Close shave... but you don’t spell Yr Wyddfa like that
ABEHIND the scenes look at how a mobile phone giant used real technology and a robot to give actor Tom Ellis a shave on Snowdon has been criticised for spelling the name of the mountain wrong.
The EE advert sees the Lucifer star on a barber’s chair on the Pyg Track with only a TV crew and robotic arm for company.
But in a video shared by EE on Twitter, a scene called ‘Shave Day’ spells the Welsh name of the peak as “Yr Wryddfa” when the correct spelling is Yr Wyddfa.
Posting the ‘behind the tech’ video, the EE tweet states: “A robotic barber on a remote mountain with Tom Ellis’s beautiful neck on the line.
“So unbelievable you guys didn’t think we had done this for real...”
But many were less than impressed when they watched the footage.
Sharing an emoji of a man slapping his forehead, @DrJohnGeraint replied: “All that technology, and all that money spent on this stunt, and you still can’t spell ‘Yr Wyddfa’ correctly.”
@louisehutch said: “So you can shave an actor using a robot via a mobile phone network but you can’t spell one Welsh word (very widely available to check on something called Google) correctly?”
@M_Geraghty1970 said: “where on earth is Yr Wryddfa? And why is the film not at the top of the mountain?”
@moorland2 said: “which mountain would that be?”
@ArwelParry said: “Shame you couldn’t spell the Welsh name for Snowdon correctly!”
@goinggrey2 added: “Is that remote mountain the one with a visitor’s centre at the top? That you can get to by rail? That has over 1400 visitors a day?
Is it that remote mountain?”
The advert, showing the Welsh actor being shaved remotely by a barber 250 miles away, is designed to showcase the abilities of EE’s public 5G network.
5G technology, which began rolling out in North Wales in 2019, can handle
more data than previous mobile networks and may open the way to innovations such as autonomous vehicles and remote surgery.
The behind the scenes video states: “We put Tom Ellis at the top of Snowdon for a remote wet shave powered by our 4G and 5G network.
“Totally real, no smoke, no mirrors, all done live on the day.
“The only way that the barber is able to see what he is doing is through a video call performed on our network.
“We also have the blade that is connected to the robotic arm powered purely through our network.”
It adds: “At the top of Snowdon we relied solely on our 4G network for the video call and for the movements of the robotic arm...it could definitely have gone wrong.
“It didn’t on the day but that’s the whole reason that these ads feel engaging to watch.”
Other critics were quick to slam their own phone signal via the network.
@RichPics62 said: “Wow. Can it really do all that? Of course it can’t. Mine fails to get signals up a hill or in a different corner of my house!!”
@SnowCapBoarder said: “Yet I can’t get reception from my home and I live in a city.”
@vespalien said: “Always a good signal on high ground, see if it works in the Valley.”