We ask veterans to bravely fight battles abroad, but they’re losing the fight for relevance at home. In fact, one-quarter of Canadians under the age of 45 undervalue the importance of Remembrance Week. To remind Canadians of the sacrifices of their soldiers and veterans, Wunderman Thompson Canada launched ‘Remastered Memories’ – a campaign collaboration with the True Patriot Love Foundation in honor of Remembrance Week that uses artificial intelligence to transform letters from war veterans into unique works of art that bring to life scenes from the battlefield, hospitals and acts of bravery on the front lines.
Remastered Memories
Using AI to honor war vets and bring their experiences to life
Client
- True Patriot Love Foundation
Office
- Canada
Scenes from past battlefields and acts of bravery on the front lines remind young citizens of the sacrifices of soldiers.
Using AI allowed us to turn the author of the letter into the artist, removing any human interpretation other than their own. It's the closest we could get to showing works of art that were created by the soldiers' themselves, which we believe captures a more personal and authentic version of each memory.
Ari Elkouby
Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman Thompson Canada
As soldiers are lost to age, service, and tragically, suicide, their acts of bravery are lost along with them. Today, up to a quarter of Canadians under 45 don’t understand the importance of Remembrance Week. We needed to help keep the memories of past soldiers alive and find new ways to make their acts of service and sacrifice relevant to a new generation of Canadians.
There’s a special place where veterans’ memories live on – in the letters they wrote to family, friends and loved ones from the front lines. But these letters are often sealed away or kept behind closed doors, and mostly go unread.
We unearthed these soldiers' letters from archives and had them read by an AI image-generating platform, turning the words from each letter into a unique work of art. Through AI, we were able to turn the author of each letter into the artist, creating a series of paintings powered by vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds and emotions they experienced first-hand during combat in World War I, World War II, Korea and Afghanistan.
Following a successful launch, we created new works of art based on new letters, also highlighting the often overlooked stories of female soldiers in commemoration of International Women’s Day. The series was then 3D-printed to replicate the look of oil on canvas, framed and put on display in art gallery in downtown Toronto and the works were auctioned off in support of the True Patriot Love Foundation.
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Awards
2023 Applied Arts Award
Content-Experimental/Innovative Series
Winner
2023 WEBBY AWARDS
Advertising, Media & PR Online Guerrilla & Innovation
Nominee
2023 One Show Awards
Creative Use of Data: Storytelling
Shortlist
2023 ONE SHOW AWARDS
Creative Use of Data: Use of Technology
Shortlist
2023 One Show Awards
Creative Use of Data: Use of Technology
Shortlist
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