Strategy recently published its 2024 Creative Report Card assessing the best of the best among brands, agencies and creatives in the Canadian advertising industry. To coincide with this year’s CRC, strategy has spoken with many of those who received top marks on this year’s report card, including several high-scoring copywriters, creative and art directors, featured below. For more of strategy‘s CRC coverage, read our interview with Rethink’s Aaron Starkman and Sean McDonald, our deep dives into last year’s Kraft Heinz campaigns and Black & Abroad’s “Black Elevation Map” campaign.
Has anyone been able to forget recent alarmist artificial intelligence vs. human articles yet? The Washington Post told us about the misfortunes of two copywriters in “ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners.” How about this Business Insider one? “Workers are worried about AI taking their jobs. Artists say it’s already happening.” Or this one in Firstposts? “Ad agency replaces copywriters, designers with ChatGPT and other AI tools.”
So, is the Boogey AI really here?
Some of the top professionals on this year’s Creative Report Card believe we’re still a ways away from needing to worry. They see AI as a good research assistant rather than a shiny new person turning them into the ex.
“I doubt that we’re at the stage of having everything being systematized by a machine. Good writing has soul, AI will never have that,” says Xavier Blais, ECD and partner at Rethink and #2 CRC Creative Director. “The thing that AI does well is priming, like putting a coat of primer on the wall. It does it at an acceptable level, which can serve as a base when you have writer’s block.”
But the use of AI in the advertising sector is becoming more prevalent. And as agencies and brands look for ways to streamline processes and enhance efficiency, AI is emerging as a powerful tool.
“As it develops and becomes even more advanced, it’ll be similar to Photoshop or 3D-printing – a tech tool that helps creatives express themselves and bring ideas to life,” suggests Zachary Bautista, partner and CD at Rethink and the CRC’s #1 Art Director, who’s worked on campaigns for Kraft Heinz, Scotts and TIFF.
But creatives, as a result of the innovation, are finding themselves in increasingly uncharted territory. While some have legitimate concerns about such things as biases, others are fascinated and excited about unlocking its true potential.
“There’s an optimism welcoming AI in advertising and seeing it as this positive innovation in the industry. I’m not the most tech-savvy creative, so I’m cautiously introducing it into my workflow – using things like the generative AI function in Photoshop or Midjourney to fill a presentation deck. It’s one of those inevitable things, so you have to jump on it or get a little left behind,” shares Skye Deluz, creative director at Broken Heart Love Affair and the CRC’s #2 Art Director.
Leveraging AI in an industry that prides itself in genuine creativity seems to have sparked a variety of emotions – fascination, curiosity, and, for some, a touch of apprehension about what it can do. Regardless, the most pervasive sentiment is that AI can definitely be included in their arsenal.
“I remember the first attempts were funny,” says BBDO’s Olga Netaeva and the CRC’s #3 Art Director, about the early stages of the tech. “It was generating six fingers or three fingers or a really distorted arm. AI has improved dramatically, however, in the past few months. It also depends on figuring out the right prompt to get the result that you need.”
Some brands are using AI for their campaigns in direct ways. For example, Kraft Heinz released the “Ketchup A.I.” campaign by Rethink and KitKat’s “Have AI Break, Have A KitKat” work by Courage – which capitalized on a study that stated AI is more effective if you tell it to “have a break” first – sit at the forefront.
“AI is unlocking a lot of creative opportunities, a lot of amazing things that have never been done before,” says Netaeva, who has worked on brands like Muskrat Magazine, DoorDash and Kijiji. “It’s interesting to explore the possibilities. What is it capable of doing? Where are the limits?”
AI is seen by many as a catalyst for creative exploration or discovery, rather than a threat to job security. The evolving relationship between AI and human creativity is an opportunity to automate routine tasks, freeing up creative minds to delve deeper into big picture thinking.
“AI [eliminates] putting hours into crafting images and mockups for presentations. When you’re able to cut that out, you get to the concepts and ideas,” explains Deluz, who has worked on award-winning Rethink campaigns for Heinz Ketchup, KitKat and YWCA Metro Vancouver.
Some copywriters are using AI to expedite certain aspects of the creative process as well, from generating initial drafts of copy to researching and summarizing complex topics. This then allows them to focus on the more nuanced and strategic aspects of the work.
