The legendary Coney Island Beach in New York probably isn’t the first place you’d expect to see a billboard about AI, but the sand, water, and sky create an unusual backdrop for Polaroid’s newest message: “Go jump in the water before the data centers drink it all up.”
The words are just one of Polaroid’s continued push to embrace analog in what the company calls an “over-digitized” world. The billboard, installed at Coney Island beach on June 18, re-ignites the analog photography brand’s radical campaign that last year put sayings like “AI can’t generate the sand between your toes” outside major tech stores.
Along with the billboard in Coney Island, Polaroid is sharing a similar message in London, England, including a tube station billboard at King’s Cross, as well as in Bethnal Green and Hackney.
Along with the striking statement about growing concerns over AI’s water use, the campaign also includes phrases like “You can’t bask in blue light” along with “dance like no one is recording” and “What a glorious day to stare into various screens for hours on end.”
The new campaign, “The best of summer is analog,” is both a rebellious celebration of a slowed-down summer with fewer screens and a way to promote the new Polaroid Go Generation 3, Polaroid's smallest instant camera yet.
“For Polaroid, the simple act of existing is already an act of rebellion,” said Polaroid Creative Director Patricia Varella. “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.”
The billboards aren’t the only rebellious way Polaroid is pushing analog – the company also convinced a dozen influencers to go offline. The company sent influencers a Go Gen 3 camera in a box that resembles a miniature garden.
The Coney Island billboard isn’t just an advertisement; Polaroid calls it “a metaphor for our over-digitization and the increasingly human need to step away from it.” The campaign, Polaroid says, encourages a break from scrolling for “imperfect” but tangible photographs.
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