Overview
- Polaroid launched a global campaign this week promoting analog experiences and placed a handwritten billboard at Coney Island that reads, “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.”
- The ads are tied to the new Go Generation 3 camera and were deliberately placed near tech hubs, airports and busy retail areas to provoke attention and social-media engagement.
- Polaroid’s creative director described the work as provocative and deliberately pro-human rather than anti-digital, saying the campaign aims to challenge people’s relationship with screens.
- Tech leaders and firms have pushed back on the ad’s implication about water use by highlighting newer cooling methods and disputing inflated estimates, with Nvidia promoting liquid-cooling systems and OpenAI’s CEO dismissing viral water-usage claims.
- Public reaction is divided between praise for on-brand messaging and criticism that companies are using AI and data-center backlash as a marketing tactic, a dynamic that could deepen local opposition to new data centers and shape future tech and advertising debates.