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<\/p>\nA couple dressed in festive sweaters bearing a bottle of wine and a six-pack of Stella Artois beer ring the doorbell and turn to each other, laughing joyously.<\/p>\n
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A young woman holding a bottle of red wine adjusts her scarf and waves into the camera.<\/p>\n
A bearded young man in a flannel jacket and hoodie looks sheepishly down at his bottle of Jameson Black Label and grins widely before entering the home.<\/p>\n
All the while, Christmas lights twinkle on the porch, which is set against a snowy Canadian street.<\/p>\n
The Alcool NB Liquor ad \u2014 complete with holiday music and a chipper voiceover \u2014 encourages New Brunswickers to stop by the Crown corporation to pick up a gift for \u201cextra holiday cheer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The people, the porch, and the booze they\u2019re clutching are all AI-generated.<\/p>\n
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\u201cContracts come and go, I would say. It\u2019s (one thing) to lose a contract to someone that\u2019s better than you, but it\u2019s something else to lose a contract to AI,\u201d said filmmaker Pierre-Luc Arseneau.<\/p>\n
Arseneau was a freelance cinematographer who worked on last year\u2019s NB Liquor Christmas ad, which involved about 20 people working together over two days.<\/p>\n
He said he felt \u201csad\u201d when he saw this year\u2019s commercial on social media and that while he expects private industry to use AI to cut costs, it\u2019s surprising from an arm of the government.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think this ad in particular really hit us hard because we saw that all the hard work that we put in last year for the ad that we made was just replaced by this AI ad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Robert Gray, a film and creative professor at the University of New Brunswick who also co-owns a local production company, said he immediately felt \u201cangry\u201d when he saw the ad.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s lazy, it\u2019s unimaginative, and I think it\u2019s an insult to creatives in New Brunswick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gray went on to call it a \u201clost opportunity\u201d because he believes the Crown corporation had the chance to highlight local talent in its advertising campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world stage knows what talent we have when it comes to acting, when it comes to film, when it comes to video. (It\u2019s disappointing) to see an arm of the government not recognizing the talent we have,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat an opportunity to actually see New Brunswickers in a New Brunswick ad for a New Brunswick business. Like, that\u2019s just such an opportunity there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray posted his own tongue-in-cheek response to NB Liquor\u2019s ad on social media \u2014 with a couple expletives thrown in \u2014 as a message to the provincial Crown corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake down the AI bullsh\u2013 or we\u2019re going to party in Nova Scotia instead,\u201d he says in the video while holding a liquor bottle at the front door of a home.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from Alcool NB Liquor told Global News that they work with a number of agencies, which use a \u201cvariety of AI tools as part of their process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the year, we do various campaigns and in case of smaller campaigns, like this one, we looked at opportunities to be more efficient and manage costs by using animation or AI,\u201d wrote spokesperson Florence Gouton in an email.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI didn\u2019t replace our team or our creative direction \u2014 our concept, story and standards still guided the entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gouton went on to say that this method allows them to \u201cexperiment with a different technique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister says he\u2019s asked for ad to be paused\t<\/p>\n
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