It’s widely agreed that tech-generated ads walk the line between confusing and stupid. That’s why artists Harris Alterman and Dave Ross are having a little fun in the subways by posting parody ads featuring taglines meant to turn the tables on AI.
“This idea came about because I’m a comedian and I ride the subway in New York City all the time, and I saw all of these AI ads that were confusing me, and annoying me, and I wondered if other people felt the same way,” Alterman said. “So I asked Dave, who is also a comedian, if he wanted to work with me on this project.”
The pair began texting one another photos of real AI advertisements they saw in subways, then met in a diner to create their own take on those ads.
“We just put all of the kind of tech lingo that they used into a giant Google Doc, then kind of played Mad Libs,” Harris said. “Kind of, just, moved words around until something makes both of us laugh.”
One of their ads is for a fake company called Wireflow. Its motto is simply “You pay us, we pay you.”
The poster includes no contact information or explanation of how that business might work. Another of the duo’s phoney ads is for “Grandfather,” touted as “the world’s first wearable AI grandfather.” The ad appears to be a nod to “Friend,” the wearable AI companion startup that made headlines last September for its $1M ad buy across MTA stations in the city that drew confusion and irritation among straphangers.
Because the New York City Police Department is a real thing that deals in real consequences, Alterman and Harris only post their fake ads in subway stations long enough to shoot photos and video of their work that they can then post on social media.
“We actually got yelled at while putting them up once and we had to reassure the MTA workers that we were going to take them right down,” Ross said. “Then they were fine with it.”
That’s what the pair plans to do Saturday afternoon at the W. 4th Street subway station under Greenwich Village where they’ll host their Fake Tech Ad Art Show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Though they’ve worked in the tech space, Alterman and Harris have no plans to actually create companies like “Wake Market,” which theoretically allows gamblers to somehow bet on grief when someone dies. They don’t imagine a big advertising company is going to come calling, either. Rather, the pair is simply having fun and making art.
“What’s happening now is kind of best case,” Ross believes.
People who have come across their work know they’re looking at parody, but seem to get a laugh out of art that imitates artificial intelligence’s understanding of human creativity.
“I think that one of the reasons it’s funny to people, is, that they could be real,” he said. “People will literally comment, ‘If I saw these in the subway, I wouldn’t even bat an
eye.”
