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Meta\u2019s \u2018The future is for everyone\u2019 campaign aims to create optimism around the opportunity AI can bring into the future, but industry experts say the big tech company fails to address the concerns about the future of technology.<\/p>\n
The campaign uses a range of visuals of everyday humans, a male voiceover and features David Bowie’s ‘Five Years’ as the soundtrack.<\/p>\n
MC&V co-founder Vinne Schifferstein Vidal said Meta is selling an emotional relationship with the future rather than a particular product.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta is trying to move the AI conversation away from fear and towards optimism, while positioning itself as the company that will make the benefits of AI broadly accessible,\u201d Schifferstein Vidal told AdNews.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public debate around AI is shaped by concerns about jobs, misinformation, copyright,\u00a0data\u00a0and the concentration of power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than engaging with those issues directly, Meta reframes the debate as a choice between pessimism and progress.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that technology can be available to everyone does not automatically mean its value, power or economic benefits will be shared by everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta can credibly claim enormous reach. What it has yet to prove is that reach and democratisation are the same thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schifferstein Vidal said the visuals focus on human connection, creativity and possibility, while the technology itself, its commercial implications and its potential disruption are pushed almost entirely out of frame. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAI becomes an invisible enabling layer beneath everyday life, which makes the future feel reassuring but also avoids the harder realities of who controls the technology, who benefits from it and who may be displaced by it,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe choice of David Bowie\u2019s\u00a0Five Years\u00a0introduces an interesting contradiction, because the song\u2019s original premise is apocalyptic. That tension adds depth to a film that might otherwise feel overly polished and uncomplicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe narration becomes less convincing when it suggests that people warning about the risks of AI simply lack optimism.<\/p>\n
“Many of those concerns are practical and legitimate, including questions about jobs, copyright, data, misinformation and who ultimately benefits. Believing in AI\u2019s potential does not mean ignoring those issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meta’s ‘The future is for everyone’ comes only weeks after Anthropic released ‘There’s hope in the hard questions<\/a>,’ aiming to address the concerns surrounding AI usage in day-to-day life.<\/p>\n Mel Hay, account director at The Digital Picnic, said the campaign reflects a broader pattern in how big tech is managing its AI narrative<\/p>\n \u201cAnthropic went minimalist and cautious, positioning Claude as a deep thinking partner, then leaned into safety and privacy jabs at OpenAI’s expense. OpenAI countered with cinematic, human moments ads,” said Hay.<\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft is quietly playing the productivity card through Copilot rather than emotion. Meta’s answer is nostalgia and nostalgia alone, betting on nearly twenty years of “goodwill” rather than a single new capability. But is it really goodwill, or goodwill hunting?”<\/p>\n BCM creative strategy lead Sam Boyd said the campaign is an attempt at humanising Meta after a recent spate of non-human-promoting efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis would have been a hard brief for anyone to do well. It probably comes off the back of Meta letting go of 10% of its people globally to invest in AI capex,” said Boyd.<\/p>\n \u201cOr off the back of automatically opting all of the people on their platforms into Muse Image, where anyone can tag a handle and generate images from that person’s likeness with no consent and no notification, which, after intense backlash, they had to roll back.<\/p>\n \u201cThis feels like a COVID-esque, out-of-touch manifesto brand film that tries to unite us and say we’re all in it together.<\/p>\n \u201cIt fails on two basic counts. They failed to read their audience. Or perhaps their audience wasn’t people, but a particular set of people at the top of their company?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n SOLVD creative director Dan Stephens said that the\u00a0ad is a trust-rehab exercise dressed up as an optimism manifesto, swapping the usual tech-talk for a nostalgic “we bet on people” sentiment as AI anxiety builds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCredit\u00a0where\u00a0credit’s\u00a0due though. The arrangement of music, narration and imagery does genuine emotional work, and the defiant “call us whatever the hell you want” gives it personality,\u201d said Stephens.