Ogilvy & Mather New York launched a new spot promoting IBM’s Watson starring Carrie Fisher entitled “Coping with Humans.”
The spot (the extended 90-second version of which is featured above) stars Fisher as a therapist counseling a group of robots who feel obsolete. Unlike IBM’s Watson, these artificially intelligent machines don’t work well with humans. Many of them are more into world domination. One just wants to dust. Additional online spots spotlight different robots in individual therapy sessions with Fisher. It’s just a shame that this guy wasn’t part of the group therapy session (he could clearly use the help).
A second spot follows the conversational approach of previous ads, such as this one with Bob Dylan. This time around, director Ridley Scott sits down with Watson and discusses the ethics of artificial intelligence and the benefits of the science fiction genre. Both ads will run in 30-second versions during ABC’s broadcast of the Academy Awards. Additionally, four robots from “Coping with Humans” will live tweet the event from their own Twitter handles using the hashtags #Oscars and #CognitiveEra.
“Watson is doing lots of things in many different industries,” Ann Rubin, vice president of branded content and global creative at IBM, told Adweek. “This goes well beyond things you’ve seen before, from helping oncologists make good choices to assisting educators in the classroom—helping vets handle pet health, empowering financial planners to make better decisions, etc.”