Gallaudet University, Coke Team Up for New ‘We Want to teach the world to sign’ Ad

Gallaudet University president Robert Cordano posted on LinkedIn this week about a newly-released ad campaign created in collaboration between the school and Coca-Cola. The nearly 90-second spot is available to watch on Gallaudet’s YouTube channel.

I’ve embedded the ad below. As I wrote on X, the spot warms my CODA-filled heart.

Gallaudet, established in 1864 amidst the Civil War and based in Washington DC, is the world’s first and only collegiate institution exclusively for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. (Gallaudet does admit a small number of hearing students—most of them being CODAs—as the proverbial exceptions to the rule.) Despite its preeminence, it’s worth noting Gallaudet was founded under the horrifically ableist and dehumanizing “National College for the Deaf and Dumb,” with the current name being taken in 1894.

I’ve covered Gallaudet at close range several times in the last few years. Its football team, the Bisons, plays with adaptive helmets developed with 5G technology from AT&T that houses a digital display through which the quarterback receives play calls from coaches on the sideline. As to Cordano, I profiled her back in 2022 for my old Forbes column about her career and purview of the school. Cardano, who’s known as “Bobbi” by those who love her, is noteworthy for being Gallaudet’s first Deaf woman, and first member of the LGBTQ community, to assume the perch in the university’s catbird seat.