KitKat ribs AI in hilarious new advert marketing campaign By Joseph Foley printed 17 April 23 graphic design The inventive staff took a break.

5 months ago 3 min read

If AI does lastly acquire Godlike powers and destroys the world as some persons are beginning to worry, KitKat will now be on the prime of its hit listing. Whereas some manufacturers are already exploring what sensible makes use of generative AI can provide their inventive groups, utilizing it to create every little thing from copy to imagery and even fashions, KitKat’s taken a extra amusing strategy.

In a brand new advert marketing campaign, the snack model is mocking the concept that AI may exchange inventive jobs, by taking its well-known ‘have a break’ slogan to coronary heart. It let its personal creatives have a while off, with actually horrendous outcomes (see our piece on methods to use DALL-E 2 for extra on how generative AI works).

The inventive consultancy Wunderman Thompson Australia (opens in new tab) fed an AI mannequin prompts like ‘write a KitKat advert the best way Gen Z speaks’ to acquire AI-written scripts. It used a voice synthesizer to ship the script and the AI artwork generator DALL-E 2 to generate imagery.

The result’s a marketing campaign by which AI successfully sends itself up, showcasing its many flaws, with daft robotic-sounding textual content and imagery that is filled with artifacts, together with arms with six fingers and a bloodbath of the KitKat emblem that is typical of the best way that AI cannot deal with textual content. The outcomes are so comically unhealthy that you simply virtually really feel embarrassed for the poor AI fashions concerned.

The marketing campaign follows a practice of well timed KitKat advertisements, together with the intelligent KitKat lockdown posters through the Covid-19 pandemic (although these have been an idea by one other artist). It is amusing, and we love a little bit of AI bashing, however I really feel that KitKat’s in all probability acquired in simply in time with this. In a press launch concerning the marketing campaign, Melanie Chen, Nestlé’s Head of Advertising Confectionery, says: “I feel all of us agree from the outcomes, AI received’t exchange jobs in our trade any time quickly with out some actual watch-outs.”

However Generative AI is advancing so rapidly that a few of these flaws could also be consigned to the previous in mere months. We have seen how briskly text-to-image AI has progressed in only one yr, with Midjourney already producing far more usable human faces, and even AI arms with 5 fingers. Voice synthesizers are already extra plausible than those used within the advert, and absolutely it will not be lengthy earlier than AI picture mills can deal with textual content. Writing copy that does not sound phoney could also be an even bigger problem.

A remark from João Braga, Chief Inventive Officer at Wunderman Thompson Australia, is probably on the ball. “We thought we’d have a crack at it ourselves and poke a little bit of enjoyable at AI—whereas we are able to.” That ultimate statement is astute, as a result of I am undecided for the way longer we’ll have the ability to proceed to make enjoyable of generative AI. We have already heard that Lee is planning to make use of AI fashions, purportedly to extend variety (hiring precise various fashions does not appear to have crossed its thoughts), and the know-how is making its approach into every little thing from online game design to animation.

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