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Amazon Alexa comes to the rescue of a befuddled dad struggling with home-schooling in the tech giant's global campaign.

The ad, by Droga5 London, transports a man to the chaos preceding the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the Italian city of Pompeii. As the volcano erupts, fires rage and residents run for their lives through the wreckage, the protagonist – dressed in more modern attire of a striped polo shirt – stands calmly and tries to get someone’s attention. "Excuse me," he says politely. "What year is it please?"

The action suddenly cuts to the current year, showing the man in his kitchen with his daughter doing her homework nearby. "I just remembered," he tells her. "Pompei was destroyed in 79 AD." When she asks him what the volcano was called, he again turns to the true source that provided him with knowledge about Pompeii – Amazon Alexa.

This film is the latest in the brand’s "A voice is all you need" campaign, which merges epic and ordinary worlds to show off the power of the voice assistant. Previous instalments from last year showed a man interrupting a fantastical battle scene and another character disrupting an 18th-century opera. 

It was created by Ethan Bennett and Liam Crerar, and directed by Andreas Nilsson through Biscuit Filmworks.