Special Olympics: R-Word Exchange

Recently, comics from the legendary Upright Citizens Brigade Theater took over @EndtheWord, the Twitter handle for Special Olympics’ campaign to end use of the hurtful R-Word, "retarded." The improv comics not only engaged with Twitter users to humorously suggest they not use the R-Word, they also invented new words for people to incorporate into their vocabularies instead.
Called the R-Word Exchange, this campaign was developed by Y&R and VML New York and Special Olympics to enlighten the many people who use the word casually, not fully realising its harmful impact on people with intellectual disabilities. For a few hours last month, an ensemble of UCB Theater comics, side by side with Special Olympics athlete Katy Sanchez, assembled at a command center at the Y&R/VML New York office to scan Twitter for mentions of the word "retarded" (sadly, there are many more than you might imagine). They tweeted a mix of written responses and Vine videos defining each new made-up word, while also occasionally pointing out existing r-words that might serve Tweeters better, such as "rock star,""resourceful ” and "respect."

The campaign to Spread the Word to End the Word, of which this R-Word Exchange is the latest installation, asks people to pledge to stop saying the R-word as a starting point toward creating more accepting attitudes and communities for all people.