Tag Archives: advertizing

An AI advertisement

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I scrolled past this add a few times before paying any attention to it. But then it gave off an uncanny valley feeling that made me look a little closer. I think it was the very staged first question that bothered me most, and yesterday I finally took the time to watch it through a critical lens. It’s an ad for a Tai Chi app, but I cropped the video to hide the brand because I don’t want to amplify it, I want to critique it.

Here is the ad:

And here are a list of telltale things that suggest it is AI.

1. Look at the opening image. The woman is talking at a 90° angle to the stage, and there is no one at the podium below her.

2. The ‘expert’ is a perfectly chiseled man who is never named. No recognition of him as an expert in the field… because he’s fictitious.

3. Obviously fake audience members. The first image shows a blurred bearded man who doesn’t seem real to me. The second image has a man wearing a partial microphone like the expert.

4. The painfully fake script.

“Isn’t a gym better?”

“Gym doesn’t work after 40.”

This isn’t necessarily evidence of AI, it could just be bad writing, but it comes off feeling very wrong and unnatural. It’s like there was an intent in the text to make the expert sound like English is his second language but his voice doesn’t carry that same suggestion.

5. Comments are turned off. There is no benefit in having viewers outing the ad as fake. It’s better to allow the ad to fool more people without being called out.

The reality is that I could pick this ad out as fake, but that’s only because it was done poorly. We are going to see a lot more ads done this way and they are going to be good enough to fool us completely. It’s just a matter of time, and that time is approaching very quickly.

Buy one get one half price

I am always fascinated by the way advertising works. Here are a few advertising phrases that I’ll translate into much less sexy terms:

“Buy one, get one free.” -> 50% off, but you have to buy 2!

“Buy two, get one free.” -> 33% off, but you have to buy 3!

“Buy one, get one half price.” -> 25% off, but you have to buy 2!

“Everything in the store 25% off.” -> Our prices are marked up high enough that we can mark everything down and still make a good profit.

It has to be a tough time to be in retail spaces. Unless you are Apple or a handful of other big names, your storefront window must have a sale sign in it. You must highlight the bargains, the best deals you have.

But these signs work. They draw people in, and people leave happy that they got a great deal. That happiness is important if you want your customers to come back.

But did you really need 2 or 3 of that item? You went for a pair of runners, now you have runners and hikers. You wanted a pair of shorts, but have 3 pairs, and you didn’t save 33%, you saved less than 25% because the 3rd, ‘free’ pair was cheaper than the other two you purchased.

A store wants you to buy 2 or 3 discounted items because that increases the overall profit. But how many of that item do you need? If I’m buying socks, a 3rd pair free is likely useful. But if I’m going to buy runners, and my second pair is half off, and because of this I splurged and got a slightly more expensive first pair… I’ll walk out with 2 pairs, but I will have spent a lot more than I planned to spend, and probably won’t wear one of the pairs very often.

Bargain shopping isn’t always a bargain.

Outrageous and Unbelievable – click me now!

I’m getting really tired of headlines that read, “Outrageous joke is making everyone laugh” or “Unbelievable photo is shocking the Internet“. What adjective will make people click our link, see our advertising, get us shared on ‘the socials’?

These click-bait titles are like sale signs in shopping mall windows, they are pervasive and ubiquitous. And frankly, I’m tired of them. I refuse to click them. And I am pretty sure I’m better off without them.

Pretty soon they will be personalized, “Hey Dave, we searched the Internet and found this photo that you’ll love!” – I know this is coming, and I’ll probably click them for a while, but for now I’m out. This fish isn’t going for the bait.