Ukraine’s AI Olympic team honours lost athletes

Titled The Revived, this campaign was created for the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and Brand Ukraine by BBDO Berlin as a bid for peace and a reminder of the ravages of conflict. It was presented for the first time at an event in the Olympic Village in Paris this week. 

Produced by Tektite the impactful film features AI avatars of fallen athletes based on photos and video footage provided by their families, with AI tools generating deceptively lifelike characters.

The hero of the campaign is the young boxer Maksym Halinichev, who died on the front line in 2023 at the age of 22. Five other young athletes lost in the fighting are at his side: Anastasiia Honcharova (cyclist), Fedir Iepifanov (fencer), Oleksandr Peleshenko (weightlifter), Mykyta Zasiadko (swimmer) and Mykola Zhydkov (footballer). 

With the consent of their families, they tell their very personal stories as AI athletes so that they can live on at the Olympic Games – their true dream goal.

Tim Makarov, Head of Content & Digital at Brand Ukraine (the country's official brand) commented: "Ukraine loses young and talented men and women every day due to the war. They might have become Olympic champions or Nobel Prize winners. That is why we created "The Revived": We want to draw attention to the ongoing suffering."