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Everyone right now is going crazy about how good Artificial Intelligence (Ai) is and its potential. Industry leaders, tech leaders, celebrities, and every single news channel in the world are all talking about Ai right now… because with Chatbot GPT and DALL:E, Ai just went up a level. This moment has been compared to the “invention of the Guttenberg press” or “invention of Photography” by many thought leaders.
It is indeed believed that it is quickly becoming the future of advertising, and has started to play a more significant role in the creative process with the possibility to test infinite combinations of advertising copy, visuals etc.
The rate that AI Creativity is developing, it won't be long before advertising campaigns are more AI than human.
So fueled by this Ai frenzy, Hardee’s along with Dubai-based marketing agency ‿ and us, decided to put Ai to the test to see just how good it really is, see if it was the genius everyone purports to be - and whether there’s any way to enhance any of Hardee's menu item.
Using Open Ai’s imagemaking tool DALL:E, they prompted it to “imagine Hardee’s SUPER STAR burger”. What came back from this new Ai system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language was an array of weird, wacky, surreal, completely wild creations – amazing, near misses, beautiful images, but crucially – not one was a 100% correct image of a SUPER STAR burger. So, they pushed it more with other prompts including giving the full recipe. But the result wasn’t satisfying, as it still couldn’t nail a SUPER STAR burger down, in over 10,000 attempts.
This is when the creative team decided to make a campaign from the resulting images of all the mistakes Ai generated, a campaign named "UnAimaginable" that speaks volume about the process and the end message Hardee's wanted to convey.
Posts and a video showing the fuller experiment were released across social media with an encouraging message to remind people that Ai isn’t perfect, so don’t worry right now”. So for whoever, thinks Ai will allow brands to generate bigger and better ideas, Hardee’s campaign made the point in proving otherwise—that nothing can beat the quality of their real human-made superstar burger and that Ai is not close to take it away from the menu.
“The campaign rides on the hot topic of the hour, for people in the region and around the world. This is a message everyone needs to hear right now – that it’s OK, take a breath, ‘Ai isn’t coming for you just yet’. And if we can make this much needed message with the help of a delicious Hardee’s Super Star burger, then all the better,” notes Hussein Kandil, Hardee’s Regional Marketing Director MENA.
“We acted fast to bring a tongue-in-cheek message of hope in the moment people needed it the most, heading into a new year, with the spectre of Ai hanging over us all. It was the perfect time to show not what it can do, but what it can’t. Each image Ai generated therefore became an eye-catching reminder (and proof) that Ai isn’t quite there yet,” says Jamie Kennaway, Executive Creative Director, ‿ and us.
“The response has been dramatic, and we have clearly struck a chord with people. It’s a brave new world, and while thought leaders are still figuring out the implications of Ai, as a brand we’re happy to lead with a message to make everyone feel just a little better. A message to come enjoy a real flame grilled Super Star, safe in the knowledge Ai isn’t going to take over everything. Well just now anyway,” comments Justin Hunter, Hardee’s Senior Marketing Manager.
Credit:
Agency: ‿ and us
Client: Hardee’s
