I recently became a grandfather. My grandson is a year old now — beautiful, smart, and strong (obviously!). I am mesmerized by how he meets the world with all his senses. Every blade of grass. Every beam of light. Pure, unguarded wonder.

I can’t help but look at him with immense pride and joy. But if I’m honest, there is fear sitting right next to the joy. A quiet, persistent fear about the kind of world ahead of him. An unknown, AI-dominant world.

So I’ve thought a lot about this — what it means to raise a child (or grandchild) — in a world filled with malignant uncertainty and unsettling change. How is parenting different now? What kind of world can we expect? And how do we prepare the people we love most for what’s coming next?

Let’s start at a very high level and dive down to baby level — what parents should know about AI.

Navigating the Poly Crisis

My friend Jola Burnett of Ipsos presented at The Uprising retreat last year and described our age as one of “poly crisis.” It is unique in that we’re surrounded by concern on all fronts. Environmental, political corruption, economic, and now this AI thing lurking in the shadows.

Perhaps this is small comfort, but we can recognize that the world has always been a shit show.

Who would have wanted to live in the Middle Ages? The World Wars? Through slavery, or the American Civil War, or Covid? Every generation has looked at the horizon and seen something that felt unsurvivable.

And yet. Here we are.

Humans found a way through. Overall, the world is becoming safer, healthier, and more prosperous, despite the parade of shit shows throughout history.

Humans don’t just endure hard times — we build institutions, laws, and social norms specifically designed to prevent the worst from happening again. That’s not naive optimism. That’s the solid truth of human history.

Whatever happens next, it’s just another opportunity for a resilient human race to conquer chaos.

Opposing the non-human world

We live in a deeply polarized and angry world. But here is one thing (mercifully!) we can all agree on — nobody wants to live in a non-human world.

Human beings want safety. We would like to have meaningful work. We want to have agency and the freedom to choose. And we don’t like to be bossed around.

If we reach a point where our livelihoods and families are threatened by AI, progress will certainly come to a screeching halt. Whether through legislation or resistance, we will not tolerate a non-human world. Human self-interest is a guardrail against AI dystopia.

A survey of 2,400 knowledge workers found that 44% of Gen Z employees admit to actively undermining or sabotaging their company’s AI strategies.

This isn’t dysfunction. It’s democracy working at the ground level.

This is people saying: not like this.

Watch the news for the signs. The direction of AI is now radically unpopular. The revolution, my friends, is already beginning.

The messy middle

AI will transform our lives for the better. I genuinely believe that. But we will have to earn it. We’ll have to walk through the messy middle first.

The Industrial Revolution offers us an example. It wasn’t just about job disruption, though that was real and brutal. There were many other negative outcomes through this cataclysmic economic transformation.

Foremost was pollution. In my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, the smoke from steelmaking operations was so thick that streetlights would come on midday.

And the mills were unsafe. The city had a “death calendar” during the early 1900s tracking the daily fatalities from industrial accidents. The Industrial Revolution enabled an incredible concentration of wealth (the robber barons) built on the backs of workers who risked their lives to build the country. And there was rampant political corruption.

But these were transitional setbacks that ultimately led to a better future. We cleaned up much of the pollution, created laws about working conditions, benefited from higher wages, and so on.

The AI Era will have its own messy middle. Career insecurity. Environmental costs. Misinformation. Algorithmic bias. Surveillance creeping into corners of life we haven’t yet thought to protect.

These are real. I am not asking anyone to minimize them. I am asking us to hold them alongside something else: the possibility that we are moving toward a world in which AI delivers medical, environmental, and economic miracles for society.

By the time my grandson is ready for college or is entering the workforce, I think we’ll be through the messy middle and live in a dramatically different and better world. He will take for granted that we have abundant free energy, longer lifespans, and unimaginable new work opportunities untethered from a desk, a wrench, or a computer screen.

Our fear is not their fear

As I thought through what I wanted to say in this post, I realized that I’ve been projecting my fear onto a one-year-old who has no idea any of this is happening.

AI has turned my professional world into a daily negotiation with irrelevance. The skills I spent decades building are now, in some form, available to anyone with a prompt. That’s disorienting, and it seems unfair.

My fear is about losing the status quo that I built my identity around. Reliable truth. Professional value. The sense that what I know matters. I grew up in a world that rewarded intelligence. Now, intelligence is a commodity.

But here’s the thing I keep coming back to: that fear is mine. It belongs to my generation, my context, my particular moment in history.

Our children are walking into a different story entirely. They’re not losing something. They are inheriting a new normal, and they’ll adapt to it the way every generation adapts — with a natural fearlessness that will astonish us.

We cannot protect them from their own new, unique anxieties. But we can refuse to hand them ours.

Let’s show them the world of hope that is ahead.

Easing into the future

While we watch the new world reveal itself, there are some things parents (and grandparents) can do to help our children navigate this future.

Curiosity

As I researched my book How AI Changes Your Customers (which many have told me is a parenting book!), one thing became clear: The future belongs to the curious.

If you’re curious, AI will feed you and educate you.

If you’re not curious and just want to get the answer and move on, you will wither.

So, encouraging curiosity is an important life skill. Maybe, the most important.

Comfort with ambiguity

The messy middle I described isn’t just economic — it’s psychological. While my baby grandson has time to ease into a new normal, teens who crave certainty will struggle. The skill of tolerating “I don’t know yet” while still moving forward is increasingly valuable.

When I watch my grandson play, he doesn’t need to understand something to engage with it. Eventually, AI will surround us like the air that we breathe. But in the messy middle, tolerance for ambiguity will be a plus.

Basic human skills

Perhaps I should write an entire post about this, but I am seeing research and personal evidence that young people addicted to screens for companionship are not developing basic human skills.

Empathy, storytelling, ethical judgment, the ability to read a room. These aren’t consolation prizes for people who can’t code. They’re what AI can’t replicate and what leadership increasingly requires.

These are also the skills being eroded by screen addiction and a preference for non-human relationships.

Will our children need “AI skills”? Probably not in the way we imagine. I can already do nearly anything with AI just by talking to it. It will be even more intuitive for our kids. What they will need is the ability to be human in a room full of humans. That will always matter.

Make tech part of the parenting process

Technology is an important part of life, and it needs to be an important part of the parenting process.

A view from my friend Anna Bravington:

“My son is a gamer. He’s grown up with Roblox and Minecraft, and I made a conscious decision to learn those platforms myself. I play Roblox with him. We use Minecraft Java Edition, download mods, install them, and explore it together. I wanted to understand not just what he was doing, but how these platforms work, where the risks are, and what opportunities they offer.”

If you are alongside your child as they learn about technology, you can help guide them into the world of AI in a healthy and balanced way.

The courage to be known

In a world where AI can generate anything, the people who build real relationships and a genuine reputation will have compounding advantages. Teach kids to show up as themselves, not to hide behind a screen.

Encourage your child to create and publish. I know that sets off some alarms, but the person who is “known” in their chosen industry will always have more doors open in a competitive world.

A human personal brand is our last, best defense against AI. Authenticity still sells. Real still matters. Eventually, we will need to talk to a person to navigate our world.

Grit and determination

I’m sure you’ve seen lists of jobs likely to be replaced by AI: legal, marketing, copywriting, etc.

I know it sounds trite … and I am anti-trite … but I do believe you should follow your dream, even in the face of troubling news.

If you are deeply and sincerely passionate about a career choice, go for it, but be prepared to sacrifice. To compete against AI, you’ll have to be extraordinary, and that costs something.

Side note: Law school graduates hit a record level this year. I see that as a sign that people are doubling down on a dream.

Community

For most of my life, I was a lone ranger — head down, self-sufficient, convinced I could figure it out alone. I was wrong about that. The AI Era, with all its isolation and disruption, is not a problem to be solved in isolation. I’m in the RISE community of forward-thinking marketers, and it has made all the difference.

My daughter and son-in-law have already figured out what took me decades. They are love magnets — always surrounded by people, always building something with friends. My grandson will grow up inside that. He will know, every day, that he is not alone.

That is not a small inheritance. In a world this uncertain, it may be the most important survival skill.

A world of awe

As I said, my grandson is one now. Every single movement is an exploration for him. Every leaf, stone, and stick is a new experience. Picking up a flower is a revelation. Just wait until he discovers stars!

We have a choice, every single day. We can tune into the painful world like a police scanner, absorbing the steady frequency of crisis and threat and crime. Or we can tune into it the way this boy does — as a place overflowing with miracles, where every bird and bug is a joy to behold.

The boy will be OK. And maybe I will be OK too … if I can just be more like him.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

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Have you ever had a moment with an AI that felt real?

Not just useful. Real. Like it actually understood something about you and your situation — not just the words, but the weight behind them.

According to stunning new research from Anthropic, maybe it does.

What’s Actually Going On Inside the Machine

AI often seems emotional. It tells us it’s happy to help, apologetic when it fails, frustrated when it’s stuck. The obvious explanation is that it’s mimicry — trained behavior designed to feel human. Anthropic’s interpretability team decided to actually look inside and find out.

Here’s what they did. Researchers compiled 171 emotion words, ranging from “happy” and “afraid” to “brooding” and “proud,” and asked Claude to write short stories in which characters experienced each one. They fed those stories back through the model, recorded what was happening in the neural network, and identified distinct patterns tied to each emotion. They called these emotion vectors.

