How Thousands of Italians Provided a Human Voice for ALS Sufferers

Each year, 1000 new cases of ALS are diagnosed in Italy. Also known as motor neuron disease, it’s a condition that progressively paralyses your body and eventually even strips you of your human voice.

Working with Centro Clinico Nemo - a motor neurone disease clinic - McCann Italy’s idea to do its part in the fight was to create a unique voice that would generate awareness about this issue by involving the whole of Italian society - not just those who are directly affected by the disease.

They asked the Italians to donate their voice, inviting people to download the My Voice app and done the audio of them speaking just one word. Word by word, donors would build the Italian dictionary.

The campaign launched with a social experiment, launching the hashtag #onewordforNemo through a social experiment. People then began downloading the My Voice app, which had a special donation area where people could donate a word of audio. The system would suggest a random world or you could pick another one if you prefer.

Meanwhile, the digital platform collected all donated voices, filling the My Voice database with words and phrases.

Patients could then use the app to type and speak with an online too, just as they would with their regular speaking assistant software. But this time with a human voice.