Apple has released a heartwarmingly fantastical ad to promote its latest software update, which enables users to recreate their own voice to ensure that’s ‘never lost’.
Directed by Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi, the tech giant’s short film sees a large, mystical creature being helped by a young girl to find its ‘lost voice’ in the wilderness, with the story narrated entirely by AI-generated speech.
After looking through forests, seas and deserts to no avail, it is revealed that the narrator is in fact voiced by the girl’s father – who appears to have lost his voice due to an illness but has managed to preserve it through Apple’s technology.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest agency-related news sent straight to your inbox each morning
Starring disability advocate and physician Tristram Ingham, the ad was released in support of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and follows on from Apple’s touching ‘Fuzzy Feelings’ festive spot set in London.
“Disability communities are very mindful of proxy voices speaking on our behalf. Historically, providers have spoken for disabled people, family have spoken for disabled people,” Ingham said.
If technology can allow a voice to be preserved and maintained, that’s autonomy, that’s self-determination. When you have something that is so precious – a taonga, a treasure – I think we should do anything we can to make sure we keep hold of that.”
