James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

The ads are often for startups you’ve never heard of, selling a service or software that’s somehow related to AI. And while the ad voice is direct, in that it’s written as if it’s speaking directly to you, the viewer, the copy is intentionally cryptic. “Own Your Inference.” “Put AI Agents to Work for People.” Sometimes it’s menacing. “Stop Hiring Humans.”

These kinds of ads seem to be everywhere lately, but that doesn’t mean that they make much sense. Now, comedians Harris Alterman and Dave Ross are emphasizing just how banal and meaningless the AI ad age is turning out to be by creating their own fake tech ads that skewer the medium simply by amping up its tropes: AI industry gobbledegook and design minimalism.

The ads, which they put up as banners in a New York City subway station (much like the controversial, real ads for the AI companion Friend last fall), ask asinine questions. “What if forks were spoons?,” “What if Texas was upside-down?,” and “What if the Rizzler was purple?” One fake ad is for a company with a human name, “Dennis.”

Another advertises a faux company that recently rebranded. “Zipline is now Froggle,” the ad says matter-of-factly. “The cloud-based online safety you know and love, now in the palm of your hand.” An ad for a brand called Fivetable confidently states, “We Put the Q in QR1777,” and Wireflow promises, “you pay us, we pay you.”

Alterman and Ross were especially inspired by a real ad for the product development software company Linear, which shows cursors pointing toward God’s outstretched hand, as in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” and another for Dawn, an AI mental-health app, that says “Racing Thoughts Don’t Do Waiting Rooms.”

They call the lack of distinctiveness around AI advertising in its design, voice, and fonts “slop voice,” and note that while these ads sound like they’re speaking to you, they’re really talking to someone else: a high tech, SaaS-speaking in-group. And it’s ok if the copy alienates everyone else.

“People are confused by tech advertising,” they tell Fast Company in an email. “99% of the people reading these ads have no idea what they’re talking about. It feels like 20 people in tech, advertising to 20 other people in tech. Do you really need to put up ads? Can’t you guys just get in a group chat together?”

.

[Photo: courtesy Harris Alderman and Dave Ross]

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article (sound on to listen):

.

__________________________________________