Depending on your outlook, we may be on the cusp of an AI-fueled revolution or robot overlord apocalypse. Either way, our technological future is never far from the headlines. But Etsy’s new brand campaign takes a swipe at our culture’s current AI obsession, leaning into the humans behind its platform.
Created by agency Orchard, the new ads celebrate the humans that make and sell goods across the e-commerce marketplace, sticking with the tagline “Keep Commerce Human,” Etsy first introduced in 2017.
Earlier this month, the company rolled out new “Creativity Standards” to more explicitly label products as either “made by a seller,” “designed by a seller,” “sourced by a seller,” or “handpicked by a seller.”
Etsy is the latest brand to position itself as decidedly pro-human, taking care to also not looking like some sort of luddite. Etsy itself has been using plenty of tech to improve and enhance its platform, most recently its Gift Mode push with its first-ever Super Bowl ad.
But here, much like Dove’s pledge from April to never use AI to create or distort women’s images, Etsy is using its commitment to human-made goods as a defining differentiator in a crowded e-commerce space.
The new campaign will roll out across TV, digital, and billboards, and run in the U.S., U.K., and during the Paris Olympics.