16-month-old toddler Asher Nash is set to be the new star of the holiday campaign for the children’s apparel company OshKosh B’Gosh. This came after the boy, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, was turned down by a modeling agency because of his special condition.
The mother of the child, Meaghan Nash, started a campaign on Facebook oriented to show to the world the beauty of kids with special conditions and needs. She didn’t take a no for an answer and published a set of photos of Asher to get an advertisement contract. The message luckily got to the right people, because few days after the start of the campaign, she was contacted by OshKosh B’Gosh management.
The child-clothing company invited little Asher to be part of their new holiday-themed campaign, after seeing the set of pictures his mother posted on Facebook. The first photos of Asher wearing OshKosh B’Gosh clothes are now viral, and his mother hopes to raise awareness on the matter.
“Using people with special needs (in ads) shows the world that these people have value and worth just like any typical person does. I knew when Asher was born he was destined to be great and do great things. So I am very proud to share his beauty with the world,” Nash told in an interview to CBS News this Tuesday
More companies want little Asher to star their campaigns
Earlier this year, Asher’s mother expected to get the OshKosh B’Gosh gig after handing pictures of her son to a modeling agency in Buford, Georgia. Days passed, and Meaghan asked the agency why Asher didn’t get the gig with the clothing company. She was very surprised when she found out they did not submit the photos of Asher “since the criteria (for the job) didn’t specify if the company was looking for a baby with special needs.”
After the incident, Nash started the mentioned Facebook campaign and the popular Facebook group “Kids with Down Syndrome” shared the image with their followers. The pictures became viral and got almost 125,000 shares in the social network.
A lot of Facebook users have thanked OshKosh B’Gosh for giving Asher the opportunity to participate in the campaign and also for helping to change world’s perception of beauty. Users also hope that this action will bring incentive toward equality and love.
Asher’s mother has great expectations on his son being the first of many more kids with special conditions that feature campaign ads for any company across the U.S. and the world.
After this great success, to Asher’s door have come more and more offers from several businesses that want him to promote their products. Kids II, Oball, Ingenuity, Toys “R” Us, Safety 1st, Happy Family Brand and Num Num are among some of the interested companies.
Nash hopes that this special holiday campaign makes people understand that this kind of diseases are not just a trend for advertisement, but a condition that needs attention and caring.
Source: CBS News