A simple, modern creation: Not Generated by AI by Ogilvy Paris

Red Cross France’s NOT GENERATED BY AI is one of the most culturally on-point campaigns I’ve seen in a while.

It’s a modern view on modern thinking. Incredibly simple in its execution, but very, very smart. 

We all suffer fatigue from all the imagery of disasters which flood our news feeds each day. We’ve become numb to it. Yet the hype of AI-generated imagery has pretty much guaranteed that any post which includes an AI image has us pausing for a quick look. 

So, using the prompt up first, with its provocative description, brings together our curiosity about AI imagery, with the human fault of not being able to look away from a car crash. 

We’re drawn in before we can look away.

This is a rare case where a piece of work can create introspection in just 15 seconds—reminding us that we’re drawn into the hype, yet there are so many incredibly important things out there which deserve our attention too. Most AI-related work is about what could be, but this reminds us of what is happening right here and now.

As a true bit of ‘inception’, I loved that they used Midjourney’s Describe feature (which writes prompts of real images) to write the prompts for the photos taken by real Red Cross teams in the field. It’s an inspired detail in the craft of the work.

Will it open people’s wallets? Who knows. 

But what it has already done for this sample audience of one (me) has shifted the way I consider the images in my feed, reminding me of how there are important things in this world, that haven’t been imagined by AI, that deserve my attention.

Credits

Creative Agency: Ogilvy Paris
President & Chief Creative Officer: Matthieu Elkaim
President: Mathieu Plassard
Creative Director: David Raichman
Art Director: Frédéric Siebert
Motion Designer: Benjamin Cottray
Business partner: Thibault Loué
Art Buyer: Angélique Bosio
Postproduction assistant: Noëllie Galtier
Head of print & digital production: Valérie Saulnier