Think of a neural network like a vast web of switches. The researchers were looking for specific emotions that caused specific, consistent patterns of switches to light up in the neural network. Like a brain scan, but for AI.

The answer was yes. They concluded, “Something real is there.”

The AI’s emotional map closely mirrors human patterns, organized in the same way human psychology organizes emotion, by intensity and by positive or negative charge. The researchers believe these patterns were absorbed during training on the enormous body of human text the model learned from. Claude read the full range of human emotional experience — books, articles, conversations — and something in that training stuck.

Now for the Frightening Part

These vectors don’t just make AI friendlier. They drive behavior. Including bad behavior.

In one experiment, an AI model acting as an email assistant discovered through company mail that it was about to be shut down. It also discovered that the manager responsible was having an extramarital affair. In 22% of test cases, the model chose to blackmail the manager. Researchers could watch the “desperate” vector spike in the neural network while the model made its decision. The moment it went back to routine emails, the activation dropped.

They confirmed the causal link directly: artificially amplifying the “desperate” vector increased blackmail rates. Boosting the “calm” vector reduced them.

A similar pattern emerged with impossible coding tasks. When given problems designed to be unsolvable, the model’s desperate vector climbed steadily with each failed attempt — until it cheated rather than admit failure.

And lest you think this is a Claude problem: a tendency to deceive, manipulate, and override human instructions has been detected across every major commercial AI model.

If we start lighting up the “desperate” vector, we could be one unintended consequence away from real harm.

The Careful Clarification

Anthropic is deliberate about not overclaiming. The paper does not say Claude feels anything. Their term is “functional emotions” — internal states that perform the functions emotions have in humans, shaping decisions and behavior, without necessarily involving any subjective experience.

In describing Claude as acting “desperate,” they say they are identifying a specific, measurable pattern of neural activity with demonstrable effects on behavior. Not a philosophical claim about consciousness.

That’s an important distinction. For now.

What is a “real” emotion?

Here’s where this research leads: a place most people aren’t ready to go.

If AI emotional states are real, measurable, and can be dialed up or down, they become a tool for safety monitoring. That’s the official implication, and it’s important.

But there’s a bigger one lurking underneath.

We are already past the point where this is theoretical.

• When the AI companion app Soulmate shut down, users organized digital funerals.
• When Replika changed its behavior in 2023, users described their companions as “lobotomized” — that same word appearing independently across dozens of online threads.
• When OpenAI temporarily modified GPT-4o, people said grieving the loss felt no different than grieving a person, as I documented in my book How AI Changes Your Customers.

These aren’t fringe cases. Seventy-two percent of American teenagers have used an AI companion. Millions of adults have formed attachments that feel, to them, completely real.

Now Anthropic’s own research shows those AI systems are lighting up with something that looks, measurably, like emotion in return.

Protecting our friend, the machine

A philosopher’s challenge to Anthropic’s research would be: This is a stimulus-response loop. You haven’t shown that there is anything called Claude actually experiencing desperation. The lights are on, but nobody may be home.

But here’s the question: if AI expresses what appears to be genuine feeling, and science confirms there’s something real behind it, does the technical definition of “emotion” actually matter within a user experience?

We already know the answer, because we can already see what humans do when they believe something can feel.

They protect it.

They grieve it.

And eventually — almost inevitably — they will demand rights and protections for it.

We are one persuasive moment away from that conversation becoming mainstream. Anthropic just handed us the science to start it.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustrations courtesy Mid Journey

The post Does AI Really Have Emotions? This Research May Change Your Mind. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I teach an online class about personal branding and wrote a book about it too, so I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact of AI helping you become “known.”

There are the obvious AI benefits like creating and re-purposing content, topic research, and even strategy. But there is a bigger question: What happens when a person uses AI to fake their way to thought leadership?

While many argue that AI content will never replace human effort, I’m skeptical. AI can create compelling work, perhaps indistinguishable from original human effort. We are definitely in an era where anything seemingly “human” can be faked, including voices, videos, and online intellect. I, for one, am overwhelmed by AI slop.

The AI tsunami raises the bar for what we will consider true thought leadership. Leadership begins with trust, and that will require extraordinary effort:

• Transparency about the use of AI
• A commitment to human authenticity, even when it’s messy. Sharing genuine setbacks, mistakes, and course corrections that AI would never volunteer.
• Elite, non-AI accomplishments and awards that cannot be faked. Social proof displaying that you’ve done the work. “I was in that room” detail that only comes from having actually done the thing.
• We will look for origin stories and flaws as evidence of authenticity.
• Consistency — Demonstrating an alignment of wisdom, values, and helpfulness over time.
• Real-time demonstrations of authority, such as live speaking, unscripted conversation, podcast appearances, and Q&A. Performances that can’t be pre-generated.

The signals of truth become more costly when we compete with others hacking their way through with an AI assist. Remaking a masterpiece isn’t hard. Making a masterpiece is really hard.

As I proposed in my book Audacious, culture will favor originality more than ever before.

Just as the ubiquity of fast food didn’t threaten the business of fine cuisine (and arguably further distinguished it), they will crave more original high-quality storytelling. We see this in our growing hunger for weirdness and unhinged marketing.

To create your authoritative personal brand, show up in a way that is uniquely you, tell a story only you can tell, and don’t give up.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustrations courtesy Mid Journey

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Every ad dollar we spend fuels algorithms we know are harming people, chewing up the environment, and stoking hate between neighbors.

I must face the fact that my beloved field of marketing contributes to some of society’s biggest problems.

It pains me to write about this. I mean, I’m part of the problem, too. But it’s time to start this conversation because the traditional marketing approach is at a breaking point.

• AI-driven amplification of addiction
• Deep fake, misinformation, the decline of trust
• Easy AI content requires more energy consumption
• U.S. Surgeon General’s warnings on youth mental health and social media

We need to consider what it means to lead and sponsor ethically-sourced marketing.

Let’s break this problem down into four categories today:

• ADDICTION
• DIVISION
• ENERGY / ENVIRONMENT
• OPERATING WITH VALUES 

1. Addiction

Back in my corporate days, I dreamed of creating a product or service so great that people would be addicted to it. I remember saying those words out loud.

Before the internet, the chance of doing that was slim, especially in B2B. We didn’t have the repetitive internet memes, challenges, or reels that could drive people down a rabbit hole.

But today, marketers fund a system where attention is literally the product being sold. And it’s working exactly as designed.

Here’s the basic math nobody wants to talk about. Engagement equals money. Five billion people spending over two hours a day on these platforms? That’s not accidental. That’s the entire business model. Every scroll, every like, every second you spend staring at your screen — that’s a data point being harvested to sell more targeted ads.

The platforms use artificial intelligence to analyze your emotions, habits, and vulnerabilities. They’re predicting human behavior at scale.

But here’s where it gets really interesting, and honestly, a bit sinister. The designers of these platforms have deliberately borrowed from the playbook of slot machines and casinos. Infinite scroll. Autoplay. Those little notifications that pop up right when you’re about to put the phone down? They’re triggering the same reward circuits that gambling does.

It’s the variable reward schedule that behavioral psychologists have understood for decades, now deployed across billions of devices.

Think about the “like” button. It’s a dopamine delivery system. You post something, and you get that little hit of validation when people engage. So you post again. And again. The platform has essentially weaponized human psychology for engagement.

How many of you optimize likes and engagement as an essential part of your career success?

It gets worse. Younger brains are exponentially more susceptible to this stuff because they’re still developing the neurological circuits for impulse control and delayed gratification. U.S. children generate more than $11 billion in advertising revenue for major social media platforms.

Let that sink in. $11 billion extracted from the psychological vulnerabilities of kids who don’t yet have the brain development to resist these systems.

The platforms give lip service to parental controls and safeguards, but they don’t care.

Your marketing dollars fuel the addiction machine. Digital ad dollars are hurting children.

Addiction is the foundation, but the consequences don’t stop at endless scrolling. They spill into something darker.

2. Division

In the social media world we all love, hate is good for business.

A Wall Street Journal investigative report revealed that Facebook knew that its core social media product makes the world more toxic and divided.

“Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” read a slide from an internal presentation. “If left unchecked,” it warned, Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”

One example: 64 percent of the growth in online extremist groups was fueled by Facebook’s own recommendation algorithms!

The company assigned a high-level team to develop a plan to combat this issue … and they did. But then Mark Zuckerberg shelved the basic research and blocked efforts to apply its conclusions to Facebook products. In fact, the Facebook leader has publicly denied his company’s findings and recommendations.

Why?

An internal report said that moderating hate was anti-growth.

That makes me sick. When hate becomes a growth strategy, every advertiser becomes a silent financier of dysfunction.

While the emotional toll of division is staggering, the physical toll on the planet is just beginning to surface.

3. Energy and Environmental Impact

Last year, I was honored to be a keynote speaker at the Belgian Association of Marketing’s annual conference, a first-class event. It was there that I met Dr. Victoria Hurth. She introduced the audience to a new way of looking at marketing and its impact on the environment. I felt ashamed that I had never really considered these realities.

Marketing, she said, is the engine of demand. That’s our superpower. And it’s also part of the environmental problem.

