In the midst of controversy over the rise of companion devices based on artificial intelligence, Heineken has launched a campaign that serves as an emotional and cultural counterweight to the phenomenon. Under the claim “The best way to make a friend is over a beer,” the action developed by LePub New York is presented as a defense of authentic connections at a time when human relationships seem increasingly mediated by algorithms, screens and emotional simulations.

Heineken’s message comes just after the controversial campaign by start-up Friend, which wallpapered the New York subway with minimalist ads to promote an artificial intelligence wearable designed to simulate human company. The citizen response was overwhelming: dozens of vandalized posters with phrases like “Make real friends” either “This is surveillance” They made clear their rejection of what many perceive as a dangerous trivialization of friendship and a threat to privacy. Instead of appeasing criticism, Friend’s own CEO, Avi Schiffmann, acknowledged that the campaign was designed to provoke debate: “I know people in New York hate AI.”declared to adweekafter admitting to having invested a good part of its budget in the more than 11,000 posters distributed throughout the metro network.

Aware of the cultural climate, Heineken has intervened in New York’s public space with a diametrically opposite message. Instead of a pendant with microphones, the brand proposes a much simpler and more direct wearable: a necklace with a bottle opener. Its function is not to record data or simulate emotions, but to facilitate a gesture as human as sharing a beer with someone. The central claim is also accompanied by a historical nod: “Heineken: Social networking since 1873”.

The campaign – which is also deployed on social networks with publications that encourage tagging real friends with whom to have a beer – relies on humor and closeness to remember that true connection does not need intermediary devices. As Jim Curtis, Chief Creative Officer at LePub, explains: “Heineken believes that the best way to make friends is still with a real beer and a real person. And many New Yorkers agree.”

In this cultural battle over what we understand by human connection, Heineken positions itself on the side of authenticity and does so with a campaign that, without direct confrontation, intelligently dialogues with current social tensions. Compared to the pendants that promise artificial company for $129, the beer brand recovers the ancestral gesture of sharing a drink as a symbol of closeness and real conversation.