AI startup Friend spent more than $1M on all those subway ads

If you have recently been to the New York City metro, you have probably seen Stark White advertisements that promote a portable AI device with the name Friend.

CEO Avi Schiffman told Adweek That the company spent more than $ 1 million on a campaign with more than 11,000 cards on metro cars, 1,000 platform posters and 130 Urban panels. Some stations, such as West 4th Street, are completely dominated by friends advertisements.

“This is the world’s first big AI campaign,” said Schiffman. (There have been other AI advertisements of doubtful effectiveness, but perhaps not a print campaign of this scale.) He described it as “a huge gamble”, and added: “I don’t have much money left.”

Friend’s $ 129 device has been controversial, with wired writers who recently criticized and explain his constant surveillance: “I hate my friend. “Likewise, some friends advertisements have been Burned with messages Call it “surveillance capitalism” and urgent spectators to get “real friends.”

Schiffman said that he is well aware that “people in New York Ai hate … probably more than anywhere else in the country”, so he deliberately bought advertisements with a lot of white space “so that they would give social comments on the subject.”