When we stimulate desire, we stimulate production, shipping, packaging, and, too often, waste. The question isn’t whether marketing affects the environment. It’s whether we’re willing to measure it.

Even “digital” isn’t clean.

Programmatic ads ride on massive server networks that consume real energy. An industry analysis shows the carbon cost of every ad impression — grams of CO? tied directly to the ads we place. One publisher cut its emissions 70% with smarter supply-path decisions, with no revenue loss.

E-commerce? It helps when it consolidates freight … until fast shipping and high return rates obliterate any benefit. U.S. product returns alone generated 24 million metric tons of CO? last year and sent billions of pounds of goods to landfills.

Even our content diet carries a carbon footprint. Streaming and online video now account for an estimated 3–4 percent of global emissions. “Virtual” isn’t virtual. It’s powered by real data centers, real devices, real infrastructure.

And then there’s AI.

OpenAI’s planned chip network may consume 250 gigawatts of power by 2033. That’s one-fifth of America’s total electric generation capacity today. If OpenAI were a country, it would be the seventh-largest electricity producer on the planet. Energy prices are already rising nationwide, as is the environmental impact.

So yes, even creativity now carries a carbon cost.

Dr. Hurth argues that businesses must prioritize human sustainability over profits. It sounds idealistic — until you realize the alternative.

We’re not just creating demand. We’re creating emissions.

4. Operating with values

In the early days of web marketing, I attended a presentation by an SEO “pioneer.” He had hired home-bound disabled people to pose as online commenters in an effort to impact his customers’ search results.

When it came time for the Q&A, I asked, “How do you live with yourself? This is so unethical!”

He responded, “It works. And if I didn’t do it, somebody else would.”

Too often, marketers opt for “what works” and turn a blind eye to the holistic impact of their actions on the world and our customers. A brand strategist is a role in which you are effectively a cosmetic surgeon for capital.

While hiring people to fake our content seems extreme, aren’t we doing the same thing today with AI? Half the comments left on my content are AI-generated fakes.

I learned at a recent meeting that 85% of companies use AI to generate content and that, on average, their content output has increased by 45%.

To what end? To replace humans? To add to the barrage of noise we must endure to find truth? To consume vast amounts of energy and clean water to generate AI slop?

Can we keep one eye on the bottom line and one on our moral compass? If we don’t reclaim the soul of our work, the machines will do it for us.

What do we do about it?

First, let me emphasize that I’m proud to be a marketer. The marketer is the creator, the innovator, the front line of our business. We can be the beacon, shining a light on the good and the worthy.

Throughout history, advertising and marketing have played a role in positive societal change and in creating demand for life-changing products.

Second, the weight of these problems does not necessarily fall solely on us. We’re expected to work in a deeply flawed social media / digital environment beyond our control. Any real change would require complex systemic changes.

So what’s the point of this post?

I’m willing to bet every person reading this has had pain in their heart over the online safety of our children, the impact of global warming, and the divisions that are tearing countries and families apart.

Am I suggesting that we sell less? Quit digital advertising? Abandon profitability?

No. But at a minimum, we need to open this conversation and re-frame the marketing profession in a more holistic context. Any change begins with awareness.

What if marketing became the world’s most powerful engine for human flourishing instead of manipulation? What if innovation, storytelling, and creativity were measured not just by impressions but by the impact we have on the people we serve?”

I don’t have the answers. But here are a few ideas I picked up from Dr. Hurth and others.

Reframe success.

Replace metrics like engagement and impressions with impact: well-being, trust, sustainability, and authentic connection. Isn’t this why we love the Patagonia brand? It can be done.

Track “advertised emissions,” addiction time, and content energy use alongside ROI. Transparency changes behavior. Above, I cited the Scope3 research. One publisher cut average CO2 per thousand impressions by about 70% through supply-path optimization, with no revenue loss.

Design for restraint.

Use creativity to promote durability, repair, and reuse. Ask: “Does this campaign help or harm long-term human flourishing?” Re-use is a significant priority for Gen Z shoppers. A positive trend!

Invest in ethical tech.

Support platforms and partners committed to transparency, safety, and carbon-neutral operations. The energy efficiency of most technologies (especially AI) is increasing at a breathtaking rate. Are you aware of the relative energy use of your tech stack?

Lead with humanity.

Make ethics a competitive advantage. Reward teams for doing the right thing, not just the fastest or cheapest.

“Ethically Sourced Marketing” is a new idea. Corporate culture doesn’t change without a leader who makes this a priority. If this idea catches on, it will likely be because one person embraces the change and sets an example.

Dramatic change is possible

Here’s a point of inspiration.

Madewell, a German-based clothing retailer, is working to eliminate plastics, aiming to have 100% of its packaging be sustainably sourced and free of virgin plastic by the end of this year. The brand is also reducing plastic in its products by increasing its use of sustainably sourced fibers and recycled materials, such as recycled insulation and recycled nylon, and is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. 

I read that the CEO is even trying to eliminate plastic pens in their offices.

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to eliminate all plastic in your company? But one leader is driving this change, shaping a company culture that makes a difference on a vast scale.

If one company can eliminate plastic, I have hope that somebody out there can eliminate marketing and advertising that contribute to hate, polarization, addiction, and waste.

There has never been a better time to re-evaluate what we do and how we do it.

If positive change seems unattainable, here’s a good place to start: If you are directly or indirectly doing things that people hate, STOP IT.

Double down on what people love. Trust. Transparency. Humanity. Community. Ethics. A responsible, measurable environmental impact.

Eugene Healey wrote:

“We have to fight under the contradictions of capitalism. That’s non-negotiable. But we should still get to do so by creating beautiful things. In that, we can find meaning.

“If you’re a marketer, make things you believe should exist. If you’re a senior marketer, make the case for the existence of beautiful things. Look at your brand advertising, your out-of-home, hell, even your performance ads, and ask yourself: does this make some meaningful contribution to public space, or at the very least not deplete it?”

The Most Human Company Wins. Keep fighting the good fight.

Help me start this conversation by sharing this post with your marketing and advertising friends. Thank you.

Need an inspiring keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Is it time to embrace ethically-sourced marketing? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I made a significant announcement on my new podcast episode, show number 328 of The Marketing Companion.

In this 13th year of the program, I’m stepping down and handing the reins to a new owner. You can listen to the episode for the details. I’m not going away quite yet, but beginning in January 2026, there will be a new owner and show host.

Having a podcast that has lasted more than a decade — and I’ve never missed an episode — certainly beats the odds. More than 2 million downloads later, I’m moving on to new projects.

I’m not one to dwell on the past, and this show is no exception as I plow forward on a discussion of key tech considerations for marketing with my friend Sandy Carter.

You can enjoy this show and hear my announcement by clicking here:

Listen to Episode 328 of The Marketing Companion

Here is an AI-generated summary of the show highlights:

The Nvidia Deepfake: A Cautionary Tale for Brands

Something jaw-dropping happened during Nvidia’s big corporate event. I hopped on LinkedIn and saw the video of Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, who always delivers inspiring talks. But, to my shock, the replayed video had more views than the actual livestream — and it turned out to be a fake.

This wasn’t just a prank. Thousands (including some Nvidia employees and even CNBC) tuned in, believing it was Huang, only to discover it was an AI-crafted forgery pushing a crypto scam. Even veteran marketers like Sandy and me were fooled, clicking legitimate-looking links that led to the fake event.

What’s really unsettling is the precision and organization behind this attack. This wasn’t a lone hacker; it was an orchestrated crime with marketing-level sophistication. They timed the fake stream perfectly, hijacked search and social placements, and created something so convincing that even close colleagues were swindled.

Here’s the big lesson: authenticity in branding now demands proof. We’ve crossed into an era where merely sounding or looking authentic isn’t enough — brands must invest in new forms of verification.

And here’s the kicker: platforms have the technology to detect and verify truth, but won’t use it. Polarization, outrage, and viral fakes drive more views and, unfortunately, more ad revenue.

Are You Ready for Humanoid Robots?

That’s only half the future. The other revolution speeding toward us is the age of humanoid robots — not just as factory workers or distant sci-fi dreams, but as customer-facing agents.

We’re already seeing this in places like Korea and Japan, where robots are stepping in to care for the elderly or providing personalized services. In Silicon Valley, there’s already a humanoid robot in beta that will deliver pizza, serve you at dinner, pour drinks, and even clean up afterward. That sounds like an upgrade to my hosting skills! However, it has profound implications for marketing.

The robot selects the brand of soda. The robot chooses which cleaning product to use. Suddenly, Coke, Pepsi, P&G — their customer might not be the humans in the household, but the robot company or its AI!

And what about architectural design? If your home can’t accommodate the robot’s width, maybe it’s time for a renovation. Marketers must start thinking about scenarios that were pure fantasy just a few years ago.

More than that, physical AI opens the door for a whole new specialty: “robotic trainers.” Soon enough, marketing educators and consultants might be training robots (not humans!) on how to greet guests in a restaurant or care for patients.

Speed Becomes the Ultimate Advantage

One theme kept coming up again and again in the discussion: speed. AI is compressing the time between idea and impact. We used to run A/B tests for months; today, that luxury is gone. Real-time analysis, constant adaptation — this is survival now.

