It’s official: the internet despises Google’s AI Olympics ad. What went wrong?

The user posting about Google’s Gemini Olympics ad was bemoaning ‘Dear Sydney,’ a minute-long spot launched Friday in conjunction with the kickoff of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The ad, created by Google’s in-house team, tells the story of a young girl whose love for track and field is linked to her admiration for American Olympic hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. In an effort to support his daughter, the girl’s father turns to Gemini, Google’s ChatGPT rival, to help her draft a fan letter to McLaughlin. “I’m pretty good with words, but this has to be just right,” the father says.

The Redditor taking issue with the ad argues against the video’s central message: that a child would be well-served by an AI assistant rather than thoughtful coaching from a parent on how to express herself in writing. The user in question isn’t alone in this feeling: the post has received 175 upvotes at the time of writing.

Google Gemini Olympics Ad

byu/TiaMystic inCommercialsIHate

More importantly, the sentiment is reverberating across the internet. Children’s book author Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow wrote in a post on X Saturday: “Seeing that Google Gemini AI ad really hurt my heart as someone who has taught writing to many young kids. Suggesting a child that young should use AI to write a letter to their Olympic hero is a suggestion to steal important experiences from that child.”

Seeing that Google Gemini AI ad really hurt my heart as someone who has taught writing to many young kids. Suggesting a child that young should use AI to write a letter to their Olympic hero is a suggestion to steal important experiences from that child — Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow (@jtbigelow) July 28, 2024

Syracuse media professor Shelly Palmer wrote on his blog that the ad makes him “want to scream” and said its message “echoes the dystopian themes of the movie ‘Wall-E,’ where technology leads to a decline in human engagement and self-sufficiency.”

On YouTube, Google has switched off comments on the video, presumably in response to the criticism.

Well, read the room

So how could Google have struck the right tone with consumers?

Experts in brand strategy, advertising and communications understand the root of the backlash.

“AI cannot replace the relationship and bond a parent has with their child, and Google – perhaps not purposefully – promoted the idea of AI replacing this, which caused outrage and backlash on and offline,” Dr Karen Freberg, a professor of strategic communications at the University of Louisville, tells The Drum.

And other experts in the space agree with this assessment.

“There is something beautiful and quite emotional in a child’s authentically imperfect letter to their hero,” says Dan Lucey, chief creative officer and co-CEO at Havas New York. “Replacing that with artificial intelligence feels like the exact wrong use of AI. This is a rare misstep for Google, who usually gets it right.”

The message of the ad may leave viewers feeling “uninspired” and even “nervous” about the implications of AI in their lives and the future of creativity, says Kelcey Kinter, senior vice-president at Red Banyan, a global PR and crisis communications company.

What’s more, Kinter says, running the spot during the Olympic Games adds an additional layer of irony. “The Olympics represent the pinnacle of the endurance and commitment of the human spirit, and this ad did the opposite. It didn’t put value in people’s words and abilities – it put value in AI technology. Their ad needed to harness that passion and awe we all feel so deeply during the Olympics, and instead it deflated it.”

Google has tried to clarify its intentions with ‘Dear Sydney.’ “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,” a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Drum. “Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA. It showcases a real-life track enthusiast and her father and aims to show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter, or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing.”

How could the misstep have been avoided?

It’s not that marketing an AI assistant as a useful tool for children practicing their writing skills is inherently wrong, Freberg says. Gemini, she says, could remain at the heart of the ad’s story – and resonate meaningfully with consumers – had the central message been “reframed” and the storytelling tweaked. “If they wanted to use Gemini as a tool to augment the experience of writing a letter, Google should have focused on the relationship between the father and daughter, discussing what she wants to write, and have the daughter write the letter first, and then perhaps use [Gemini] for editing,” Freberg suggests.

This storyline, she argues, would have also created “an opportunity to spark a conversation and bond between the father and daughter – which could show how AI could be used to augment and expand new possibilities and connections, rather than being used as a replacement for these elements.” She adds: “AI is not always the best way to capture the creativity, personalization and true nature of what we want to say – but it could be used to brainstorm and inspire to further extend the conversation.”

Ultimately, it may just be the balance of the message that’s off – but a humanistic story could still be the right vehicle for the message, Freberg suggests.

Another key to nailing AI brand messages, in the eyes of VML’s chief strategy officer Ellie Bamford, is ensuring that audiences will feel empowered as a result. This ad did the opposite, she suggests, by making consumers feel as though something as fundamentally human as writing a letter to a role model could be replaced by a machine. Audiences want to feel as though tech companies will equip them to be better, more capable versions of themselves with AI. “The message people want to hear from tech giants like Google and Meta is that ‘AI isn’t taking over; you are,’” she says.

However, some experts disagree with the premise that a company like Google needs to put emotive, human-focused stories at the heart of its efforts to promote AI.

“I don’t think that AI companies necessarily need branding and creative that makes them feel human,” says Andrew Graham, founder and head of strategy at PR firm Bread & Law. “I believe in that Arthur C Clark quote about some technologies being indistinguishable from magic … Consumers don’t need to know exactly what an AI is doing, but they do need to trust that it’s doing the right things. It’s less about feeling human and more about being brand-safe.”

It’s an idea that some social media users have already endorsed, too, in response to ’Dear Sydney.’ Why not just focus on the magic of the technology – against the backdrop of the Olympic Games – and leave the heartstring-tugging behind? Sports business journalist Jacob Feldman posted to X depicting a Gemini interaction wherein a user asks: “How does Epee fencing work?” and the system responds with detailed information – from basic rules of the sport to strategy and tactics, alongside links to learn more. “This is what Google Gemini’s AI Olympics ad *should* have been,” he wrote.

this is what Google Gemini's AI Olympics ad *should* have been. pic.twitter.com/SKu6q6r64B

— ✏️Jacob Feldman (@JacobFeldman4) July 28, 2024

Havas’s Lucey, meanwhile, has a simple, straightforward tip for Google: test ad creative outside the tech bubble to get a real sense of how target audiences might respond next time.

A burgeoning challenge for marketers

At a moment in time when consumer-facing AI tools are still a nascent part of the market and the zeitgeist, it’s understandable that a brand like Google might miss the mark as it endeavors to share its message, says Lucey. “The capabilities of AI are moving quite a bit faster than culture. The rules have not been written on what feels OK and what doesn’t. This is true of all emergent technologies. I’m not surprised we’re in this situation. However, when communicating how new technology is going to transform our lives, we all must tread carefully.”

He adds that he’s “a big fan of Google’s work to date” and says he believes the company will “no doubt … learn from this ad.”

And as for that young fan of track star McLaughlin-Levrone?

“I really hope that young Sydney fan tells her dad that she doesn’t need any help from AI – thank you very much – and then sits down and writes a heartfelt letter about her dreams to be an Olympic athlete,” says Red Banyan’s Kinter. “Because expressing your own passions and honoring those who inspire and come before you is the first step towards achieving an incredible goal.”

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