Apple ad stages relay race featuring athletes with and without disabilities

Apple has staged a relay race featuring two mixed teams made up of athletes with and without disabilities.

“The Relay” sees two teams of four compete across sprinting, cycling, swimming and distance running to blur the lines between the Olympics and the Paralympics.

Created by Apple's in-house team, the film was directed by Derek Cianfrance through Radical Media. Cianfrance has written or directed feature films including Sound of Metal and Blue Valentine.

The four-minute film shows two teams – one black and one white – go head to head, with an athlete with a disability and an athlete without competing against each other in each stage of the relay. 

The story begins as they wake up, make breakfast and get ready for tough training ahead of race day. The film is punctuated with Apple’s devices, aiming to raise awareness about its accessibility features in the Apple Watch and iPhone.

Jamie XX’s All you children feat. The Avalanches provides the backing track to the film with the lyrics “All you children gather round, we will dance to our own song” and  “All you children gather round, we will dance together.”

The film’s cast features competitive athletes from around the world, some of whom are contenders for the global stage in Los Angeles in 2028. The line-up includes a cyclist with an upper limb difference, a wheelchair racer, a low-vision swimmer and a blade runner. 

Their voiceovers are used in parts of the film describing their experience. The cyclist’s voiceover says: “I was never told ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ I was just doing sport like everyone else.”

The swimmer says: “There’s no difference between me and any other swimmer. When I get in the water I want to win.”

After close finishes in all four stages, the closing voiceover says: “We lined up at the same line and we finish at the same line. It was just a matter of who got there first.”

Text in Apple’s font then appears reading: “Designed for every body.”

The ad is live on YouTube, Apple’s website and socials.

Apple released an outdoor global campaign last month for the 2024 Paris Olympics called “2036 Hopefuls”, by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.