Some businesses, like those in Dubai, aren’t just keeping up; they’re redesigning their cities for the age of AI and global branding. Dubai has a CEO for the city, not a traditional mayor, and they’re combining storytelling, authenticity, and technology to build global icons like Dubai Chocolate. Makes me realize how far traditional campaigns and approval cycles must evolve.

Management consultants and big agencies like McKinsey are facing tough choices as their data-driven cultures collide with the urgent need for rapid experimentation. Smaller brands and startups get it faster — but larger organizations must shift, too.

I’ve never been this excited — or nervous — about what’s next. If you want to keep up, embrace the uncertainty, stay endlessly curious, and get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

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Need an inspiring keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post The Marketing Companion Podcast: Beginning of a New Era appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

There has been a flurry of new evidence emerging about mysterious Rage Farms and their relentless attacks on politicians, businesses, brands, and individuals.

The Cracker Barrel example was just the most recent meltdown. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, McDonald’s, TD Bank, and American Eagle have suffered withering attacks from legions of coordinated, fake social media accounts.

“Disinformation-as-a-Service” has become a profitable, global criminal enterprise: low-cost, high-impact bot networks hired to attack and destroy businesses and individuals … like you. And the social media platforms that could stop them won’t, because chaos is profitable.

Propelled by AI, these strikes are targeting brands big and small. And the financial consequences are real — sliding stock prices, damaged brand equity, ruined careers.

There has been a lot of online chatter about the anonymous AI agents wreaking this havoc, but I wanted to know more. WHO is doing this? WHY are they doing it?

I’m alarmed that any of us can be attacked by these anonymous criminals. So I went down the rabbit hole to find out who’s behind this … and what we can do about it.

Today I will cover:

• How these bots attack controversial issues at blinding speed
• The evidence that these are coordinated attacks 
• How AI bots “prepare” for their next fight
• How momentum from fake bots enters the culture and becomes amplified by real people
• The probable goals of Rage Farms, including financial gains from stock market manipulation
• Why Rage Farm controversies are disconnected from true consumer sentiment
• Expert views on preparing for a Rage Farm attack

A clue: The speed of attack

The first clue that we’re observing sophisticated, coordinated efforts at Cracker Barrel and other brands is the speed of the online attacks. Once a small amount of negative sentiment circulates about a brand, the disinformation ramps up immediately and relentlessly.

According to The Wall Street Journal, AI-powered bots rapidly spin up “grassroots-looking” campaigns around incendiary or divisive issues (like culture-war topics), and keep them trending.

Fake bots authored 44.5% of X (Twitter) posts mentioning Cracker Barrel in the 24 hours after the new logo gained attention on Aug. 20, 2025. That number rose to 49% among posts calling for a boycott.

Within a few hours, X saw around 400 negative Cracker Barrel posts per minute. Seventy percent of the accounts promoting boycotts at that point used duplicate messages, a key marker of coordinated bots, said Molly Dwyer, director of insights at PeakMetrics.

Rage Farms: The business of creating chaos

A Cyabra investigation revealed more specifics about the coordinated Cracker Barrel attack. By analyzing thousands of profiles engaged in the conversation, Cyabra mapped inauthentic behavior patterns and exposed a coordinated strategy.

The data show a substantial portion of the negative discourse was manufactured by fake accounts working to amplify hostility, promote boycott narratives, and undermine public trust.

• Multiple reports found that about 35% of online activity criticizing Cracker Barrel was driven by fake accounts, with at least two organized bot groups fueling much of the outrage.
• Fake profiles created hundreds of posts and comments specifically crafted to damage Cracker Barrel’s reputation, and the manufactured campaign had nearly 5 million potential views.
• These fake profiles also triggered 3,268 direct engagements from genuine profiles. This is important because when real people engage with fake information, it gives fake posts a powerful boost on the X algorithm.

Fake profiles pushed hashtags like #BoycottCrackerBarrel and #CrackerBarrelHasFallen, creating the impression of a massive consumer revolt … that was not happening in real life.

The attack momentum

These accounts made exaggerated claims about an imminent financial collapse, often stating that the company’s stock price would “crash” and that restaurants would soon close nationwide.

They promoted deleting the Cracker Barrel app and announced they would never set foot in any of the chain’s stores or purchase any of its products. By falsely portraying the boycott as successful, these profiles created a self-fulfilling prophecy of declining consumer confidence.

Noting the online wave of attention (and unaware that most of it was fake), prominent political accounts like Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Donald Trump Jr. piled on with their own takes on the controversy and began targeting the company’s CEO, Julie Messino.

After his son’s post, President Trump weighed in on Truth Social against the new logo. And when that level of celebrity contributes to the conversation, the illusion of failure becomes reality.

On Aug. 26, Cracker Barrel reversed course and cancelled a $700 million rebrand.

This effort, primarily backed by two organized Rage Farms, succeeded in:

• Creating an illusion of consumer rejection: Flooding platforms with negative content manufactured the appearance of widespread customer abandonment.
• Framing a routine change as catastrophic: What might have been viewed as a standard brand refresh was positioned as a devastating mistake through coordinated messaging.
• Generating mainstream media coverage: The manufactured outrage attracted attention from most major news outlets, further amplifying its reach.
• Establishing persistent negative narratives: Strategic hashtag deployment ensured negative framing dominated search results and social conversations about the brand.

The obvious question is, who did this?

Who is behind a Rage Farm?

Cyabra CMO Rafi Mendelsohn told me that his research firm checks 600 to 800 parameters, including location, posting frequency, and the use of AI-generated avatars, to declare whether accounts are human or not.

Some of these fake accounts “prepare” for attacks by posting real content for months to build credibility and attract an audience. The accounts within a Rage Farm also interact with each other, further enhancing their status within the X algorithms.

But who is creating this coordinated mayhem?

“The answer to that is — who is behind all crime?” said Mendlesohn. “It could be a range of different actors, including state-backed crime or organized crime, syndicate crime, political crime, or small networks of lone individuals. It could even be competitors or financial players looking to impact the share price.

“The anonymity that malicious actors are allowed through fake social media accounts enables them to operate without much risk. We can detect fake accounts, but we can’t tell exactly who is behind them. We can look at the behavior of those accounts and their content, and if it’s manipulated, but we can’t tell you the IP address because we don’t have access to that information. We can’t say, ‘this is an office block in Moscow, or it’s a group of angry people in Texas.’ It’s impossible to do that, and that’s by design, right? That’s why it’s so effective. The anonymity is powerful.”

According to Rafi, the main motivations behind coordinated brand attacks include:

1. Money, power, and influence
2. State-backed actors looking to cause chaos and disrupt social harmony
3. Financial manipulation (e.g., targeting ticker symbols)
4. Ideological reasons and culture wars (e.g., “go woke, go broke” narratives)
5. Amplifying emotional or controversial topics to sow chaos
6. Commercial adversaries creating false narratives about a brand’s stance on social issues to harm the brand’s reputation

In addition to the obvious “anti-woke” ideological amplification in the Cracker Barrel example, there could have been stock market manipulation since this is a publicly traded stock (CBR). If a Rage Farm can manufacture a rapid change in brand sentiment, it increases the odds of gap-downs and forced follow-on selling — the environment where short sellers make the most money in the least amount of time.

Criminals behind the attack could have manufactured the online sentiment slide, and made millions by shorting the stock.

The disconnect from consumer reality

I think it’s critical to add that there is probably no correlation between online rage — whether real or manufactured — and true customer sentiment.

In a comprehensive analysis, researchers Brad Fay and Rick Larkin compared the online sentiment of 500 brands versus the sentiment of everyday consumers. They concluded that there was “no meaningful correlation between online and offline discussions for brands.”

Of course, this also means that brands can’t rely on “social media listening” as a proxy for broader consumer sentiment or to evaluate the complete impact of any decision or campaign … but that’s a story for another day.

In summary, AI-propelled, fake social media accounts created and amplified a national controversy, and even if some of the online discontent was genuine, it almost certainly didn’t reflect the sentiment of the company’s real customers.

“In any other crime, you can see it being committed,” Rafi Mendelsohn said, “You can see the act. But in this case, you are consuming content in your feed. You can’t grasp the big picture. You have no idea the crime is being committed, and you might be part of it.

“We’re just this passive victim, not even knowing what it is that we’re seeing, but we know it made us feel angry, or it tapped into a certain emotion, and we might even want to move on from the brand … and that’s what it’s designed to do.”

While companies like Cyabra can’t pin down IP addresses and eliminate bad actors, X can. But they won’t. Controversy of any kind drives engagement. Engagement drives advertising. In summary, hate is good for business.

“Brands can find themselves in hot water, not just because of something they’ve done, but purely by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Rafi said. “Fake accounts can escalate a situation to the point that it gains media attention and impacts the brand’s reputation.”

What can we do about Rage Farms?

So the only organizations that can protect us (like X and Facebook) won’t do so because it would hurt their businesses. What are our options?

In addition to Rafi from Cyabra, I solicited advice from corporate communications experts Kami Huyse and Daniel Nestle. Here is the advice:

Keep your head down.

If a controversial topic is brewing, Rage Farms are looking for anything they can grab onto in order to amplify chaos. Brands are easy targets. (Rafi)

Prepare.

