Mark Zuckerberg somehow reminds me of DATA in Star Trek the Next Generation. That slightly-too-precise walk? That measured, almost-synthesised speech pattern? The enthusiastically grey wardrobe? He probably has his socks folded away in alphabetical order. Maybe he wants to be an android? Remember he wanted us to live in the Metaverse with him – eek!
Now he’s architecting another world of algorithmic grey goo – that includes advertising. By 2026, he plans to pump it into every Meta ad. The promise is seductive for SME’s and small brands: save time and money, gain flawless targeting, enjoy optimised CPC/CPV, and churn out slick, scalable creatives. Of course it’s appealing. It will probably work to certain degree for those brands who have little time or money for marketing or advertising.
But what about larger brands? What happens if every brand uses the same AI tools, ticks the same boxes, and generates near-identical images? What makes YOUR brand different? Meta’s AI hands you the “perfect” ad. It hands your competitor the exact same one. Suddenly, your unique message dissolves into a sea of sameness. Your brand vanishes. Yes, you’ll get technically perfect, emotionally barren ads – joyless, toneless, and culturally vacant. What’s your edge over your competitors – Budget?
Maybe I’m wrong, but I expect that Zuckerberg doesn’t hold human creativity in much regard. I wonder what he would feel staring at Michelangelo’s David or the Sistine Chapel: Would he see human genius? Or just inefficient data, thinking “Our AI renders faster with 98.7% anatomical accuracy compared with Michelangelo’s 96.4%.” Or sitting in the Louvre “The brush strokes on the Mona Lisa are inaccurate by a factor of 0.85%. AI has an accuracy on the human form of 99.9%.”
AI is undeniably here to stay; it has transformed marketing forever. But it is not the holy grail. The most successful brands of the next decade won’t be those that reject AI outright, nor those that surrender to it completely. They’ll be the ones who use AI to amplify their humanity.
John Hegarty’s wisdom strikes a chord: “A brand isn’t a logo. It’s the sum of every interaction a customer has with you.” That’s what Meta’s ad generator could destroy: your brand story, your humanity, your reason to exist beyond conversion metrics.
In a world that is starting to drown in AI generated ad sludge, the challenge now is to fight to tell human stories. And more than ever embrace imperfection and authenticity. Thoughts?
(Note: Image generated in Midjourney / Photoshop) hashtag#ai hashtag#generativeai hashtag#meta hashtag#aiinfo hashtag#artdirector hashtag#irishadvertising hashtag#advertising