Rethink’s Blais, who helped lead award-winning campaigns for global brands like Decathlon, Molson Coors and IKEA, explains that AI helps creatives get to the “flow state” faster. Blais tried brainstorming with ChatGTP, asking it to come up with some buzzy ideas about cream cheese. “It was all garbage. But, still, there was a sliver of [an idea] in there, [which] made me think, ‘Ah, that could serve as a stepping stone to something.’ It’s someone, or something, to bounce stuff off of when you have nothing better.”
AI, in its current state, can’t replicate the soul that resonates in well-crafted copy. According to Hemal Dhanjee, ACD at Courage who landed in the CRC’s #1 Copywriter spot, AI “is really good at spitting out copy iterations. But it’s really bad at ideas. You can ask ChatGPT to write you a screenplay like Scorsese, but it can’t write you good film. It’s very surface-level.”
The essence of great advertising and copywriting lies in profound insights into human nature, and AI lacks the authenticity that comes from lived experience. For example, AI can’t come up with Snickers’ “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” muses Dhanjee. “AI can’t create that yet. And that’s simply just because it doesn’t have the ability to produce original thought. That explains why we gravitate so much toward award-winning work,” he says. “Because it’s totally different and has an effect on you.”
But that’s not to say Dhanjee doesn’t think it has benefits. The role of AI, as he sees it, really isn’t to come up with the next best ad idea. For now, AI helps with research and providing digestible information on different topics. For example, while working on a campaign for a big banking client, Dhanjee is learning about complex financial concepts like Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs). “With Google, you type in TFSA and it’ll give you a big jargony definition. But with AI, I can say, ‘Explain TFSAs to me like I’m five.’ And it does.”
It’s not surprising though that when ChatGPT was launched to the public in 2022, everyone’s initial reaction was to worry about their jobs being taken, forgetting that AI has been in the works ever since Alan Turing imagined it in 1950 in his seminal paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence. However, says Bautista, “it will not replace human creativity, it can only execute on creative ideas. Advertising is a very human business. There needs to be a creative person in the driver’s seat to create meaningful and relatable work.
AI learns from the data its fed, and if that data contains inherent biases, as does most of human experience, the generated content can reflect and perpetuate those biases. AI is not discerning.
“The scary thing is that it’s like a magnifying glass of our flaws,” shares Blais. “In French, there’s two genders. And there’s a grammatical rule that stipulates the masculine form always wins when there’s an adjective. My fear is that AI doesn’t have judgment when it comes to these kinds of issues.” And the absence of judgment in AI can lead to outputs that lack equity, diversity and inclusion.
Simply put, we need to be mindful of what we feed AI, but more so what it feeds us back. “It’s sad when you think about it that way; that what AI generates is a reflection of where we are as a society. The prejudices that exist are baked into all this data,” adds Deluz.
When it comes to these considerations, Dhanjee, who’s worked as a copywriter at agencies Performance Art, FCB/Six and John St., and on brands like Black & Abroad and KFC, says: “I feel like the onus always falls on the marginalized to inform and kind of make sure that we’re represented in a way that’s human. And that’s a very valid concern with AI. Does it interpret the meaning? Or is it just taking words at face value?”
And, of course, if we’re not careful, AI can reinforce societal stereotypes. The struggle to balance innovation with ethical responsibility is critical, particularly when considering issues of race, gender and age representation.
“Like most emerging technologies it takes time for everyone to get acclimatized,” says Bautista. “AI models are constantly being updated and the data it learns from is expanded to avoid these concerns in the future. It’s not perfect but it’s getting there.”
Contrary to fears of obsolescence, the creatives at the top of this year’s CRC see a future where agencies that focus on big ideas and push to keep up with innovation will thrive alongside AI. But, of course, this ongoing conversation is not just a professional one but an inherently philosophical exploration of the intricate dance between human ingenuity and technological evolution. It’s clear that used in the right way, it can augment human potential rather than overshadow it.
So, sure, it might steal some jobs that aren’t necessarily adding enough value to begin with. However, “it won’t steal the judgment of years of writing, years of concepting. If we’re not doing better than AI, then what are we even doing?” asks Blais.
In any case, whether AI yields threat or possibility, he has advice for up-and-coming creatives that will serve them: “After mastering the craft, bolster your creative palette – go to the museum, watch movies like Midnight Cowboy.” Do what AI can’t: simply live.