AIympics
The Olympics has major ad buys for AI products. Is this the best Microsoft and Google can do?
I’m having a lot of fun watching the Olympics because watching the best athletes in the world compete is so good you can kind of shut out how wildly corrupt the IOC is. What’s more difficult to ignore are the ads that play between events, and these are not cheap ads given the amount of viewers. Companies know that in this fractured marketplace where there are so many different avenues for entertainment they need to take advantage of programming where a higher-than-average number of people will be tuned in and learning about their products.
Microsoft and Google are using the Olympics to make a major push for their AI products, Copilot and Gemini, respectively. These companies know that as they spend hundreds of millions on this new technology, they need to get the average consumer to buy in and adopt it. However, you only have about 15-30 seconds to make your pitch. So what’s the most appealing story you can tell about AI?
Microsoft’s pitch is fairly straightforward: Copilot will ease your workload. Type in some prompts, and it will deliver what you want.
However, that’s putting a lot of trust in a product for your work, and hey, maybe Copilot is just the first step (although the ad presents the technology as the end of your work rather than the beginning). But that’s still quite a lot of trust to place in a company that still hasn’t quite cracked how to place an image in a Word Document after 30 years. Still, it’s a somewhat persuasive use case even if the ask is, “Would you hand in work to your boss where AI developed the final product?” Also, the Copilot ad is contained to the workspace, and Microsoft is building on the familiarity and comfort people have with Microsoft Office. Google went another direction.
It should be said that Google is typically pretty good at selling its products. They’re able to quickly explain what it does and provide an emotional element. They tried a similar with Gemini and it doesn’t work.
Do you really need AI for your daughter to write a letter to an Olympian? Is the assumption that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone would receive a letter from a child and think, “No. This needs to be stronger. I wish she had used AI to write something better.” It’s not that people should always write messages personally (that’s why greeting cards exist), but it’s so odd to say that, “You know what’s going to provide a personal touch? This prompt machine.”
I’m curious to see if the greater awareness of these AI products will lead to more widespread use. Perhaps I’m being overly critical, and both ads will click with audiences leading to a surge in popularity for Copilot and Gemini. But given that the biggest AI company, OpenAI, appears headed for catastrophe, Copilot and Gemini would need to somehow achieve escape velocity to create a future that’s brighter than “help my child write a fan letter.”
Recommendations
The asymmetry in the media’s coverage of the Presidential candidates continues to astound. I don’t expect or want Kamala Harris to get a free ride, but it’s stunning how major outlets suddenly get amnesia when covering Trump. Concerns about age disappear (I guess it’s better to be a loud grandpa than a quiet grandpa), and you have to believe he doesn’t have authoritarian impulses. The brilliant Margaret Sullivan wisely calls out the press for once again making excuses for Trump by trying to paper over his recent comments that if he’s reelected his voters won’t have to vote again because everything will be taken care of. Something tells me pundits wouldn’t be so sanguine if Biden or Harris had said something similar.
What I’m Watching
Last Friday I saw the new documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger. It’s an interesting documentary because it’s not only a look at the movies of this brilliant directing duo, but specifically how they’re viewed by Martin Scorsese. He’s the presenter, so while you certainly get an overview of the filmography, you’re really learning about their impact on one of our greatest directors, and I think that’s worth the price of the ticket (although as a fan of both Powell & Pressburger and Scorsese, I’m an easy sell).
What I’m Reading
I’m reading me! Here are some of my recent articles:
Eye of the Storm: why we love the peak disaster movies of the 1990s [Letterboxd]
The Mask at 30: How Jim Carrey Became More than a Cartoon [Paste]
‘The Instigators’ Review: Damon and Affleck Shine as Bumbling Criminals in Comic Caper [TheWrap]
In other reads:
Deshaun Watson is acting like a victim, but he brought this all on himself by Jason Lloyd [The Athletic] - I find Watson deeply loathsome, and anyone could have told you that paying him an absurd amount of money wouldn’t instantly turn your team into a contender (I’m embarrassed that the Falcons tried so hard to get him, and that they only missed out because the Browns were the bigger fools). Lloyd takes Watson to task for not only failing to live up to his massive contract, but to even show any ongoing contrition for the women he assaulted. His whole vibe, both personally and professionally is, “How dare anyone hold me accountable?”
What I’m Hearing
I’m currently binging another season of You Must Remember This. It’s funny how much of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon has entered the presumed history of the silent era despite the actual text reading more like a gossip rag than anything that was studiously researched. Karina Longworth, as always, does a good job of separating fact from fiction, and it’s been an entertaining listen.
What I’m Playing
I gave the demo of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown a spin, and it’s not bad, but it’s not what I’m feeling right now. I also finally played Gone Home, which isn’t bad, and I like the way it works to tell its story through an interactive lens (finding scraps of paper, the design of the rooms), but it also reminded me of Firewatch where it feels like the story sputters out because of the budget constraints placed on an indie studio. As for what’s next, I think I will finally try to beat The Last of Us: Part II, especially since the second season of the HBO series will arrive in 2025.