Why a major AI ad backfired with a doomsday song

The advertisement features a section of the song that repeatedly references people. While the song can sound hopeful in isolation, the rest of the lyrics describe a global panic after news breaks that the Earth has only five years left to live. The ad skips over the verses about the planet dying, focusing only on the section where Bowie sings about the many kinds of people he sees. Critics noted the irony of using a song about an impending extinction event to argue that a company is building a brighter future. Meta defended the choice by pointing to a past quote where Bowie discussed having optimism for the future, even as the song itself describes a dystopian reality.

When companies create advertisements, they often license popular music to provide an emotional foundation for their message. In this case, the creative team likely chose the song for its rhythmic mention of people, aiming to underscore Meta’s goal of connecting users. However, marketing teams often treat songs as functional assets rather than complete stories. They may pull a single audio snippet that fits the pacing and tone of their video without considering the literary context of the original work. In tech, this is part of a habit of using cultural references—like sci-fi novels or movie tropes—as shorthand for ambition or cool factor, often missing the warnings against overreach that those very stories were written to convey.

This incident is more than just a musical mistake; it reveals why tech companies are struggling to win over the public. Currently, many people feel uneasy about the speed at which AI is being introduced into their lives. Most Americans report feeling more worried than excited about the impact of these tools on society. When these companies produce commercials that feel tone-deaf or disconnected from these genuine fears, it only widens the gap between them and the public. Whether through awkward ads or confusing messaging, these companies are failing to articulate why their products actually matter to everyday people, leaving many to wonder if the people building these tools truly understand the world they are trying to change.