Google didn’t win any gold medals with its Olympic ads this year. After days of backlash, the company has decided to pull its controversial “Dear Sydney” ad from Olympic coverage.
In the 60-second spot, a father attempts to write a fan letter on behalf of his daughter for her Olympic idol, U.S. track and field star Sidney McLaughlin-Lefroney. The premise is the kind of sweet commercial you’d expect to see at the Olympics, but things take a turn and instead of helping his daughter write a letter together, he has Gemini write the letter for both of them. “This has to be just right,” he said, before prompting Gemini to tell Sydney how inspiring she was and that his daughter planned to beat her record one day, adding a “sorry, not sorry” joke at the end.
From the start, the ad sparked outrage online. Many took to social media to lambast the ad for completely failing to capture the point of writing a fan letter. (On the surface, this is about creating heart-to-heart, person-to-person connections by showing vulnerability and expressing how much your hero’s work has impacted your life.) Washington post Columnist Alexandra Petri wrote an article saying she wanted to “throw a sledgehammer at television every time I see it.” Others noted that the ad encouraged taking the easy way out rather than practicing self-expression.
At the same time, Google acknowledged the negative feedback in a statement to multiple media outlets, but said the ad was not meant to imply that Gemini could completely replace humans. The ad aims to “demonstrate how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, idea starter or early draft for anyone looking for writing ideas.”
This isn’t the first time big tech companies have stepped in to try to showcase the power of artificial intelligence in advertising. A few months ago, Apple was criticized for its “Crush” ad, which showed a hydraulic press pressing creative tools into a shiny new iPad. People are understandably upset by these images, especially as artificial intelligence raises concerns that technology will steal and replace the work of writers, artists, performers and other creatives.
At the heart of the problem, tech companies still struggle to understand what artificial intelligence is. The “Dear Sydney” ad isn’t even about artificial intelligence taking away jobs. In general, humans crave authentic connection. What makes fan letters valuable is knowing that someone took time out of their busy lives to express how much you or your work means to them. It’s hard to imagine McLaughlin Levrone Won’t Moved by a disjointed letter from a child with occasional spelling errors or awkward grammar.
Ironically, what the father said before the Gemini prompt was perfect. Instead, the glimpse you get from Gemini’s draft is more like a boilerplate cover letter. Google may want to show that Gemini is good at drafting, but it fails to understand that business email is a thing. Writing personal letters is not always easy. Keep it tight, get over it, and express your true feelings no matter what – that’s The whole point.
