Seriously, Olympic Ads?

Google and Nike lose the plot.

You’ve got to wonder what’s going through some of the minds in corporate America. I’m not as bearish on AI as some of my fellow creatives—I think it can be a great help when used alongside human intelligence. But that doesn’t change the fact that the person on the street is greeting it with a lot of ambivalence, even though seemingly every major tech company has some new AI product that they want you to integrate into your life.

But don’t worry, Google reassures us. This product will not only be less reliable than searching the internet, it will also take over tasks that your children used to enjoy like writing letters to their athletic heroes, also denying them a formative experience that could teach them to communicate with the world. Wait, what?

It’s not “a little help” if it writes the whole damn letter, guys. Google insists that the ad “tested well” before the company approved it, which is practically redundant—did they think we believed that Google would release an ad that it hated? But this just raises further questions about who gets consulted when testing such an ad. Who does Google believe is worth listening to when designing tech that affects millions of people?

Remember the techno-idealists who assured us that social media was a gift that made the world more connected? It really feels like they haven’t learned a thing from how Facebook and Twitter turned out. Or, for that matter, how things usually go when Google applies its mathematical approach to messy human interactions.

Still, this was not the worst or most tone-deaf ad that played during the Olympics. At least it understands that Olympic athletes are admirable people. Nike seems to think they’re psychopaths.

I can see what the ad is trying to say—you need competitive drive to be an Olympic winner or even an Olympic competitor, and that spirit of competition has to be a bit selfish, a bit greedy for glory. But that’s only part of a winning athlete’s psyche, and it’s a much smaller part than Nike apparently believes. Winners aren’t at war with the whole world: that strategy wastes their energy and surrounds them with negativity. Winners seek out good feelings in most of their lives, supplying them with more energy that they can focus on their goals.

Take a look at how Olympic runners acknowledge each other after a race if you doubt this. In a world where our politics are pettier than ever, big business’s transgressions go unpunished, and entertainers often disappoint us, we look to the Olympics for comfort, excellence, and a reflection of the best of ourselves. It is profoundly sad how little Nike and its ad agency seem to understand this.

Oh, and just to be clear: that’s not the voice of any Olympic athlete in the Nike ad, probably because they all knew better. Instead, it’s Willem Dafoe, who’s starred in over a hundred movies but is best known for unhinged villain roles like the Green Goblin. So, uh, yes, disembodied voice, I would have to say that you are a bad person.

Tomorrow: a micross!