Scotch Whisky Brand The Glenlivet Starts Conversation With Father’s Day Commercial Written by AI
The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky’s new campaign this Father’s Day is about breaking stereotypes. (Photo: The Glenlivet)
The Glenlivet used AI chatbot ChatGPT to write its Father’s Day commercial for 2023, opening up a wider conversation about fatherhood and masculinity.
“This Father’s Day, we are shining a light on all the fathers and father figures who are challenging conventions of what fatherhood is today, as part of our mission to redefine norms and break stereotypes in single malt Scotch whisky and beyond,” Pernod Ricard’s VP of marketing for scotch, Johan Radojewski, said in a news release.
The brand chose to film real-life families reading a Father’s Day commercial written by ChatGPT as part of a social experiment meant to “challenge the stereotypes around how dads are represented,” the brand explained in a four-minute video.
“Son — do I say son?” inquired Ken, one of the fathers who was chosen as he read off the script in reference to his daughter, Mel.
She sat across from him, looking amused while enjoying a glass of scotch provided by the brand.
This elicited chuckles from the camera crew as he continued, asking his daughter if she enjoyed the camping trip they went on up in the mountains while reading off of the script.
The AI-generated script was filled with common whisky commercial tropes that included making a fire from sticks and stones, catching fish for dinner, describing how “tough” things were and enjoying the “simple things.”
“We were tough back then, and we still are,” another father, Steve, read while trying to keep a straight face.
The lackluster commercial fell flat on its computer-generated face and elicited a lot of laughter from the participating families.
“I’m glad it is AI, because if it weren’t I would fire this writer,” one of the participants said.
Another participant, a young man named Connor whose father passed away a few years prior, concurred:
“The AI is only gonna spit out what is fed into it, and that just indicates how mediocre our inputs are,” he said.
After they were done reading the families began to have real, thought-provoking conversations about the stereotypes around fatherhood and limiting conventions surrounding masculinity.
“I’m just thinking about the language, like, ‘rugged men?'” a young man named Shane inquired skeptically, “I mean… I don’t camp; I glamp.”
Many participants felt like the AI-written commercial reduced fatherhood to teaching young men survival skills and being stoic all the time. The male participants agreed that the commercial’s limited views on masculinity made them anxious in trying to “live up to what it means to be a man.”
“I don’t know if you necessarily ever taught me how to survive and thrive in the great outdoors. I feel like you taught me empathy, self-confidence,” Val said to her father, Steve.
The conversations also took a touching turn for those who had lost their fathers and the impact the holiday had on them.
Connor discussed the devastating impact of his father’s death, and the role his godfather, Randall, played in filling that void in his life.
The conversation touched on broader notions about what it meant to be a parent. The families all agreed that being a father is about setting a good example, teaching and learning from children, as well.
AI and the Writer’s Guild of America Strike
AI has ignited a firestorm and existential crisis for people in many professions. The Writer’s Guild of America is currently a month in of a strike against AMPTP over the use of AI and what that means for the careers and futures of these creatives. This is just the beginning of a larger labor issue, as explained by Polygon.
The Glenlivet’s Father’s Day Commercial is just a small piece of a larger partnership between the brand and Underground Overground, a comedy collective. The partnership is slated to do a one-night-only comedy special dubbed “Cocktails and Comedy: A Spirited Celebration of Modern Dads” on June 13.
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