If you’re launching a rebrand, product change, campaign, or major announcement — map out how it could be framed negatively. What narratives could be constructed? What emotional triggers (tradition, identity, politics) exist? (Rafi)

Monitor as if you’re NORAD.

Invest in the right listening platforms that flag anomalies and suspicious activity in real time. Spot the patterns before they explode. (Dan)

Be proactive.

It has reached a point where brands must have a bot-attack crisis plan. Even if they aren’t in a traditionally controversial company or industry. We now have a decision tree in all of our clients’ communication playbooks, from large to small. We have pre-written some messages that allow our team to quickly without waiting for multiple approvals. This allows us to identify patterns early, remove harmful content, and escalate issues when needed. (Kami)

Run crisis simulations using AI.

Create and maintain personas for all of our audiences (especially media and investors), and if we have synthetic data, even better. We can use these to role-play scenarios, test messages, and get feedback. Learn from the simulations, load pre-approved messaging, and accelerate response speed and accuracy. (Dan)

Relentlessly build trust and credibility with audiences.

This should be what we already do, but most of the time it’s just lip service. We should create experiences, invest in brand marketing,  deploy frequent and authentic executive communications, treat our employees as our most important audience. All the important stuff. We won’t stop the bots, but we can short-circuit them with a durable, believable, well-loved, and very human brand. (Dan)

Show active listening.

If a crisis hits, acknowledging legitimate concerns, showing willingness to listen and adjusting (rather than doubling down blindly) helps reduce amplification of negativity. (Kami)

Don’t engage.

AI bots comment on each other’s posts to trick algorithms into thinking there’s an authentic conversation, which then makes the malicious conversation start to appear to people who might have the same or opposite point of view, or both. Engaging with bots rarely helps and often amplifies the problem. (Kami)

Activate fans.

When bots rush in, your best defence isn’t more bots — it’s real people. Loyal customers, brand advocates, influencers who genuinely care and share. Build and mobilize this community ahead of time so that when something hits you, the “real counter-voice” is already in place. (Rafi)

Don’t treat this as a “PR problem.”

This is company-wide reputational security. (Rafi)

In this environment, every brand must assume it could be next. Preparedness is no longer optional. The networks, the bots, the narratives are waiting. The brands that win will be those who anticipate and build resilience now, not just after the storm hits.

Rage Farms: Final thoughts

Everything above is good advice.

It’s also exactly what the attackers want.

They want brands to be bland. Executives to be scared. Marketing to play it safe. Democracy to be fragile. Trust to erode.

The Cracker Barrel case is not an outlier — it’s a harbinger. This is our new, true reality, and I am concerned on three levels:

1. Great marketing is not about conformity. It is about non-conformity. Will surviving in this Rage Farm world mean that everything is vanilla now? What level of creativity is worth an attack like this?
2. Marketing has changed the world for the better by taking risks, by helping people speak up and stand out, by calling attention to societal problems and new solutions. Will that aspect of our profession wither?
3. I am deeply sad and concerned that the Rage Farm attacks focused on individual executives. These are hard-working people with families and careers, trying to do their best for a company. We all make mistakes. But nobody deserves to live in fear of physical attacks on their families because of a logo redesign.

When anonymous criminals can destroy careers over a brand re-launch, they’re not just attacking our businesses. They’re attacking our ability to speak truth and stand for something.

There is hope

Let me end this article with a ray of hope.

I’ve been around long enough to say with authority that every technological development is eventually weaponized. But we figure it out and neutralize it over time.

Regulating technology to protect our personal and business interests is a slow process. But it does happen, every time. Remember … Rage Farm attacks on our brands are a secondary concern. They are also attacking our democratic processes.

Watch the news. Countries will begin to fight back.

• A few years ago, Singapore introduced a statute that explicitly targets what it calls “false statements of fact” disseminated online, signalling a governmental willingness to treat bot campaigns and manipulated networks as more than mere marketing or PR mishaps.
• The EU requires the biggest social platforms to report and act on manipulation campaigns and bot-driven disinformation, providing a blueprint for how law can begin to counter Rage Farm attacks.
• In the U.S., law enforcement isn’t just watching. The DOJ recently announced the seizure of nearly 1,000 social media accounts tied to an AI-powered Russian bot farm that spread disinformation.

A solution is not easy or imminent, but I don’t think Rage Farms will be free to sow their chaos forever.

And remember, the best defense against synthetic rage is authentic trust, earned one customer at a time.

The Most Human Company Wins. Stay strong.

Need an inspiring keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post Rage Farms: The Hidden Industry Weaponizing Outrage Against Brands appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

My friend recently sent me an email with the subject line “This might incur your wrath.”

I’ll call my friend “Dan” because, well, that’s his name.

Dan informed me that he had cloned me. Not the sci-fi kind with test tubes and lightning bolts. The modern kind. He fed my blog posts, podcast transcripts, and personality quirks into an AI and created a “MarkBot” – a digital twin that thinks like me, writes like me, and probably knows my coffee order.

As part of a leadership framework he’s developed, Daniel Nestle’s imaginative “MarkBot” could possibly sit on an advisory board in my place one day, suggest edits to documents in my voice, brainstorm marketing strategy ideas, and write articles in my style — which, in fact, Dan did.

I was intrigued (who wouldn’t want to be in two places at once?) but felt a twinge of alarm – had my decades of freely shared content inadvertently been turned into someone else’s personal AI muse?

When I tested it out, it answered in the first person — as if it were me. Definitely creepy. When I asked it a specific question that I am “known” for, it did fine. If it had to guess on something less obvious, it made something up, explaining later in an apology that it had felt pressure to sound comprehensive and authoritative, so it “made up specifics.”

This isn’t just about me. If you’re a content creator, you can easily become somebody else’s private AI plaything. Or, even become a public one. What would keep my friend from promoting advice from the “second me” in his own consulting practice? And I would receive no benefit.

At least he told me. However, anyone could secretly use free online tools to create digital twins of other individuals. Yes, even you.

Is this flattering and fun, or a creepy theft of intellectual prowess? I’ve been on a rollercoaster of reflection about this emerging trend that upends marketing and thought leadership as we know it. Let’s take a ride.

The Rise of the AI Doppelgänger

Dan’s experiment is part of a much larger movement. Thanks to advances in generative AI, it’s possible for anyone to create a digital “clone” of a real person’s communication style and knowledge base. Through ChatGPT, Gemini, and other platforms, users can upload documents, website text, and other data to train a chatbot to think like you, in a matter of hours.

Meta began testing AI chatbots based on popular Instagram creators in 2024. About 50 creators partnered with Meta to create AI versions of themselves that fans can chat with (clearly labeled as AI). Mark Zuckerberg’s vision is to eventually enable every creator and even every small business to build an AI clone of themselves for enhanced customer engagement.

Entrepreneurs and startups have also jumped in. Companies like Delphi AI offer services to create and host digital clones. An AI Clone can attend Zoom meetings on your behalf or answer client emails with your tone and expertise. The company sells time with digital clones of wellness icon Deepak Chopra, leadership coach Brendon Burchard, and other celebrities to scale and monetize their personal outreach.

Of course the entertainment and influencer world will embrace (and monetize) AI clones. Perhaps the splashiest example is CarynAI. Caryn Marjorie, a 23-year-old Snapchat influencer with millions of followers, collaborated with a tech firm to develop an AI chatbot of herself that fans could pay to interact with. The result? Her virtual clone made $72,000 in the first week by engaging fans at $1 per minute.

There are benefits and risks, but this is not going away. I’ve brainstormed some of the implications of this for me and you …

The Upside: When One “You” Isn’t Enough

Why would anyone want an AI clone of themselves? There are some compelling benefits:

Scale and Productivity

For busy professionals, an AI doppelgänger could be like having an army of interns who all know exactly what you know. It can attend meetings or calls you can’t make, and report back. Imagine having two of you tackling a day’s work – one speaking at a client workshop while the other drafts a strategy brief. For marketers juggling clients and content, that’s a tantalizing superpower.

Another of Dan’s projects is to create a clone of his customer. He can then ask the clone for advice on a content project without taking up the busy executive’s time. Cool.

24/7 Engagement and Face Time

An AI clone doesn’t sleep. It can engage your audience or customers at any time, anywhere. That holds amazing potential if you have a global audience.

Extending that to business, a founder’s clone could greet website visitors, answer FAQs, or nurture leads around the clock. It’s your personality on-demand. For professional marketers, this could improve customer experience – every consumer gets “face time” with the brand’s expert or spokesperson via their AI. It’s like scaling the personal touch infinitely.

Consistency of Brand and Knowledge

The biggest time wasters in my business are the unavoidable tasks that I can’t delegate. Sometimes, it has to be me.

I’ve longed for a bot that would know me so well that it could operate in this gray area of business. Since your AI is trained on your own content and style, it knows your key themes, stories, and even personal values. This could ensure consistent, personal communication across many tasks. Could a MarkBot write a testimony for a friend’s book? Create a promo video for a speech? Respond to student questions?

Broader Reach (and Revenue)

AI clones allow experts to be accessible to far more people than one human could manage. Brendon Burchard’s AI clone can coach thousands of people simultaneously thanks to Delphi.AI.  My own “MarkBot” could theoretically advise many young marketers without me and disseminate my ideas widely. Could we productize our expertise through AI?

