Chris Binkowski can't walk or use a regular computer mouse, but that didn't stop the Ottawa man from winning a starring role in a $3-million Super Bowl ad through an online contest.

Binkowski, 26, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, earned the second-most votes among 10 finalists in a video contest called MyBowlAd.com, whose winners were announced Monday evening. 

Chris Binkowski in one of the videos that put him in second place in the MyBowlAd contest.
(CBC)

The contest put on by young American entrepreneurs Mark Timms, Evan White and Robert Howie, who are selling 90 product placements in one 30-second ad to give smaller companies a chance at exposure during the notoriously expensive commercial airtime associated with the televised annual National Football League championship.

Binkowski, known online as "ghostwise," will fly to Los Angeles in August to film the commercial, in which he will star alongside first-place winner MrNelsonKyle, third-place runner-up supricky06, and more established internet stars.

'We can make TV history'

Binkowski's genetic disease has wasted his muscles but not his creativity.

He spends a lot of time with his wheelchair in front of the computer, with a special stylus mouse in his hands, crafting artwork and videos, including the ones that earned him 18 per cent of the votes in the contest.

In those, he wears a large pair of sunglasses. With his face close to the camera, he urges viewers to vote for him.

Chris Binkowski says he wants to represent disabled people and inspire others by starring in a Super Bowl commercial.
(CBC)

"We can make TV history," he says.

The camera zooms out and he then gives a demonstration of how his wasted muscles and bent wrists can't stop him from flipping signs for some of the product placements in the ad, which will each appear on either a sign or a T-shirt. "Vote," "ghost," "wise," Binkowski's signs say.

Binkowski said he wanted to win to represent disabled people.

"The visual of my body in the mix with all those other famous strange people — I know it's going to inspire a few thousand, if maybe millions, of people," he told CBC before voting closed.

He said he also hoped the video would benefit his mother, Krystyna Anna Binkowski.

"I think that the more I'm seen and the more positives I'm doing in society, there's going to be other people coming in to really give my mom relief," he said. "Because without her, I don't think I'd be doing what I'm doing now."

Video to air Feb. 3

Some of the people who will star in the Super Bowl ad with Binkowski include other internet stars such as Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger known for bartering a red paper-clip for other objects that were eventually traded for a house in Kipling Sask.; and Judson Laipply, whose Evolution of Dance video became a big hit on YouTube about a year ago.

The video is to air on Feb. 3, 2008. The producers are charging $15,000 to $100,000 US for each of the 90 product placements. As of Tuesday, there were 84 still available.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic muscle-wasting disorder that occurs in about one in every 3,500 male births.

Children with the disease have trouble walking as early as preschool, and nearly all of them lose the ability to walk between ages seven and 12. Typically, they die in their 20s because of weakness in their heart and lung muscles. There is no known cure.