Polaroid’s Bold Anti-AI Campaign Makes the Case for an Analog Summer
Polaroid launched one of the boldest anti-AI campaigns alongside promoting their Polaroid Go Gen 3 camera. Polaroid is one of a small handful of brands leaning into anti-AI marketing, their latest ad, making a splash at Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn, is part of a bigger global marketing campaign titled “The best of summer is analog” tied to the launch of it’s new camera, per Business Insider. The 89-year-old camera company placed a billboard at the famous Coney Island Beach that read: “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up”, last month. The brand posted on LinkedIn, “There are easier places to start a conversation about over-digitalization than the middle of a beach. It’s actually a pretty ridiculous thing to do.
But easier isn't always more memorable”. They said while the ad is about water consumption and data centers it’s also about “protecting the things that make us human”.
The messaging of the ad, along with the delivery, pushes back against the over-digitisation of society. The font looks handwritten and features the instant printed Polaroid snap. It looks like a message your mom could have written and left for you on the fridge, or a spouse, or a roommate. The warmth of the human touches contrasts the apprehension of the message itself. In addition to the Brooklyn beach ad the campaign is featured across New York, South Korea, and London. The polaroid snaps feature moments of “touching grass” and living life unplugged along statements like “ You can’t bask in blue light” and “Dance like nobody is watching” and “less getting tracked, more getting lost”. Creative Director at polaroid, Patricia Varella, shared, “For Polaroid, the simple act of existing is already an act of rebellion. While our campaigns are provocative and challenge our relationship with technology, we’re not anti-digital. We know we have to live alongside it, but we’re deeply pro-human, and know what humanity gives us. And we know what we stand to lose if we don’t protect it. That’s a fight worth fighting,” per Creative Bloq. She added that it wasn’t about appealing to one generation of consumers, but making the case for their brand as a whole. "When we stopped asking ‘How do you make instant cameras appealing to Gen Z?’ and started asking ‘Why should Polaroid exist at all in an AI era?’ we knew we were on to something," Varella said.
A post made by the brand and posted to their Instagram featuring the same copy as their beach ad “ go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up” received 103k likes, over 800 comments and shared over 11.3k times, with nearly 20k sends. At a time when many companies are pushing and/or requiring their employees to have AI literacy and incorporate it into daily workflows, without addressing the broader ramifications of AI use related to data centers, such as water consumption, noise pollution, and disruptions to the job sector/ housing markets, Polaroid's resistance and campaign call for an “analog” summer has clearly struck a chord.
Whether consumers agree with the framing Polaroid uses or not, the campaign encourages people to think about the invisible infrastructure that is required to power digital life and the cost of AI. Something few consumer brands have attempted to address in their marketing narrative.
Polaroid doesn’t argue that people should abandon technology altogether. Instead, they are making the case that some experiences are more meaningful when they remain imperfect, analog or physical, and fully human. A message that feels timely as AI and optimization become more embedded in everyday life and the digital tools we use.
Written by Hannah Lacy
Bio: Hannah Lacy is a digital content strategist with over seven years of experience in marketing and social media, and more than a decade of experience as a freelance writer contributing to various publications. A working mother of two school-aged children, she writes at the intersection of ambition and parenthood, with a passion for storytelling, advocating for working moms, and partnering with mission-driven brands and organisations.
