The Public House had launched a new campaign for EPIC, The Emigration Museum that highlights the dangers of relying on artificial intelligence too much and the role it plays in reinforcing and spreading existing cultural stereotypes.
The campaign is running across social, digital and OOH, with a specific emphasis on Dublin Bus T-Sides, and Tour Bus Rears targeting tourists on the streets of Dublin.
Following research carried out by The Public House, it was found that when prompted, the world’s most used AI image generator surfaced misleading and offensive stereotypes depicting an ‘Irish man.’
According to the agency, “during the creative development for the campaign, a countless amount of these A.I. images were generated, with every result containing references to drinking, anger, aggression, ugliness, or leprechaun-like styling. While all bad, a selection of the most hideous images were selected to become the faces of the campaign across OOH, Social and Digital.”
“However, rather than exclusively taking aim at artificial intelligence in the online film, the potential reasons for A.I. ‘s negative portrayal of the Irish are explored, with references to the wider pop culture landscape of both the past and present day. This hero film creates a more immersive and comprehensive campaign, which mirrors the museum’s immersive and comprehensive account of who the Irish really are.”
According to Aileesh Carew, CEO, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum: “While being Irish cannot possibly be summed up in a single image, we were surprised to find that A.I. generated images of the Irish are full of outdated stereotypes. At EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, we know that being Irish is a celebration that extends across the globe. We hope that this campaign will inspire people to look beyond stereotypes wherever they encounter them, and create meaningful conversations about the pitfalls and potentials of A.I.”
Dillon McKenna, creative director at the Public House adds: “EPIC has been doing incredible work changing negative perceptions of Irish emigration in the minds of consumers worldwide. Unfortunately, these negative stereotypes have now made their way into tech algorithms, including artificial intelligence, as demonstrated by the imagery created for this campaign.
“Last year we created Paddy McFlaherty based on Google’s suggested prompts of what Irish people are known for. This year, because of the advancement of AI we didn’t even have to take creative licence to create our poster boy. We simply typed ‘Irish Man’ into image creation software and AI did the rest. It seems like for all its benefits, artificial intelligence is churning out the same age-old stereotypes of the Irish. Hopefully in the future, big tech can clean up their act when it comes to lazy generalisations of the Irish.”
Credits
Agency: The Public House
Managing Director: Catrióna Campbell
Head of Strategy: Sarah Walsh
Group Account Director: Terri Turner
Executive Creative Director: Colin Hart
Creative Director: Dillon McKenna
Associate Creative Director: Mikey Curran
Art Director: Paul Kinsella
Copywriter: Patrick Dunne
Head of Design: Eimear O’Sullivan
Motion Graphics Designer: Kevin Hughes
Senior Designer: Trevor Nolan
Designer: Molly Devlin
Client: EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum
Founder: Neville Isdell
CEO: Aileesh Carew
Director of Marketing: Yvonne Murphy
Head of Exhibitions and Programming: Nathan Mannion
Marketing Manager: Elizabeth Schroeder
Digital Marketing Executive: James Kielty
Social Media Lead: Audrey Abaca
Digital Marketing Assistant: Amano Miura
Production (Sound): Blast Audio, Will Farrell
Voice Over Artist: Tadhg Hickey
PR: Vroom Digital
Head of PR: Niamh Walters
Media Agency: BDO Digital
