Welcome to the Machine

I tried an interesting experiment working with the “Uncreative Agency,” an AI creative resource.

I’ve been seeing several posts featuring a new form of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It’s called the “Uncreative Agency.” And it bills itself as “the world’s first fully automated creative agency, powered by AI.”

UA’s website then goes on to say that there are “No Humans.” A point of pride they continue with this bit of copy: “All the creative work is done by machines. Which means no delays. No Cannes Lions ambitions. No egos. Only work.”

Oh, dear. How dull.

Anywho, I gave it a whirl. And the results were fascinating.

I gave the AI a brief for McDonald’s. Recently I saw a magnificent TV spot from McDonald’s UK and the humans at Leo Burnett. You may have seen the ad. It’s a terrific spot in which the mere suggestion of someone arching their eyebrows and then sharing a post-it note with the McDonald’s logo arches scribbled on it inspires an entire office to leap from their desks and jauntily head off to Mickey D’s for lunch. It’s funny. It’s charming. It’s very…human.

Which is precisely why I gave this brief to the machine.

The “Uncreative” process is remarkably simple. It has a four-question brief:

1\ What brand or category do we need to promote? I typed in: McDonald’s

2\ What kind of idea are you looking for? I typed in: TVC (TV commercial)

3\Who is your target audience? I typed in: Office workers

4\What do you want your audience to do as a result? I typed in: Go to McDonald’s for lunch

I then hit “send” and the “Uncreative Agency” went to work.

As the machine did its “thinking,” some cheeky copy appeared before me. It was all in the spirit of a creative process. It happened quickly, but it was phrases like, “We’re drinking some coffee…We’re brainstorming…We’re ordering in pizza…We’re selecting ideas…We’re calling in some freelancers...We’re going for a smoke…We’re writing headlines…We’re wrestling with PowerPoint…We’re checking for typos…”

Then, voila.

The Uncreative Agency’s deck was sent to my inbox.

The whole creative process took under 2 minutes. And what appeared, well, it wasn’t nearly as good as the “Eyebrow Arches,” but..it was…a start.

The deck included a framing of the Challenge and three ideas. Each of the ideas was on a single slide. A description on the left. A visual on the right.

Here are the ideas and the actual copy that framed them up.

Idea 1: Break Free for Lunch!

A TVC featuring an office in a dystopian future where the employees are robotic and soulless – until they break free and enjoy a McDonald’s lunch

Idea 2: Lunchtime Freedom Bliss

A TVC that follows a day in the life of one office worker, showing how their lunch break at McDonald’s is the highlight of their mundane work day.

Idea 3: LunchTimeMunchTime

Create an interactive campaign where office workers upload photos of their work lunch and McDonald’s provides feedback in real-time.

Not bad, right? If you were a creative director, you’d put a few these up on a wall and see what you could build from them.

Now, of course, there isn’t the surprising insight of the “Eyebrow” ad. There’s no creative magic in these AI options. But I will say, there are some truths. And some seeds from which to grow.

Which is why I see two big benefits from using AI this way.

First, it gets you started. There is nothing more challenging when doing creative work than looking at that blank screen and seeing that damn cursor blinking at you. In fact, if the creative process is going from nothing to something to something extraordinary, well, AI in this form can get you two-thirds of the way there. (Of course, it’s always the leap from “something” to “something extraordinary” that requires all the time and brian-power.)

Second benefit to this creative AI? Speed. These McDonald’s ideas were generated in less than 2 minutes. Truth is it might take a creative team all day to come up with something like these. Imagine tasking the machine to come up with several rounds of “thinking.” You could have 50 options and 5 really good things before lunch.

Now, I am not suggesting that the machine should replace people. Quite the contrary, I’m suggesting that the machine can help people.

What this little experiment reminded me of is the embrace of progress.

Calculators help us with math and finance.

Engines (gas and electric) make getting from point A to point B a whole lot faster.

Freezers turn water into ice to help make Gin and Tonics so fantastic.

These are three mechanized items that we love.

So, what if you hate everything the Ad machine comes up with? Well, that’s the inspiration to come up with something better. To create the thing you actually do want to make.  

In the meantime, I’m going to ask the “Uncreative Agency” if they have any ideas for how we can increase our fees and get paid faster.