Apple's new accessibility-focused ad is a touching tribute to athletes of every type
Just because the Olympic Games are over and the 2024 Paralympic Games haven't yet begun, that doesn't mean their participants are in any way different. That's the main point Apple's latest (mammoth) commercial attempts to get across, and with the help of eight athletes (with and without disabilities), one acclaimed Hollywood director, and multiple clever product placements, the touching short film titled "The Relay" unquestionably manages to hit all its targets.
After co-writing "Sound of Metal" and directing "Blue Valentine" and "The Place Beyond the Pines", Derek Cianfrance is in charge of capturing the emotion, thrill, and the gargantuan work that goes into a sprinter, wheelchair racer, track cyclist, and swimmer's preparations for a big event.
Whether you're able-bodied or have some sort of limb deficiency, whether your eyesight is perfect or not, and whether you lift weights with a little bit of robotic help or not, you all sweat the same, put the same level of effort into your training, and finish at the same line. Of course, every race and competition has a winner, but as the old Olympic creed goes, the most important thing in life is "not the triumph but the struggle."
When it comes to ads such as this, it's obviously also important for you to be introduced to products Apple is either selling or offering its devoted users for free, like the Workout app, in-depth sleep metrics, and daily exercise goals on the Apple Watch line, the iPhone's Point and Speak feature, or the various performance analysis tools available on iPads and Macs.
Assistive Touch is another incredibly useful technology showcased in the above four-minute video as it allows those in need to interact with their Apple Watch with just one hand, while VoiceOver makes it easy for visually impaired people to get precious information from an iPhone.
To its credit, Apple gets all the devices and accessibility features it wants to promote largely out of the way in the first two minutes of "The Relay" film, letting us truly enjoy the gorgeous cinematography and moving story through the end. By the way, if you're waiting for a winner to be celebrated at the end, you may have missed the point of the whole athletic and advertising endeavor.
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