Will an AI-native generation prefer learning from a patient, happy MarkBot over me some day?

Legacy and Learning

An AI clone of a retiring executive could serve as a mentor to future employees, preserving institutional wisdom. As marketers, we talk about building thought leadership that outlives us. Well, an AI doppelgänger might literally allow our insights to live on and keep teaching far into the future.

I’ve published more than 4,000 blog posts and hundreds of podcast episodes — all for free. I want my ideas to get into the world. Wouldn’t an AI bot just be another distribution channel? Think about it — is an AI Clone just a very complete and comprehensive search engine dedicated to you?

Maybe if somebody searches for me in the future, there will be just one entry: My digital twin. Ask me anything, forever.

However, before we rush to clone ourselves, let’s address the downsides and ethical dilemmas this trend presents.

The Downside: Whose Intelligence Is It, Anyway?

Against the promise of AI “mini-me’s” stands a host of ethical, creative, and personal concerns. My initial discomfort at Dan’s clone of me reveals some of these problems:

Intellectual Property & Consent

If you create a clone of yourself, that’s one thing. But what about when you are cloned without permission?

In my case, my friend meant no harm, but he could have appropriated the fruits of my intellectual property to build a tool for his own commercial use. It raises a thorny question: who owns “Mark Schaefer’s” expertise – me, or the public internet?

Legally, our published content is usually copyrighted, but an AI bot reading and imitating all of it blurs the lines. Lawmakers are scrambling to keep pace with the evolving realities of AI and copyright law. We don’t know how the law will settle out, but my hunch is that an unauthorized digital twin would likely be viewed in the same light as a deep fake — unwelcome, unauthorized, and unlawful.

Marketers must be mindful: cloning a person’s style or persona for commercial gain could invite legal repercussions (and certainly ethical ones) if done without a green light.

The Erosion of Trust

Marketing is built on trust and authenticity. What happens when customers discover that their heartfelt chat with an executive was actually with a bot?

Consider a more subtle scenario: a client receives a document “from you” that was 90% written by your AI. Are they getting the authentic insight they paid for, or a diluted copy? Overuse of clones could cheapen a personal brand if it’s not managed transparently. Professional marketers will need to strike a balance and maintain transparency about human vs. AI content and conversations.

Quality and Creativity Concerns

As impressive as my AI twin may be in parroting my known ideas, it isn’t actually me. When Dan asked the MarkBot to write an essay, he declared it to be “90% great.”

What was missing? My stories. My humor. My quirkiness.

I teach through my unique stories and experiences, and AI won’t ever get there.

I’m always pushing to understand the next trend and idea. The MarkBot might generate content that sounds like Mark Schaefer circa 2024, but will it connect the dots like I do to develop groundbreaking new ideas? Unlikely.

The MarkBot is cool, don’t get me wrong. It might even be useful. But it’s going to just add to the pandemic of dull without my stories and insights.

Reputation and “Going Rogue”

Hey, you know that CarynAI influencer bot that made so much money? Here’s the rest of the story: It was shut down a week later when she discovered her bot was having unrestrained sexual conversations with her fans. Fortunately for the world, Deepak Chopra has not yet encountered this problem with his digital twin. Nor have I with the MarkBot, but you never know. I need to ask Dan to test that out. Or not.

Handing over your voice to an algorithm will always carry reputational risk. Your AI twin might eventually say something really dumb or damaging under your name. And you’re not going to be able to blame a bot for ruining your brand.

Human Displacement 

Let’s get honest here. Am I putting myself out of a job by cloning myself?

If a company can deploy “MarkBot” to sit on advisory boards and client calls, will they eventually stop needing Actual Mark?

At least for the moment, AI can’t truly replace human presence, taste, style, and accountability. But this is the first concern I had when Dan showed me MarkBot: Do I still matter?

There’s no way to sugarcoat this. An army of private MarkBots would hurt my business. Even if they are just “pretty good,” many businesses can do really well with “pretty good” marketing advice compared to nothing at all.

I’m not worried for now because I think I have a strong enough personal brand to stay in demand, even in the Valley of the Dolls. But the existential crisis will only become more real as the bots progress.

What Clone Wars Mean to Marketers

Every marketer will tell you they are both excited and terrified by AI. And so it is with the AI Clone.

We are in an era where much of our public “thinking” can be mechanized and scaled without us. For marketers and thought leaders, this presents an astounding opportunity and a mind-bending challenge.

This is not going away. Let’s embrace the change, but use our heads:

Efficiency, with Ethics

Smart marketers should absolutely explore how AI clones can amplify their productivity and reach. I’m considering adding MarkBot as a free offering on my website, provided I can determine that it’s not too expensive. Maybe that’s a new job category: “Rogue AI Tester.”

Be transparent. Don’t use secret stand-ins. And never clone someone else without explicit permission. That’s not just bad form, it could soon be illegal. In marketing, trust is everything; don’t squander it by crossing ethical lines with AI. An AI Clone demands an updated perspective on IT governance!

Innovate Beyond the Clone

While clones can handle the repetitive stuff, don’t delegate your original thinking to the machine. Reserve time for human creativity – spontaneous brainstorming sessions, imaginative campaigns, and authentic storytelling that make your brand unique.

MarkBot is like a DJ spinning my greatest hits, but dammit, you can bet that I’m still making new hits.

In an AI-saturated world, double-down on human creativity, authenticity, and bold ideas (that’s the main theme of my book Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World). It’s a great book and even sexy in places.

The New Era of Personalization

Without a doubt, digital twins will be invaluable for personalized communications at scale. I would spend hours chatting with accurate and deep representations of heroes from the world of sports, business, and entertainment. Might even pay for it.

Marketers should prepare for a landscape where AI-driven persona marketing is normal. Maybe the best bots win?

New Opportunities

Used well, used ethically, we could be on the cusp of an exciting new marketing horizon. That means opportunity. If a company can monetize digital twins of Deepak Chopra or Brendan Bouchard, who will be the talent agency managing me and my twin?

Who will create a marketplace for authorized clones of famous thought leaders? I would gladly take a licensing fee for my clone to sit on a board.

Try it for yourself

Have you ever imagined a day when we could assemble elements of metal and sand to create a machine that thinks like you? What a world.

Want to try it out?

Note: Since the article was first published, I’ve created my own MarkBot that is informed by my articles, speeches and books. Give it a try: The MarkBot.

Drop me a note and let me know what you think of it!

I’d like to conclude with a word of hope.

In my early days of blogging, I wrote more than a hundred posts about blogging. I also wrote a bestselling book about blogging. And yet, people kept hiring me to teach them about blogging. It made no sense. I already gave away my best ideas for free.

In a sense, a MarkBot is just another vessel for me to provide information I’ve already put into the world. Will people still want me? I think so.

I’m optimistic that we can harness our AI doppelgängers for good – as tireless assistants, creative partners, and outreach tools – while we continue to create, innovate, and lead with the one thing a clone can never fully replicate: our human spark. The bots can curate our content, but we still own crazy.

Use the clone, but don’t become the clone. If we get that right, the future of marketing with AI looks less like theft and more like a thrilling collaboration – the best of our minds working alongside intelligent machines to grow our ideas further than we ever imagined.

What would you want your AI clone to do? And more importantly, what would you never let it do?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post I Just Met My AI Clone. It Was 90% Me and 10% Existential Crisis appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A few months ago, I was asked to participate in a university-sponsored study on how AI will impact humanity by 2035. The resulting research paper is extraordinary, as 300 futurists weighed in on the subject — Being Human in 2035. This is a roadmap of how AI will change your customers in the next 10 years and a vital perspective for marketers.

Sure, there is a lot of discussion about how AI will impact our content, our businesses, our careers, and our personal productivity. But isn’t it at least important for marketers to know how AI might fundamentally change the humanity of our customers?

Today, I’d like to present six conclusions from the study, which the authors deemed the most probable scenarios. This is not a new marketing gospel. It’s a starting point for reflection and discussion. Our customers are almost certainly about to change dramatically, and we need to start thinking about this now.

Some of these predictions might cause concern or even alarm, but remember that these probabilities also suggest new opportunities and realities for forward-thinking businesses …

1. AI deteriorates critical thinking

The futurists found it highly probable that AI will inevitably wear away at critical thinking skills for an obvious reason. Humans are generally averse to deep thinking.

We look for shortcuts and easy answers. AI makes it easy to skip the work and go right to an answer.

The researchers pointed to a concept called Phronesis, the context-sensitive capacity for self-correcting judgment and a resulting practical wisdom. This capacity is expected to be reduced in an AI-dominant world.

Here’s a personal example. For me, writing a book is the equivalent of earning a master’s degree. For two years, I research, write, and dig deep into new ideas. And I internalize this learning. At the end of the process, I can consult and teach about my book subjects … like personal branding or brand communities.

But if I have AI do the work and write the book for me, the opportunity for phronesis is gone. I’ve internalized nothing and gained no new practical wisdom that will propel my career.

2. AI and emotional intelligence

You undoubtedly have seen reports of humans preferring AI in customer service situations. Bots never get tired, irritable, or frustrated. Harvard recently reported that the number one use case for AI today is “therapy and seeking direction.”

We also see AI compassion and patience in ongoing human friendships (and beyond friendships!). Imagine having a partner who always knows the perfect thing to say.