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOdd choice of soundtrack though. Five Years is Bowie’s countdown to human extinction, not exactly the vibe Meta’s going for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe narration is reassuring and rebellious in parts, but the message lands flat on accountability, especially from a company facing real pressure over how\u00a0it’s\u00a0actually governing\u00a0AI.\u00a0It’s\u00a0persuasive craft, not persuasive substance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Independent Adrian Elton Creative said the whole ad falls flat and reads as deeply disingenuous given how hard it\u2019s increasingly become to buy into the glib aspirationality they’re trying to sell us.<\/p>\n “As Meta shores up its incorporation of AI into its ever expanding product suite, which now includes physical products like the Meta RayBan Smart sunnies, this ad tries to put a warm fuzzy ‘Hello Kitty’ hat on the gun-metal robot that is staring back at us with its menacingly glowing red diode eyes,” Elton said.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s almost like their bet on people, is more aptly, a bet on people looking past the still smouldering car crash of Cambridge Analytica and every other Meta breach of trust and data ever since.”<\/p>\n Common Ventures creative and co-founder, Jane Burhop, said that\u00a0Meta\u00a0desperately wants to be today\u2019s version of Apple\u2019s \u20181984\u2018, trying its hardest to position the brand as the anti-hero democratising AI for human connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYet every creative decision clashes with this at every turn, a tinny, generated-sounding voiceover actively fights against the nostalgic yawn-worthy montage and whacking Zuckerberg\u2019s profile picture in there is a nice narcissistic cherry on the top, ripping the viewer out of the halcyon imagery and reminding them exactly who thinks they\u2019re pulling the strings,” said Burhop.<\/p>\n “This spot exposes a glaring blind spot in big tech’s perspective, they claim to understand the data points and behaviours of a \u2018user\u2019 but they are miles away from understanding the inner person and their motivations.<\/p>\n \u201cMasking AI anxieties with forced optimism doesn’t make Meta look visionary, it just further highlights their questionable corporate values and shows a company in deep denial about the human consequences of its own platforms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bonfire creative director Luke Williams said that\u00a0Meta is trying to soften the edges around AI by reminding us that technology is only as good,\u00a0bad\u00a0or weird as the people using it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMeta is making a reasonable emotional argument while avoiding the harder practical one. It is saying technology does not determine the future, people do. There is truth in that,” said Williams.<\/p>\n \u201cBut not all people have the same influence over how this technology is built,\u00a0released\u00a0or monetised. Most of us are not shaping the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are accepting the updated terms and conditions so the app will open. The campaign is at its best when it argues for optimism. It is at its weakest when it treats optimism as an answer to legitimate concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Those That Do chief doer Ben Walker said\u00a0that rather than debating the risks of AI, Meta reframes the conversation around possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially: look over there while we quietly become the infrastructure for everything over here,” said Walker.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re not betting on humanity because\u00a0they’re\u00a0sentimental.\u00a0They’re\u00a0betting on humanity because they\u00a0don’t have a product without us!”<\/p>\n Q Agency co-founder and head of creative, Michael Noone,\u00a0said that everything Meta is saying about AI is being said by an advertising company.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMeta wields extraordinary power and makes\u00a0all of\u00a0its money off advertising revenue,\u201d said Noone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA company whose entire income depends on how much of your life you spend inside its products is telling you that the most persuasive technology anyone has ever built is going to bring you closer to people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery product decision\u00a0they’ve\u00a0made for twenty years has been optimised for time on platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPointing AI at your wellbeing instead of your attention would mean acting directly against themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo\u00a0are they really dreamers? Or are they dreaming up new ways to ravage your time and your attention? The future is for everyone. Especially everyone with a media budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe next election outcome, brought to you by Meta, powered by AI, powered by advertising dollars, paid for by you. Twice. Once with your money, the second time with your attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to the AdNews newsletter<\/a>, like us on Facebook<\/a> or follow us on Twitter<\/a> for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.<\/p>\n