Google pulls Olympics AI ad after backlash

Google has pulled an ad from its Olympics’ TV rotation after it garnered significant backlash, the tech giant confirmed to Ad Age. It remains viewable on YouTube, though comments are turned off. “Dear Sydney,” which was developed in-house, was meant to promote Google’s Gemini AI platform, but viewers had a difficult time looking past its miscalculated storyline. In the ad, a father wants to help his daughter write a letter to her idol, Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. But instead of encouraging her to take part in such a personal moment, he delegates Gemini to write the letter for her. Viewers and ad leaders lambasted the spot on social media for being tone-deaf. Some were upset over Google evidently seeing no problem with an AI co-opting a formative childhood act, while others alluded to its reinforcing of a more existential fear, that AI is bound to replace meaningful work. The ad got significant airplay during NBCU’s TV coverage of the Olympics this week, including on NBC in primetime, as well as on E!, CNBC and USA, according to iSpot.tv. It last ran on national TV around midnight of July 30 on USA, according to iSpot.TV. "While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we've decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation," a Google spokesperson told Ad Age today. The company earlier this week defended the ad in a statement: “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it. Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA. It showcases a real-life track enthusiast and her father, and aims to show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter, or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing.” The backlash marks the second controversy surrounding Gemini this year. In March, Google temporarily suspended the platform’s image generating capabilities after Gemini began producing insensitive and ahistorical outputs. As for “Dear Sydney,” ad leaders have also compared its failures to those of Apple’s recent “Crush” ad. Google’s decision to pull the spot from TV may not bode well as competitors continue to air their own AI ads. Meta has been running commercials for Meta AI, and Microsoft has been airing a sequel to its Super Bowl spot. Google still maintains a presence at the games, however. It has a deal with NBCU in which commentators are using its AI YouTube Overviews search feature to explain to viewers the rules of each event. It is also the official search AI partner of Team USA and is promoting a content series for Gemini starring Leslie Jones.

Google pulls Olympics AI ad after backlash

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