No, ChatGPT did not create a Cannes Lion-winning ad, neither did it create something truly refreshing.
Before you say ‘Here we go, agencies are getting nervous’. No, this article is not about dissing ChatGPT or putting down AI.
Can’t we all just co-exist? 🙂
AI is revolutionary, truly, like Tesla, the scientist, not the brand, and in the years to come it will make things easy and very accessible to all and sundry. But to say that it will put ad agencies, or creative people, or copywriters, or content writers, or marketers, or designers, or the humble office boys, or the admins, or the receptionists, or the auto-wallas, out of their jobs, is a little dramatic.
Ok, not little, but too dramatic.
Ok, now look at me, look at the article, now back at me (line inspired by the award-winning, much-loved, Old Spice campaign), and now you might have an idea where this is headed – being creative and solving problems in an AI driven world. An article with its title buried within the article! See what we did there?
Simply put, ChatGPT, Chat Sonic, Bard, or any other AI tool is not going to put anything or anybody out of business, not anytime soon, not ever.
But it will prove to be a vital tool in any marketer’s or ad agency’s arsenal. Yes, tool – not the boss. We are nowhere close to Skynet (think Terminator) becoming a reality.
Creativity is evolutionary. It’s the collective consciousness and learnings, imaginative thinking, and has allowed us to invent and innovate. It is the power to imagine, to be able to connect to seemingly unconnected things and create something new.
I actually asked ChatGPT to create an ad for Coca-Cola in India and this is what I got (verbatim copy-paste, honest):
Title: “Refresh Your World with Coca-Cola”
Image: A picture of an ice-cold Coca-Cola being poured into a glass with a slice of lemon, against a backdrop of an iconic Indian landmark such as the Taj Mahal or the Gateway of India.
Caption: “Experience the crisp, refreshing taste of Coca-Cola, now available in India. Savor every sip and refresh your world with the world’s most famous soft drink.”
And now let me tell you a short story about an actual Coca Cola ad that was created some years back. That most of us still remember. And even if you don’t remember it’s still a very interesting story.
This famous adman noticed that people in his village kept mangoes cool in the summer by placing them in a bucket and immersing them in the village well. And voila, thus was born the iconic ‘Thanda Matlab Coca Cola’ campaign.
Didn’t I say this was an interesting story?
Open challenge: We challenge any AI to come up with the insanely hilarious and innovative campaign done by Old Spice some years back. It was not just any agency’s dream but also any brand marketer’s.
Then again, like I said in the beginning, this is not to put down any AI.
AI is revolutionary (and we’re back to the beginning of the article), and AI will greatly help both brand and agency. It will help as a stepping stone to greater thought. It will help give us insights. It will help guide us when we’re stuck. Yes it will also help in reducing turnaround time for things that don’t need too much thought, like maybe a few posts here and there, creating some images, writing a few articles, coding, and..
Ok let me not go into what ChatGPT can do, since you must have already read tons of articles around that by now.
But I’ve made my point. And I’m sure you get the point too.
And BTW, I even told ChatGPT to suggest a thought leadership article for a digital ad agency. This is what it gave me: The Future of Digital Experiences: Trends and Predictions for 2023 and beyond.
( Article is authored by Gaurang Menon, CCO, BC Web Wise.)
