The artificial intelligence startup Friend has allocated a million dollars to an external advertising campaign that has been mainly activated in the New York Metro. The ads are found in corridors and stations that cover up to five different districts. But they are being vandalized by the city’s neighbors, a controversy that the company wanted to deliberately generate.
The reason is the product that is marketed. And it is that Friend proposes a wearable device based on artificial intelligence that acts as an companion or, as his name, as a friend. Listen to conversations, track the interactions and offer comments on the daily activities and answers to the questions and comments of the owners when touching it.
It adopts the shape of a pendant, and is sold at a price of $ 129.
The activity of the device can be an infraction of privacy policies. Moreover, the terms of the company place the user as sole responsible for complying with the privacy and surveillance regulations applied in their region. By accepting the terms, the user accepts that Friend passively records the environment, including video, audio, biometric data and facial and voice recognition.
And that is precisely what has aroused the reaction of the New Yorkers, who have expressed their opinion in the creativity of Friend’s campaign. This consists of minimalist pieces, only with a white background that highlights texts such as “Friend. Name. Someone who listens to you, responds and supports”, or “I will take the subway with you”, with which the will to accompany the particular device is highlighted.
The campaign includes more than 11,000 posters in wagons, more than 1,000 posters in platforms and 130 panels, located in key places of the Metro network, as Avi Schiffmann, CEO of Friend, has shared through social networks.
The company has also activated an exterior advertising campaign in Los Angeles.
Citizens have written about these posters demonstrating a negative attitude towards Friend and towards artificial intelligence in general. “AI does not care if you live or die”, “Go to make real friends. This is surveillance” or “voluntarily deliver your personal information to the great technological will not heal your wounds,” are some of the written messages.
Citizens have revealed their opinions and concerns, many of them legitimate, given the risk that this technology implies for security and privacy. They also load against the economic interests of the companies and how some, such as the case of Friend, are capitalizing a growing tendency to loneliness, especially in large cities.
The reaction is the one sought after, as Schiffmann himself has explained to Adweek. He says, he designed creativity in Figma and wrote the text himself with the intention of deliberately causing the conversation. “I know that people in New York hate AI, and things like the company of AI and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country“He commented.”So I bought more ads than anyone with a lot of blank space to socially comment on the subject. “I specifically chose West Fourth Street because I know the atmosphere of that station and the people of that neighborhood. I know they will also share their opinions with more force“
The company head ensures that the campaign has been a great bet, and indicates having invested much of its budget in ELL. “I don’t have much money left“He said to the aforementioned medium.
However, it seems not worrying about the criticisms you are receiving. “There is close attention and rejection for the audacity of the campaign. The product, in its current state, is a great success among adequate people. We will continue to improve it “he commented.