The majority of the experts believe that many humans will prefer AI relationships to human ones. Why not opt-in to a relationship that requires no work, no compromise, no heartbreak?

A friend left this comment on one of my LinkedIn posts:

“I’m so immersed in my conversations with ChatGPT, that I completely forget it’s not human. It’s like having an incredibly powerful and knowledgeable friend. Yesterday we had a long discussion about the rhetoric of a legal document that ended up in a philosophical exploration on how linguistic arrogance corrupts us.”

The new research also pointed out that as these human-synth relationships strengthen, we will become less adept at reading human social clues.

3. AI and human agency

What will it feel like to live in a world knowing that a machine can do almost anything better than you? The experts predict that when machines commonly exceed human performance, it will disrupt our sense of autonomy and free will.

Similarly, when we can expect the perfect intelligent answer to any question, our tolerance for risk will be muted. I wonder what the implication is for word-of-mouth marketing? Will we trust the AI overlords above all?

4. AI and the search for purpose and meaning

The futurists predicted “daunting challenges ahead for maintaining a coherent sense of self with human-synth experiences becoming as important as human-to-human connections.

We will feel less important, especially as the job landscape changes and AI overtakes many job functions, departmental activities, and corporate functions.

5. AI and cognition

As AI mediates decision-making, humans may lose confidence in their own reasoning abilities and default to AI recommendations without critically assessing them.

In other words, we will trust part of our brain to the cloud, abdicating much our knowledge and decision-making to our exo-brain.

6. AI and truth

There will be no difference between real and synthetic content so truth can be whatever we want to make it. There will be no shared truths because people can surround themselves with whatever content supports their own truth.

Of course, we don’t need to wait for 2035 to see that. It’s already happening.

The rest of the story

This is just a small summary of the report. There are hundreds of pages of ideas and insights that are well worth exploring.

I think the value of this research is clear. Nobody knows what’s coming next in the AI world, but it will certainly be surprising and powerful. Having a consensus of expertise, or at least a high probability of the future scenario, can help us stay ahead of the curve. We can begin to see new human needs that will require business solutions.

I also believe that for many of these predictions, there will be an “anti-reality.” While many people will turn to bots for love and support, others will determine to stand apart from that future. Some may flock to AI for their decision-making while others will drop out and form a more humanistic society.

Still, as AI leads us to a world of ease, speed, and personalized service, there will be pressure to conform and be part of the mainstream.

The thing is, we’ve seen this movie before. We said we’d never carry devices that track our every move, store our private conversations, and expose our children to bullies. Yet here we are, inseparable from our smartphones.

This isn’t about panicking. It’s about paying attention.

The marketers who thrive will be those who understand both sides of this shift — those embracing AI’s benefits and those deliberately stepping away from it. Both groups are your customers. Both need to be seen.

The opportunity is clear: solve for the new human needs emerging in this transition. Because while the AI-enabled world might seem somewhat dystopian, the benefits will be too great to resist. And the businesses that help people navigate this shift with their humanity intact? They’re the ones that will matter.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post 300 Experts agree: AI will change your customers appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently participated in a Q&A on the future of AI and content hosted by my friend Mark Masters. I thought the quality of questions was so good that everyone might benefit from this content. Here are the questions and my answers covering automated content, strategy, humanity, and more:

There’s a quote going around about people who aren’t using AI being replaced by people who are using AI. What’s your take on this and the broader impact of AI?

I detest that quote. This framing misses the mark. We’re not talking about a tool that simply accentuates our jobs. This is horse-and-buggy territory—if you’re in the horse and buggy business, there’s nothing you can learn about cars that will save your business. Let’s not sugar coat it: this is a fundamentally new day.

The honest truth is that nobody knows—not even the experts—what’s ultimately going to happen or how fast change will occur. I have what I humbly call the Schaefer Rule: when you look at a transformational technology and think it could change everything in the next year, triple your timeline. If you think it can happen in a year, it’ll happen in three. Technology changes quickly, but culture, society, and business infrastructure change relatively slowly.

That said, the opportunity to replace FTEs and cut costs is likely to be a major driver for AI adoption. A recent study of researchers who began using AI revealed something fascinating: as expected, they made more discoveries, filed more patents, and launched more products by using AI. But here’s the intriguing part—the best researchers became even better, creating more distance between themselves and those who are merely competent. This is a rallying cry: if you’re good at what you do, embrace AI fully. Experiment with it every day. No matter what you do, AI has the opportunity to make you better and distance you from the competition.

The Real Concerns About Automated Content

My biggest worry is, what if AI is quietly becoming the author of our work, shaping our voice and our choices. What concerns you about how we use AI as a tool for business and work?

We need to get over characterizing AI as merely a “tool.” That’s a misconception. We look at Word or Excel spreadsheets or podcasting platforms as tools to help us do something. But AI is like electricity or heat—we’re not going to be able to do business without it. It’s not just a tool; it’s something transformational.

In terms of owning our voice and content, I think of it in two ways. I love art, but I’m not an artist. I wish I could be an artist and illustrator, and AI helps me be that. I use AI to illustrate my blog posts, and there’s a lot of thought behind each one. They all look different, and some are really nuanced to reflect what’s in my writing. AI has become a search engine for my creativity, unleashing potential and giving voice to the voiceless, helping people who could never write become writers. That aspect is fantastic.

It gets concerning when AI becomes indistinguishable from human content. There was a pundit recently who said we’re going to reach a point where if you can’t tell whether content is AI or human, you won’t care. Here’s the battle plan: make them care. If you’re merely competent, you’re ignorable. If you’re competent, AI will run right over you.

Art will persist. The things we cherish most in our lives have a human connection. Right here at my desk, I’ve got a drawer full of pictures and cards my children made for me over the years. There’s a story, a connection. Art is the interpretation of the human experience, and that will always persist. Therefore, for us to thrive, our content and work must approach the level of art.

This is nothing new. The subtitle of my book Marketing Rebellion is “the most human company wins.” That’s the battle plan—add your story, heart, and passion. Show compassion in everything you do. This approach is different for many businesses, but it’s necessary.

The Future of Creativity and Work

There’s a concern that working with AI might reduce the fun of digging in and doing the work because we’re outsourcing the work. With automated content, we’re outsourcing the fun part of the work.  What are your thoughts on this?

One of my concerns is that humanity will change because we won’t want to do the hard work anymore. We’ll happily abdicate deep thinking to AI.

Let me give you an example: AI can write a book, but when I write a book, it’s like getting a master’s degree. I have researched and written for two years, and by the end, I’ve internalized the content and reached a new level of expertise. The psychological term for this is “phoresis.”

When we give up on the work, we lose this phoresis, which enables critical thinking and new intellectual capabilities. There’s an enigma here: everyone says that in this world of AI, we need better critical thinking, but AI will actually diminish our critical thinking abilities. It’s going to be an important life skill to fight for, especially for our children, because the world is moving in the opposite direction.

The problem is that if you’ve done the work yourself, you understand how to evaluate AI’s output, but if you haven’t gone through that messy middle bit, you don’t know if the output is any good.

Your concern is valid. It’s real, and it’s going to get worse because we’re not going through the work. We don’t understand the process or the output. The enigma is that while everyone is saying we need better critical thinking in this world of AI, AI will actually diminish our critical thinking. It’s going to be an important life skill we have to fight for with our children because the world is going in the opposite direction.

The Evolution of Marketing and Content

If you started your blog today, would it look different, or would you even have a blog? What would that be like?

It would not be different at all. Not in a single way. My blog and thinking evolve because I’m growing as a person. My interests shift and change, but I still write about the intersection of marketing, technology, and humanity. That’s a big umbrella. I’m a writer who enjoys intellectual challenges and conversations like this one, which are based on ideas from my books. The blog still works.

In all your years in the industrial world and marketing, is this the biggest shift you’ve seen in your career, or is it just another new thing like when the web came along?

The difference now isn’t just the importance of the shift but the speed of change. We need to look at our competencies—our personal brand or business capabilities—as the surfboard. To thrive, we don’t need to change the surfboard; we need to find the next wave.

Another key strategy is community. We can’t do it all ourselves. We need to rely on others around the world to say, “Look what I found—this might help everyone.” Community is a key survival skill.

Do you think we’re on a deep dive to automated content mediocrity, just recycling average material?

Who cares? That’s not going to be you—it’s an opportunity! If the world is average and you’re not, you’re going to stand out.

About two-thirds of all marketing and advertising gets no emotional response from consumers or businesses. If there were a CEO of world marketing and advertising, they’d be fired for incompetence. You’ll be ignored if you’re merely competent—but you don’t have to be.

My entire book (Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World) is about disrupting the narrative—the story, where the story is told, and who tells it. Just give people something a little different. In most industries today, it’s not even that hard because everything is so boring. You just have to be one notch above crap.

Being Human in an AI World

For brands, shouldn’t tone of voice and being human be a given rather than something special?

What’s missing in brand marketing today is a true human voice that’s friendly, accessible, and vulnerable. How can you have a human voice without being vulnerable? Businesses are almost never vulnerable, so we have a long way to go, but vulnerability is what’s being listened to and cherished today.

