British football star David Beckham is spearheading an anti-malaria campaign in which he “speaks” nine different languages in a specially-recorded video. ‘The Power of the Voice’ campaign aims to encourage people to call on their leaders to end malaria, a tropical disease that kills more than one million people around the world each year and is spread by mosquitoes.
David Beckham with Dr Elvis Eze, a youth ambassador for Malaria No More. Image. Malaria Must Die
The video uses artificial intelligence video synthesis technology to make it appear that Beckham is speaking fluently about malaria in nine languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi and Mandarin. This was achieved by creating a 3D model of the former footballer and current president of Inter Miami CF in Miami, Florida, which was re-animated to make it appear as if all the voices featured in the video were coming from him. They actually came from men and women who have been survivors of the killer disease or from doctors with experience in treating it.
According to Malaria Must Die, a child dies from malaria every two minutes, which is the world’s oldest and deadliest disease. There were an estimated 219 million cases across 90 countries worldwide in 2017 alone. Beckham is a founding member of the Malaria No More UK Leadership Council, because as he states at the beginning of the video, it’s “the deadliest disease there’s ever been.” He was joined on set for the campaign video by Dr Elvis Eze, a youth ambassador for Malaria No More who has suffered from the disease on multiple occasions.
Beckham aims to get world leaders to listen to the message in the run-up to the Global Fund conference to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria this October, which accounts for more than half of all malaria funding. “One voice can be powerful, but all of our voices together, then they will have to listen,” says Beckham.
For further information on Malaria Must Die, see here.
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