coming-of-age cliché – Diego does not get picked for a team because he is, as they say, “the Chocolate one”.

In Mexico, this is a common euphemism with ableist undertones, used when someone is considered to have less skill than the others – and implies they do not count as a ‘real’ player who makes an impact on the outcome of the game.

But in a refreshing turn of events, his friends proudly stand up for him and name themselves after their own favourite flavours of Holanda ice cream.

As “the Lemon one”, “the Vanilla one” and “the Neapolitan one” (as the head jock refers to himself), the group have fun playing basketball together, embracing their individual identities and strengths. Contrary to the saying, ‘Chocolate’ Diego actually helps to score some points, even from his wheelchair.

The campaign, which aired in October 2024, came a few weeks after the closing of the Paralympics halfway across the globe in Paris. The growing popularity of parasports in the past decade or so has decidedly disproven the stereotype of the ‘chocolate person’ in real life, although as Rafael Domínguez suggests, there is still much to be done.

The campaign ends with the message “for a Mexico where the only difference is the flavour of ice cream we like”.

After all, chocolate is just as good as vanilla, lemon, or Neapolitan. It’s time we think the same way, too.