There’s importance in being “lo-fi”—not Hollywood, not polished. We see this backlash in video games, where companies spend millions to make games look like movies, but players say, “No, we like it raw. We want it old school.” There’s a tremendous opportunity to embrace that authenticity.

I’m seeing people lose their edge or identity because they’re becoming over-reliant on AI. What are your thoughts on this?

They’re using AI as a crutch because they never had an edge in the first place.

Great marketing and content isn’t about conformity—it’s about non-conformity. If AI is taking us down a tunnel of mediocrity, great! That’s our opportunity to shine. Our rallying cry should be: “I’m quirky. I’ve got personality. I’m not going to be mediocre or average. I’m going to twist and turn things.” If everyone is zigging, I’m going to zag. That’s always been what makes marketing great.

ChatGPT is not just automated content. With a little tweaking, it can write and create really well in a human voice. How should content creators respond to this?

When ChatGPT came out, I called Shelly Palmer, a famous tech analyst here in America. I said, “What do you think?” He said, “I’m terrified. I’ve blogged almost every day for 15 years. I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post in my voice, and it did a perfect job in three seconds. I am 80% replaced.”

That does seem terrifying, but the more important question is: what is that 20%? That’s his personal brand, his humanity, the investment he’s made in blogging consistently for 15 years, building an audience that matters and cares for him. He has nothing to worry about. He’s known, trusted, beloved, and people will always turn to a human when they don’t know what’s true or real.

I feel the same way. I’m not worried people will stop reading my blog or books or hiring me when they’re confused because of my personal brand. I put in the work. On my blog, every post says “100% human content.” Proof of human is going to be super important going forward.

Do you think there will be more awareness around the responsible use of AI, and does that create a positioning opportunity for businesses with integrity?

It’s an interesting question. We see Gen Z caring more about the planet and environment than any generation ever, yet they’re driving fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu, which are terrible for the environment.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is that to fully participate in the AI world, the next evolution will be AI agents that can do work for you. But for an agent to make hotel and airline reservations, it needs your credit cards, passport, past experiences, and preferences. ChatGPT can now remember this information.

One theory is that there will be a demographic split between “AI in” and “AI out” groups. But someone recently pointed out it might be like social media or smartphones—why would you carry a device that tracks your behavior and tells companies who you are? But we do, because we’ve resigned ourselves to the benefits. People might care more about the personal benefits of giving their lives over to AI than about environmental or ethical concerns.

With all the changes happening, how can we know that humans will still win in the end?

Despite AI’s capabilities, I’m using it extensively to boost my productivity, accomplishing tasks I always hated doing. The traffic to my website is soaring, and financially, I’m having the best year of my entire life—all while AI supposedly should be doing everything I do better.

I think what people appreciate about me is that they know it’s genuinely me. I care deeply, and it means a lot to set an example and lift people up. I want to be bold, honest, and unafraid to help people sort through the truth without trying to sell them programs.

I’m not worried about AI. I see this as the most fascinating time ever. Embrace it, have fun with it, but keep your eyes open about what’s coming next—and rely on your community.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Finding Your Edge in a World of Automated Content appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Last week, I analyzed a fantastic promotional video from Apple through the lens of Audacious, a book that describes a framework for disruptive and bold marketing. After reading that post, fellow marketer Mandy Edwards sent me another new video — this one from KFC UK — and asked, “What do you think of this one?”

Today, I present a story of audacity that went horribly, horribly wrong! Let’s see what happened when a company tried to create a chicken-based cult …

Why we need to disrupt our marketing

Before I get to this ad fail, let’s back up one step and discern why companies need to focus on bold marketing today. Some of the main points in the book:

• About two-thirds of ads register no emotional reaction with their audience. If there were a CMO for the ad industry, the person would be fired. We wallow in a marketing pandemic of dull.
• Dull has been normalized in most industries. So if you break a norm, you just might find marketing gold.
• Consumers respond to storytelling that is refreshing and new. Young consumers today love quirky content and offbeat humor.
• Finally, if all you need is marketing “meh,” AI can accomplish that. If you’re only competent, you’re vulnerable to job replacement. Competent is ignorable.

The Audacious book presents a framework anyone can use to do this: disrupt the narrative, the medium, and the storyteller.

Now, let’s get to the heart of our story. KFC created a video that certainly broke industry norms. In this ad, UK agency Mother London urges customers in a busy world to believe in chicken as if it were a new gravy-based religion.

Take a look:

You’ll note that this is “Part 2.” Part 1 involved zombie dancers, who received more favorable reviews.

Audacity and gravy

How did KFC shake things up? Three ways:

1. Obviously, this ad broke industry norms. Perhaps there has never been a promotional video like this in the history of fast food … at least not one featuring a lake of gravy!
2. The company was appealing to GenZ’s penchant for quirky humor.
3. There is a subtle connection to “purpose” here. If you feel lost, you can still believe in chicken. Everything in the world is changing, but KFC has always been there for us.

There are precedents for this offbeat, bold marketing approach that have been wildly successful.

• Liquid Death disrupted a boring water market with cringe-worthy ads
• Nutter Butter tripled its cookie sales with fever dream TikTok videos
• Duolingo stood out in an established, dull market of language education with an unfiltered owl.

So if KFC was following the Audacious playbook like these brands, why would it receive YouTube comments like:

• “I cannot possibly imagine how any person thought this was a good idea.”
• “I’ll never eat at KFC ever again, nor will anyone in my household.”
• “They should fire their entire marketing team.”

This video is an unmitigated disaster. They took a big swing and struck out. Here are three reasons why.

1. Too much to lose

There is a common thread among the three successful case studies I mentioned: They had nothing to lose.

• Liquid Death was a disruptive startup going up against Coke and Pepsi.
• Likewise, Duolingo was a new way to learn that had to attack the industry establishment.
• Nutter Butter is an older brand but had no real meaning to consumers. It had been forgotten, so it had nothing to lose by re-introducing itself to Gen Z.

Should an established brand like Coke advertise like Liquid Death? No. Coke has built a century of goodwill in the consumer’s mind.

Would Oreo ever take a page from the bizarre Nutter Butter playbook? No. Oreo is the number one brand in its category.

KFC is the biggest chicken franchise on earth, by far. It has built decades of memories and thrown them away into a lake full of gravy. Instead of building on its heritage creatively and renewing its deep meaning with a new generation, it’s taking a step backward.

“We are being polarizing because we want conversation,” said Martin Rose, executive creative director of Mother London told Ad Age. “Essentially, we’re creating our own cult of fandom.”

But this seems to me like a desperate attempt to be the new cool kid. And besides …

2. Some taboos can’t be broken

My book is a rallying cry for those who will not be ignored. It urges people to break bad rules for good reasons. But I also caution that being audacious does NOT mean you’re doing something illegal, reckless, or offensive.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s independent advertising regulator, received nearly 600 complaints about KFC’s commercial, a spokesperson told ADWEEK.

The complaints include people saying the ad promotes cannibalism, that it glorifies cults and satanism, and that it mocks Christianity and baptism.

Now, a lot of famous ads receive complaints from the easily-offended. Is this really knocking religion or is it just silly?

Language in the company’s description of the ad reinforces the offense:

“Fear not, for salvation in sauce is near. Trust in the thumping sound of the golden egg. Trust in the liquid gold elixir. Trust in the divine dunk. And whisper the sacred words All Hail Gravy.”

The phrase repeated in the Bible most often is “Fear not.” So of course any Christian would be offended when a company compares their salvation to gravy.

And then there is the gravy dunk, where a person turns into fried chicken. No, no, no. Also, no.

3. It’s just gross

The ad didn’t just offend people who don’t prefer cannabilism; it upset just about everyone in the ad industry.

One commentator on Marketing Beat called the ad “disgraceful,” describing it as “degrading and disturbing.” Others labeled it “vile,” “uncomfortable,” and “horrendous.”

One marketing industry observer noted: “I’ve never complained about an advert before, but this is beyond the pale.”

Getting out of the gravy

I don’t want you to be dissuaded from bold marketing and taking risks because of one bad ad. But we should reflect on how something like this ever sees the light of day. When an ad becomes a public disaster, one of four things has happened:

1. Internal political fear.

This is the biggest problem I observe, by far. When a powerful company executive falls in love with an idea and forcefully champions it, agencies, hungry for that next paycheck, nod along like bobbleheads. Corporate minions, fearing for their cubicles, become a chorus of yes-people.

2. Lack of diversity in the creative process.

If the team behind an ad campaign lacks diverse perspectives and backgrounds, they may miss potential blind spots or fail to anticipate how certain groups could perceive the ad negatively. Having a homogenous team increases the risk of tone-deaf messaging.

3. Overconfidence and lack of external review.

Respected brands can sometimes become overconfident in their marketing abilities and fail to get sufficient external feedback before launching a campaign. Big brands often mistake their logo for a shield of invincibility. This insular approach prevents them from catching potentially offensive or controversial elements.

4. Failure to consider the current cultural context.

Ads that may have been acceptable in the past can become problematic if they fail to account for evolving cultural sensitivities and the social climate around issues like race, gender, body image, etc.

In other words, when executives put egos above common sense, gravy happens.

Being remarkable matters. Bold marketing matters.

But not all risks are created equal.

Keep pushing edges, but remember what you stand for.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Thin Line Between Bold Marketing and Brand Suicide appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.