Advertisers love to talk about artificial intelligence, but they face a major problem: consumers are wary of this technology and don’t want to be bombarded with messages about it.
This problem was clearly visible at the Olympics, when Google fell flat on its face with an ad for its AI tool Gemini. The “Dear Sydney” ad, which featured a father using AI to help his daughter write a letter to her sports idol, sparked widespread backlash and prompted Google to pull the spot. In a statement, Google said it was trying to show that AI can enhance, not replace, human creativity, but critics derided the ad as insensitive.
“There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what we should be using AI for,” says Iain Thomas, co-author of the book “What Makes Us Human?” and founder of Sounds Fun, an agency that helps marketers use AI. “We shouldn’t be using it to write poems or books, but rather to take care of the grunt work so we can unleash our creativity in other ways.”
The problem of AI messaging extends well beyond Google. A Toys “R” Us ad in June that was supposedly created using OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora received mixed reviews, with some saying it sent the message that filmmakers could be replaced by AI. An “AI-powered” Under Armour ad in March was accused by some in the creative industry of using the work of others without citing authorship.
These spectacular missteps reflect a fundamental problem for advertisers: Consumers don’t yet trust AI and are less likely to buy AI-powered products. A study by researchers at Washington State University published earlier this year in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management found that U.S. consumers are less likely to buy products such as televisions, medical devices or financial services if the product description includes “artificial intelligence.”
The unease is easy to understand, as there are growing fears that AI could destroy jobs and rob us of our humanity. A Pew study in November showed that concerns about AI are growing, with 52 percent of Americans more concerned than excited—up from 37 percent two years earlier.
But advertisers may be vulnerable to their own positive attitudes toward AI. A Yahoo survey released in February with Publicis Media found that advertisers are twice as likely to be positive about AI as the general public.
Toys “R” Us used Sora from OpenAI to create this ad. YouTube
Companies are investing heavily in AI and spending millions on marketing
However, marketers cannot ignore AI.
Companies are expected to spend more than $40 billion on generative AI this year, and many companies are relying on their marketing departments to help communicate these investment decisions.
According to data from MediaRadar, companies spent more than $107 million on ads to market AI-related products and services in the first half of 2024, compared to the $5.6 million spent in the same period last year. To date, 575 companies have purchased ads to market AI products in 2024, compared to 186 in all of 2023.
“It’s a vicious circle because they have to differentiate themselves and use artificial intelligence to do so,” says Josh Campo, CEO of the advertising agency Razorfish, about the advertisers. The situation is particularly difficult for companies such as financial services providers and healthcare companies that deal with sensitive personal data.
“You can talk about AI, but don’t talk about it as much as you do. It’s not a strategy, it’s a tool,” he said. “We advise them to focus on: What is the benefit in terms of the human experience?”
Matt Rebeiro, executive strategy director at creative agency Iris, said B2B brands are also adopting AI in their ads, using it as a marketing shorthand to show how it can help their clients increase efficiency. However, he added that “AI” in and of itself is not a unique selling point and that marketers need to focus on the benefits and results.
“I don’t care if AI makes the sausage as long as it’s tasty,” Rebeiro said. “In the same way, I wouldn’t brag about my new product being designed with Photoshop. So why should I talk about my product being designed with AI? It may be new, but in most cases it’s not relevant to the customer.”
Data shows the best AI ads have a human-led narrative
System1, which evaluates TV advertising on its potential to drive long-term growth for brands, found that the AI-focused ads that resonate best with consumers are those that focus on a human-led narrative. The research firm asks a panel of consumers in several countries to indicate what they think of the ad they are currently watching, using a list of emotions ranging from contempt and disgust to delight and surprise.
One of the most successful US advertisements of 2023 came from Adobe. The company showed a spot in which a girl used AI to design a birthday card. The ad scored 5.2 out of 5.9 possible points. In System1’s tests, the ad elicited some negative reactions from viewers in the first moments when the AI element was introduced. However, these dissipated when the ad showed that the tool supported the girl’s creativity rather than undermined it.
Another top scorer, coming in at number 4, was Dove’s “The Code” ad. When AI-generated beauty images were shown, the ad triggered a spike in negative reactions from System1 testers, but the reaction subsided when Dove showed examples of realistic beauty and images of ordinary women. The ad ends with a promise that the brand will “never use AI to create or distort images of women.”
On the negative side, Microsoft’s Olympics ad “They Say” – which showed how people could overcome their doubters and achieve their goals with the help of Microsoft’s chatbot Copilot – scored a modest 2.9 points. System1 attributed the poor performance to an overemphasis on the negative, rather than the feats that people can achieve with the help of AI technology.
Thomas said some consumer goods companies have hit the right note when using AI to personalise an experience or create something new. For example, a Virgin advert featuring JLo showed people using AI to impersonate the star while asking people to send a personalised invitation to book a cruise. Another example was a Cadbury tool that allowed people to upload their photos onto classic Cadbury posters.
“Trying to do everything with it is distasteful,” Thomas said of AI. “People are becoming sensitive about how things are made.”
