Wondering why the national anthems of countries as diverse as Belgium, Japan and South Korea sound vaguely familiar? It’s probably because you’ve recently heard them played out as their citizens have proudly taken Gold in the last few days at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. While these stately tunes are generally a rally to national unity and defence, many of the values that they demonstrate are as important, or, perhaps more important, to us all on a global level.
This is the inspiration behind Samsung’s latest video ad campaign. In a bid to highlight the Samsung Galaxy S7edge’s ability to break down barriers and unite the world through borderless connections, it has created an international anthem with lyrics taken from the anthems of individual nations.
The Anthem opens with a young girl from Australia singing a line of the Botswana national anthem into a Samsung Galaxy S7edge. Throughout the ad, the Samsung Galaxy smartphone travels to all corners of the world, capturing and sharing the voices of fans and athletes around the globe (such as Great Britain’s Tom Daley, track and field athlete Alysia Montano of the USA and French Paralympic Games athlete Arnaud Assoumani) as they sing lines from other national anthems. In a world where terror and hate dominate the news, their global anthem highlights the democratic values that the Olympic Games stands for and the similarities that unite us all.