Amid growing AI distrust, humanity takes a front seat in advertising

“What if we started to be more human again?”

A voice poses that question near the end of “Hope in Hard Questions,” a 90-second ad for Anthropic’s Claude. The spot, which debuted earlier this summer, moves through existential quandaries like, “Can AI be trusted?” and “If it ends up taking, like, almost all the jobs, then what does it mean to work?” before taking a more optimistic tone.

In late July, Meta also used techno-optimism in a new ad called “The Future is For Everyone,” albeit set to a song about the apocalypse. During the 60-second spot, an unseen narrator says Meta is “doubling down” on people “because while technology will change, our intention behind it never will.”

It’s perhaps not surprising that massive tech companies are trying to soothe the growing concerns about the negative effects of AI. Cratering public sentiment, especially when it comes to data centers, has inspired recent protests. And when there’s an image problem, after all, it’s marketing’s job to fix it.

But tech companies aren’t alone in putting humanity front and center in advertising messages. Even more comical ads, like Garage Beer and Liquid Death’s recent 90-second musical satire telling audiences to send in their urine to cool off AI data centers, position the move as a way to “save humanity.”

The message that a brand is made by and for humans and will benefit human consumers in some way is not often something that brands have historically been compelled to spell out so explicitly. Marketing experts told us the shift to more overt references to humanity is a reflection of the zeitgeist as the rapid push toward AI adoption and narratives around the tech’s inevitability have led to larger, more existential questions.

“We’re in a cultural moment where it feels like we are not in control,” Megha Parikh, executive strategy director at VML, told us. That reality, she continued, means humanity is “a very powerful message to empower people…You are in charge of your own destiny. I think that’s a really powerful cultural tension that’s playing out in ad land.”

Humanity narratives as counterculture

Marketers are considering those big questions in advertising, recognizing the current moment and reflecting back to consumers what’s on their minds, often positioning the brands with messages of humanity as an alternative to the dominant narrative.

Once you start looking for brand commentary on humanity, it’s easy to spot across industries. Etsy and TD Bank have created campaigns touting the human touch, while other brands, including Polaroid, Pinterest, and Heineken, have pitched consumers on getting outside and off their devices, offering a rejection of the current technological landscape.

“We are in a bit of an existential crisis as a society,” Marcus Collins, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said, adding that the crisis has prompted questions around what we eat, how we govern and educate, and how we use technology.

He continued: “All these things are being litigated with regard to, What does it mean for humanity? So it’s almost a little tone-deaf to not even have a point of view, and one would argue that the way you engage in culture is by contributing to it, and brands contribute to the cultural discourse by expressing how they see the world.”

That’s how Liquid Death and Garage Beer approached the companies’ recent joint ad, which pitched urine produced from drinking their beverages as a savior for humanity.

“There is a lot of anger and anxiety around AI and, in particular, data centers right now,” Andy Pearson, VP of creative at Liquid Death, said. “So we turned it on itself and said, ‘Hey, can we talk about something that everyone is talking about, but in the most Liquid Death way possible?’”

The team landed on a zany spot inspired by ’80s-era messages of idealism and optimism like “Hands Across America,” opting to take a positive tone at a time when many conversations are centered on negative what-ifs.

To Pearson, marketers addressing humanity head-on in advertising is reminiscent of marketers’ recent obsession with authenticity. But it’s a delicate balance to imbue true meaning without making it a meaningless buzzword.

“If we’re having to prove we’re human, it’s sort of like the real-life version of the Captcha stuff,” Pearson said. “Brands are like, ‘We’re humans. We can pick out the two bicycles in this grid of things,’ which is kind of a dark place for us to be at…we have to laugh so you don’t cry.”

Human touches

While some brands are connecting their brands to humanity through explicit messaging, others are implying humanity through aesthetics. Film, which some brands used for their Super Bowl spots this year, is one increasingly popular choice; others may lean on handmade-feeling elements or make even more subtle choices, like through the use of color.

“The more technology becomes part of our lives, the more we revert back to the things that make us human, whether it’s nature, authenticity, things that are real, and things that you can physically touch,” Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute, previously told Marketing Brew.

Parikh told us VML clients have been asking about “craft” and for the creative to feel “tactile and natural” as well as “imperfect.”

Behind-the-scenes videos, showing how ads are made, are also becoming more common. Brands like Apple and Coinbase have offered looks into the lengths creative teams will go to when creating their ads, signaling the many ways their brands are made by (and for) humans.

That signal can prompt viewers to feel a new appreciation for the work, which is something Ty Gates, director of communications and marketing for Mother, experienced when watching the behind-the-scenes video for Coinbase’s “Your Way Out” spot.

“I liked it that much more because I knew there were real humans involved in making it,” he said.

As brands figure out how to signal humanity, Collins told us he believes any brand can get in on the trend—if, of course, they have something to say.

“I would say any brand can have a point of view on humanity if they have a point of view,” he said. “The strongest brands transcend the category, so they’re not bound by the industry they’re in and what they make. Instead, they’re freed by the point of view they have on the world.”