The brand contrasts the AI with filmed highlights of actual athletes, underscoring a division between real and artificial. Bodyarmor execs say that differentiation separates the brand in a crowded sports-drink market including brands such as PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Logan Paul’s fast-rising Prime.
Fascinating and comical
Bodyarmor, which typically creates its own ads, collaborated with Full Contact on “Field of Fake.” The idea came during a joint brainstorming session, according to Tom Gargiulo, BodyArmor’s chief marketing officer. The ad centers around Bodyarmor not having artificial sweeteners, flavors or dyes.
“Ultimately, we said, ‘Okay, what’s, what’s the opposite of real? Artificial. And what’s the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to artificial? Artificial intelligence,’” Gargiulo said.
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Bodyarmour is not the first brand to leverage the unsettling imperfections of AI in an ad. Burger King France celebrated “A.I.lloween” last year with a series of terrifying images of people eating its food. Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile demonstrated the limitations of a ChatGPT ad script. And the digital privacy firm Transcend presented a cautionary tale of an AI recipe gone wrong.
These misadventures haven’t stopped the industry from leveraging the technology as they look to efficient and future-focused ad strategies. One of the most notable proponents of AI in marketing happens to be Coca-Cola, Bodyarmor’s parent. Did that conflict come up as Bodyarmor considered its approach?
“It did to a certain extent,” Gargiulo said, “but at the end of the day, I think we’re leveraging AI in a very different way, where we’re kind of poking fun at some of our competitors, and how artificial their products are, and how artificial their communication is. And we thought this is a great platform in order to do it.”
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Footage in the ad “was generated using GenAI video and audio pipeline, finished with traditional VFX and supplemented with machine learning tools,” according to Kristen Rumble, VP, brand strategy and creative at Bodyarmor. “It was fascinating and honestly, quite comical, to see how AI interpreted and ultimately brought to life the category and sports in general.”