For those who’ve been on the New York Metropolis subway just lately, you’ve most likely seen stark white advertisements selling a wearable AI gadget referred to as Friend.
CEO Avi Schiffman told Adweek that the corporate spent greater than $1 million on a marketing campaign with greater than 11,000 playing cards on subway automobiles, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels. Some stations, like West 4th Road, are utterly dominated by Good friend advertisements.
“That is the world’s first main AI marketing campaign,” Schiffman stated. (There have been different AI advertisements of questionable effectiveness, however maybe not a print marketing campaign of this scale.) He described it as “an enormous gamble,” including, “I don’t have a lot cash left.”
Good friend’s $129 gadget has been controversial, with Wired writers just lately criticizing its fixed surveillance and declaring, “I Hate My Friend.” Equally, some Good friend advertisements have been vandalized with messages calling it “surveillance capitalism” and urging spectators to “get actual mates.”
Schiffman stated he’s effectively conscious that “folks in New York hate AI … most likely greater than anyplace else within the nation,” so he intentionally purchased advertisements with a lot of white area “in order that they’d socially touch upon the subject.”