Killing creatives or saving money : Charity use of generative AI
I was having a discussion about the recent [and infamous] Coca Cola Christmas ad, where the ai generated nature of the whole thing meant that the big truck carrying “Christmas” went from 18-wheeler to 14 and back in around 7 different iterations through the 30 second or so advert.
Mocked, rightly of course by artisans and those looking at the advert as compared to what came before - a real truck, lighting and artistry, editors and so on. but I thought that maybe that was the wrong way to be looking at it, especially when you are considering the audience. after all, it’s not the coke Christmas advert that makes those talking in these terms go out and by Coca Cola, so why not view the advert from the eyes of the actual audience? kids perhaps who accept the foibles of gen ai as a technology they are growing up with - kids who don’t care if the squirrel has a very “gen ai” look to it as it pauses on screen. if it’s getting the message across that Coke = Christmas, do Coca Cola even care that their ad this year looks worse than most of the “ai slop” served up by Sora v1? I’m guessing not if they are able to save the budget and still get the message out there.
The place where you would want a better edited, carefully crafted [or “prompted” if you prefer] would be in something like a feature film or series pilot where the content does matter to the audience you intended, where viewers could easily be pulled out of the gripping story telling by the lazy application of an extra with 3 arms or the main character’s hair style changing throughout a scene. this is where the details matter, not it seems in a holiday advert.
But aside from the artistic argument of “how many people are really working their whole life to be able to work on an advert for a fizzy drinks company?” I thought the new Save the Children advert unintentionally raised a whole new side of things.
The advert - clearly trying to lure you into thinking it’s the Coca Cola ad [it got me] - begins with the famous red truck with lights and the beginning bars of that “the holidays are coming” song, but just before any copyright is violated the side of the truck comes into view and it is not Santa drinking a coke, but the “Save the Children” logo and name, shortly before it arrives at a war zone with supplies, etc.
A very clever ad I thought, and one that was created by creative company Ace of Hearts for the Save the Children campaign. but aside from the clever storytelling I was left thinking, did Save the Children just spend more on a Christmas advert than Coca Cola? Obviously marketing and advertising make up a huge part of what charities have to spend to get their names out there, but in the age of generative AI, and with the quality of the output [perhaps Coca Cola aside], should charities not be the first to implement cheaper campaigns using the technology to keep the donations that do come in, concentrated on delivering the mission?
After all I can’t imagine your £10 donation was spent with the intention of £6 going on an advert for christmas?
