Aussie expat director Kim Gehrig helms Apple’s latest spot showcasing its commitment to accessibility as a human right
Aussie expat director Kim Gehrig helms Apple’s latest spot, a powerful TVC produced via Somesuch, showcasing the brand’s commitment to accessibility as a human right. Innovative features like Door Detection, Sound Recognition, Voice Control, and more are designed to let consumers use their devices in ways that work best for them.
The spot launches to coincide with this year’s International Day of People with Disabilities (Saturday December 3), that showcases people with disabilities using Apple’s accessibility technologies to live their lives.
Gehrig is represented by Somesuch overseas and locally via Revolver.
Transcript
A woman without arms opens her eyes in bed.
Woman: Hey Siri.
[SIRI TONE]
A yellow HomePod mini on a bedside table illuminates.
Woman: Set my morning scene.
Window blinds lift, and light pools into the bedroom.
Siri: It’s currently clear and 71 degrees. Today’s high will be 80 degrees.
The woman sits up, using her foot to pull down a comforter. She faces the window, bathed in sunlight. Her shoulders rise and drop in a deep breath.
[”I AM THE GREATEST (WITH MARLIYA CHOIR)” BY SPINIFEX GUM PLAYING]
A man with a moustache lies in bed. He turns to his iPhone mounted on a wall beside him.
Man: Open Weather. Swipe left.
On iPhone, the Weather app opens and displays the forecast.
Lyrics: I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.
In a bathroom, a little person stands on a stool and sings in a mirror, nodding to the beat. She raises her eyebrows. In a living room, a woman sits on a rug and signs “You are the greatest” to a baby in American Sign Language.
[BABY COOING]
[MOTHER VOCALISES]
Lyrics: I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.
The woman without arms taps AssistiveTouch on her iPhone with her foot, then browses images of makeup styles. In a dressing room, a man wearing dark glasses and a bow tie uses Magnifier Detection Mode on iPhone to scan the room.
VoiceOver: Describe images.
Lyrics: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Now outside, the man with a moustache rolls forward on a power wheelchair.
Lyrics: His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.
The man with dark glasses slowly moves his iPhone until a red jacket hanging on the dressing room door appears on the screen. His white cane leans against a vanity.
VoiceOver within Magnifier Detection Mode: A painting. A red jacket.
Lyrics: Now you see me, now you don’t.
The woman without arms applies a thin gold line of eyeliner using her foot.
Lyrics: Sonny thinks he will, but I know he won’t.
In a school, a student with Down syndrome wears a Cheer backpack and walks through a hall. She high-fives another student.
Lyrics: Last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick.
A DJ wearing a nasal cannula edits a project in Logic Pro. He hovers his cursor over a track, and it magnifies with Zoom.
Lyrics: I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
On iPad, a Muhammad Ali quote is displayed. The cheerleader with Down syndrome taps the Speak Screen menu, then taps the quote.
Speak Screen: I have wrestled with the alligator.
Lyrics: Tussled with the whale.
The DJ rides a scooter as Maps directions appear on his Apple Watch.
Lyrics: Done handcuffed lightning. Thrown thunder in jail.
Maps directions: Turn right.
The man with a moustache models in his power wheelchair. He lowers a pair of sunglasses on his face. Using Voice Control on iPhone, he takes pictures of himself modelling different outfits.
Man: Tap Take Picture.
[CAMERA SHUTTER]
Man: Tap Take Picture.
[CAMERA SHUTTER]
The man with dark glasses, now wearing AirPods and the red velvet jacket, walks with his white cane. He approaches two doors and stops. He uses Door Detection on his iPhone. Cut to black.
VoiceOver: Two doors detected. Text. To stage. Door four feet away.
He walks towards a door that reads “TO STAGE”. The cheerleader cheers with her team. The woman without arms steers a car with her foot and sings. The DJ dances at a party.
[AUDIO FADES TO SILENCE]
Tears fill the baby’s eyes. The mother looks at her Apple Watch, which displays a Sound Recognition alert that reads “Baby Crying. A sound has been recognised that may be a baby crying”.
[UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
On a stage, the man with dark glasses plays piano. Spotlights shine on him, blurring the audience in shadow. The mother scoops up her crying baby.
[“I AM THE GREATEST” RESUMES]
A montage of everyone singing.
Lyrics: I’m young. I’m handsome. I’m fast. I’m pretty.
The woman without arms takes a selfie with friends using her feet.
Lyrics: The world champ should be pretty like me.
The little person flips her hair and turns. Now in a veterinary office, she wears scrubs and uses iPhone and Camera Remote on Apple Watch to take a timed selfie with a dog.
Lyrics: The world champ should be pretty like me.
The cheerleader takes a selfie with a friend using Camera on iPhone.
Lyrics: What are we gonna do? We’re gonna dance.
The DJ claps while his song plays on MacBook and people dance around him. The model poses in the power wheelchair dressed in different outfits.
Lyrics: What are we gonna do? We’re gonna dance.
The woman without arms shakes her shoulders, dancing to the song. She increases the volume in her car with her foot.
Lyrics: I shook the world. I shook the world.
On MacBook, the model sorts through photos using Facial Expressions within Alternate Pointer Controls. He moves his head to operate the cursor and sticks out his tongue to select a photo.
Lyrics: I shook the world. I shook the world. I shook the world. I shook the world.
The model scrunches his nose and raises his eyebrows to crop the photo.
Lyrics: I shook the world. I shook the world. I shook the world. I shook the world.
On her iPad, the cheerleader taps another quote by Muhammad Ali.
Speak Screen: I shook the world.
[SINGLE PIANO CHORD PLAYS]
The mother signs “I shook the world” in American Sign Language while her baby sleeps in her arms.
The Apple logo.
10 Comments
So. Fucking. Good.
So good. Makes me happy for the industry.
At the same time…. Aussies these days have to get the hell out of our own country to do good work.
Does anyone remember when we were, globally, considered a bastion of creativity and effective work? Honestly. Look at us now.
Incredible incredible incredible
Simply love this, for firstly not being a tick box on diversity, and secondly for being brilliant in every way. Story telling at its best!
Go Kim, Go Apple. Congratulations to all involved.
Brilliant work TBWA & Kim Gehrig
A
Very good for every AUS retailer to look at and see how to do this properly. Not just drop a wheelchair into your billboard.
and yet we wonder why we have a creative exodus from this stupidly safe , over cautious boring industry in Australia. All thanks to the stupidity of our clients and all the suit wearing ad exec babies that drop their pants every time a client sneezes. You dug your own hole Australia. Forever the backwater.
Kim Gehrig is the greatest