On Thursday morning, Meta launched an advertising campaign on its official Instagram account, featuring a prominent message asserting that artificial intelligence will not diminish human connection or leave individuals behind. This bold declaration was underscored by the choice of David Bowie’s 1972 anthem, "Five Years," a song intrinsically linked to themes of global impending doom. The juxtaposition of optimistic rhetoric concerning AI’s future with the melancholic backdrop of Bowie’s apocalyptic narrative has sparked considerable discussion regarding Meta’s messaging strategy and the broader implications of technological advancement.
The advertisement’s narrative voice boldly proclaims, "Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want—but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds." This statement is visually accompanied by scenes depicting heartwarming human interactions: a toddler captivated by a butterfly, parents cherishing their infant, and a celebratory moment with Jalen Brunson at a championship parade. Notably, the ad also showcases Meta’s smart glasses, a product that has previously drawn scrutiny for its potential privacy implications and alleged misuse. The campaign’s visual narrative appears to deliberately highlight benign use cases for these devices, sidestepping controversies surrounding their more intrusive functionalities, such as surreptitious recording or potential harassment.
The specific segment of "Five Years" selected for the advertisement includes lyrics that paint a picture of a world saturated with information and human diversity:
"I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TVs
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat, skinny people
And all the tall, short people
And all the nobody people
And all the somebody people
I never thought I’d need so many people"
However, the advertisement conspicuously omits the song’s stark opening, which sets a far more somber and urgent tone:
"News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying"
Meta’s interpretation of the song’s relevance to its AI narrative was further elaborated by spokesperson Francis Brennan. When approached for comment, Brennan emphasized what he characterized as David Bowie’s own perspective on "Five Years," suggesting that the artist intended it as a message of optimism for the future. Brennan provided a quote attributed to Bowie from 1972, sourced from BowieBible.com: "People are so incredibly serious and scared of the future that I would wish to turn the feeling the other way, into a wave of optimism. If one can take the micky out of the future, and what it is going to be like… It’s going to be unbelievably technological." This quote, originally published in NME Magazine, frames Bowie’s intention as a desire to subvert anxieties about a technologically advanced future through a form of playful, albeit dark, humor.
The Dichotomy of "Five Years": End of the World vs. Technological Optimism
Despite Meta’s framing, the broader context of "Five Years" offers a more complex and disquieting interpretation. BowieBible.com itself notes that the song "speaks of a dystopian nightmare in which Earth enters its final five years, for reasons undisclosed, and the ensuing panic, violence, and attempts at redemption." This interpretation is further supported by statements from those who collaborated on the song. Drummer Mick Woodmansey, in a 2018 interview, recalled that the song was understood by the band to be "about the end of the world and pretty depressing." Woodmansey even recounted that Bowie was "actually in tears" while recording the vocal for the track, underscoring its emotional weight and somber subject matter.
This stark contrast between the song’s apocalyptic undertones and Meta’s optimistic portrayal of AI has drawn sharp criticism. Jeremy D. Larson, deputy director of Pitchfork, expressed his reservations, stating, "Meta choosing this specific song where the context for human connection is the apocalypse seems either really ignorant or really insidious. I don’t know, maybe in that context it’s genius." Larson further articulated a sense of unease regarding the application of Bowie’s work in the context of AI, describing it as "especially and specifically nonconsensual." He also referenced a statement from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who, in a post about the ad, declared the company’s focus on "giving every person the tools to reach your full potential and making sure the benefits of technology are distributed to everyone."
A Pattern of Reassuring Tech Giants
Meta’s move to assuage public anxieties about AI is not an isolated incident within the tech industry. In recent years, major technology companies have increasingly engaged in high-profile advertising campaigns aimed at mitigating fears that their innovations might exacerbate societal problems.
Just weeks prior to Meta’s advertisement, Anthropic released its own thought-provoking ad, "There’s hope in hard questions." This campaign opened with imagery of a burning building and posed the critical question, "Who’s gonna hit the brakes if we need to?" before transitioning to more hopeful visuals, including graves and concluding with reflections on humanity and nature. The ad’s trajectory mirrored a common narrative arc: acknowledging concerns before pivoting to an optimistic outlook.
In 2024, Google’s advertisement featuring a father assisting his aspiring athlete daughter with a letter to a renowned hurdler, drafted with the aid of Gemini AI, presented a seemingly innocuous application of the technology. However, the advertisement was met with a degree of bewilderment, raising questions about the necessity and perceived value of AI in such a scenario.
Perhaps one of the most memorable, and ultimately cautionary, examples of this trend was FTX’s 2022 Super Bowl commercial. The ad featured actor Larry David dismissing a series of pivotal historical inventions—the toilet, the fork, the lightbulb—only to ultimately dismiss FTX itself. The tagline, "Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out on crypto, on NFTs, on the next big thing," served as a direct appeal to consumers. Nine months later, FTX filed for bankruptcy, a stark reminder of the precariousness of even heavily marketed technological ventures.
The Challenge of Earning Trust in the Age of AI
These attempts by tech companies to bolster their public image underscore a critical challenge: the inherent difficulty in convincing a skeptical public that their rapidly evolving technologies are not actively contributing to negative societal outcomes. While Meta, Anthropic, Google, and others may be employing established marketing strategies, the underlying sentiment suggests a struggle to independently validate the beneficial impacts of their products.
The use of music in advertising, particularly songs with rich and complex histories, is a well-established practice. Jeremy D. Larson points to precedents such as a Carnival Cruise ad utilizing an Iggy Pop song about heroin addiction. He also notes that the discretion over the licensing and placement of an artist’s catalog, such as David Bowie’s, often lies with music publishers like Warner Chappell Music, which now owns Bowie’s extensive body of work. This suggests that decisions about where and how songs are used in commercial contexts are not solely at the discretion of the artist’s estate but also subject to the business interests of rights holders.
The broader implications of Meta’s advertisement and similar campaigns by other tech giants extend beyond mere marketing efforts. They reflect a societal undercurrent of apprehension regarding the accelerating pace of technological change, particularly concerning artificial intelligence. As AI systems become more integrated into daily life, questions surrounding their ethical development, potential for bias, job displacement, and impact on human autonomy are becoming increasingly urgent. Companies that are at the forefront of this technological wave are thus faced with the dual challenge of innovation and public trust.
The choice of "Five Years" by Meta, with its potent lyrical themes of impending doom juxtaposed with a message of AI-driven connectivity, highlights the intricate balancing act these companies must perform. They aim to harness the power of human emotion and cultural resonance to promote their vision of the future, while simultaneously navigating a landscape of public skepticism and ethical considerations. Whether such a dissonant harmony can ultimately foster genuine optimism or merely amplify existing anxieties remains a question that will likely be answered by the tangible impact of AI on society in the years to come. The effectiveness of these marketing campaigns will ultimately be judged not by the catchy slogans or evocative music they employ, but by the demonstrable benefits and responsible integration of AI into the fabric of human existence.
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