On a Thursday morning, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, unveiled an advertisement on its official Instagram account that has since sparked considerable discussion and debate. The ad’s central message, presented against the backdrop of David Bowie’s poignant 1972 track "Five Years," asserted that artificial intelligence will not "make us less connected" nor "leave us behind." This assertion, however, stands in stark contrast to the song’s original lyrical themes and has drawn scrutiny from critics and industry observers alike, raising questions about Meta’s strategy in addressing public anxieties surrounding AI.
The Audacious Juxtaposition: "Five Years" and Artificial Intelligence
The advertisement, a short-form video intended for social media engagement, featured a curated selection of uplifting visuals: a toddler interacting with a butterfly, parents cherishing moments with their infant, and a public figure, Jalen Brunson, acknowledging an appreciative crowd. These scenes of human connection and joy were overlaid with a snippet of David Bowie’s "Five Years." The chosen lyrics spoke of abundant experiences and a vast array of people:
"I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TVs
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat, skinny people
And all the tall, short people
And all the nobody people
And all the somebody people
I never thought I’d need so many people"
This selection omitted the song’s stark opening, which paints a picture of impending doom:
"News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying"
The choice to use a song that, in its entirety, describes a dystopian scenario of impending global catastrophe as a counterpoint to the optimistic claims about AI’s unifying potential has been widely noted. The ad concluded with a voiceover that declared, "Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want—but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds." This sentiment was accompanied by a visual endorsement of Meta’s smart glasses, an often-criticized product that has faced concerns regarding privacy and surveillance. The ad highlighted the glasses’ potential for connection, a point that has been contested given past controversies surrounding their use for surreptitious recording and potential harassment.
Unpacking the Song’s Original Intent and Bowie’s Perspective
The selection of "Five Years" is particularly intriguing when considering its historical context and David Bowie’s own reflections on the piece. Released as the opening track on the iconic album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the song sets a somber and apocalyptic tone. While Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan cited a 1972 quote attributed to Bowie, sourced from BowieBible.com, suggesting the song was intended to foster "optimism for the future" and to "take the micky out of the future," a broader examination of the song’s reception and Bowie’s own statements reveals a more complex interpretation.
The quote from Bowie, reportedly from an interview with NME Magazine, stated: "People are so incredibly serious and scared of the future that I would wish to turn the feeling the other way, into a wave of optimism. If one can take the micky out of the future, and what it is going to be like … It’s going to be unbelievably technological." This suggests an intention to use humor and a slightly detached perspective to confront anxieties about technological advancement.
However, BowieBible.com itself acknowledges that the song "speaks of a dystopian nightmare in which Earth enters its final five years, for reasons undisclosed, and the ensuing panic, violence, and attempts at redemption." Furthermore, drummer Mick Woodmansey, in a 2018 interview with Music Republic Magazine, recalled the song’s recording sessions, stating, "Well, we chatted about it, and we knew it was about the end of the world and pretty depressing. I remember when we recorded it, he was actually in tears. He was doing the vocal and he was actually crying." This account directly contradicts the notion of the song being purely an optimistic commentary.
The Art of Decontextualization in Advertising
The practice of extracting songs from their original context for commercial use is not new. Jeremy D. Larson, deputy director at Condé Nast sister publication Pitchfork, noted this phenomenon, pointing to instances like a Carnival Cruise advertisement that utilized an Iggy Pop song known for its themes of heroin addiction. Larson commented on Meta’s choice, stating, "Meta choosing this specific song where the context for human connection is the apocalypse seems either really ignorant or really insidious. I don’t know, maybe in that context it’s genius."
The decision to use "Five Years" by Meta, a company that owns Bowie’s catalog through Warner Chappell Music, highlights the power of rights holders in determining the commercial life of an artist’s work. While Warner Chappell Music holds the discretion over where Bowie’s songs might appear, the ethical implications of such placements, especially when the original context is so dramatically altered, remain a point of contention. Larson further expressed a sentiment echoed by many in the creative and tech ethics spheres: "Hearing [Bowie’s] work used for AI just feels especially and specifically nonconsensual." This alludes to the broader unease surrounding the integration of AI into human experience and the potential for its misuse or unintended consequences.
Broader Industry Trends: Tech Companies Grappling with Public Fear
Meta’s advertisement is not an isolated incident. In recent years, major technology companies have engaged in a series of high-profile attempts to assuage public fears about the potential negative impacts of their innovations. These efforts often manifest in carefully crafted advertisements designed to project an image of responsibility and forward-thinking optimism.
Just weeks prior to Meta’s ad, Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, released its own advertisement titled "There’s hope in hard questions." This ad opened with a stark image of a burning building and posed the question, "Who’s gonna hit the brakes if we need to?" before transitioning to visuals of gravestones. The advertisement then shifted its tone towards a more optimistic outlook, concluding with abstract questions about human potential and images of families and marine life. While the intent was to address anxieties, the initial imagery underscored the very fears that AI development has engendered.
In 2024, Google released a perplexing advertisement that featured a father assisting his aspiring athlete daughter. The father’s solution to helping his daughter improve her performance was to use Gemini, Google’s AI, to draft a letter to a renowned hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The ad, intended to showcase AI’s helpfulness, was perceived by some as overly simplistic and detached from the realities of athletic development and mentorship.
Perhaps one of the most scrutinized examples of this trend occurred during the 2022 Super Bowl, when cryptocurrency exchange FTX aired a now-infamous advertisement starring Larry David. In the ad, David, in various character roles, dismisses some of history’s most transformative inventions—the toilet, the fork, the lightbulb—only to ultimately dismiss FTX itself. The ad concluded with the tagline, "Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out on crypto, on NFTs, on the next big thing." This campaign proved to be tragically ironic, as FTX filed for bankruptcy approximately nine months later, leaving investors with significant losses.
These examples collectively illustrate a pattern: as the capabilities and societal implications of advanced technologies, particularly AI, become more pronounced, tech companies are increasingly investing in public relations and marketing campaigns to manage public perception. The challenge, however, appears to be in convincing the public that their products and services are not actively contributing to societal problems or exacerbating existing ones.
The Underlying Challenge: Building Trust in an Uncertain Future
The persistent use of such advertisements by leading tech firms suggests a recognition that the independent convincing power of their products is not always sufficient to allay public apprehension. As AI continues its rapid integration into various aspects of life, from content creation and communication to complex decision-making processes, the ethical considerations and potential societal impacts become more critical.
Meta’s advertisement, by attempting to reframe a song about societal collapse as a testament to human connection in the age of AI, highlights the complex and often contentious narrative surrounding technological progress. The juxtaposition of Bowie’s original intent with Meta’s commercial message underscores the broader debate about whether advanced technologies are truly enhancing human connection or, as some critics fear, creating new forms of isolation and detachment.
The long-term implications of these marketing efforts remain to be seen. As AI technologies mature and their influence deepens, the onus will be on companies like Meta to demonstrate tangible benefits and robust safeguards that genuinely foster connection and prevent individuals from being "left behind" or diminished by the very tools they create. The public’s trust, a crucial currency in the digital age, will likely hinge not just on optimistic pronouncements, but on transparent actions and technologies that demonstrably serve humanity’s best interests. The use of "Five Years" serves as a potent, albeit perhaps unintentional, reminder that the future is not a foregone conclusion, and that navigating its complexities requires more than just catchy slogans and curated imagery. It demands a genuine commitment to addressing the profound questions and potential anxieties that technological advancement inevitably raises.
