Anthropic drops the best ad for AI yet
This ad from Anthropic is a great ad, period. It gets extra bonus points because it's from one of the leading AI research labs.
It's running in a counter-direction to most of tech advertising that's been out there over the past decade or so. Here are three reasons why I think it's great:
1. It features people doing real things in the real world.
Building rockets, painting, cinematography, scuba diving, marathon training. This is the stuff we all actually want to be doing! It's different from content marketing or some other popular forms of digital marketing that actually aim to discuss the product. Advertising is supposed to evoke emotion and get you feeling a particular way about a product. Car commercials are a good example. Showing people in the real world instantly connects you more to the ad and the product, because we connect to people more than things.
2. Vintage camera and filming style.
It leans heavily into the nostalgia feeling, the "Apple of the 2000s," handheld video camera-style. Instead of the sleek, 4K ultra-HD, super clean, minimalist look, they went the complete opposite direction. Messy rooms, the great outdoors, color, contrast, texture. So much more visually interesting.
3. It positions AI as an enabler of humanity rather than a replacement.
This is the biggest one. The social climate around AI is swinging in the negative direction. People are growing uncomfortable with the idea that AI will replace their jobs, their relationships, and become an omnipresent force in their lives. The AI labs and leadership in the space haven't done much up until this point to push back against this.
They've pretty much done the opposite. "Feel the AGI, everything is going to change, we're not prepared for this" type language. The leaders of these companies talk about it like they aren't in control and the ones building this. It's not inevitable that AI becomes the great replacer/enshittifier - perhaps this ad is the first signal that Anthropic understands this? The narrative and objectives around AI can change, and there are some key figures in Silicon Valley (Sam Altman, Dario, Sundar, etc.) that can influence it. Change the story, change the perception, change the results.