"To the surprise of not a single soul, the backlash that Friend CEO Avi Schiffmann gleefully begged for on his million-dollar subway AIad campaign has started to wear on him. In a stunning display of what happens when someone gets stupid prizes afterplaying stupid games, the 22-year-old Schiffmann lamented that he is "tired of talking to New Yorkers." Yes, you read that correctly."
"The man who dressed an algorithm up as a condescending and anxious imaginary friend in an Apple-meets-Tamagotchi suit is exhausted by interacting in-person with people of the city his ad has been visually assaulting. Local New York media outlet Gothamist askedSchiffmann to meet upat New York City's West 4th Street station. Seven train lines converge there, and it houses a concentrated 53 of the more than 11,000 AI ads that Friend has deployed across the transit system."
"He showed up, but Gothamist 's team had beenhoping the CEO would join them to interview passersby on the product and the campaign. No dice: he repeatedly declined and requested that they not announce who he was to people in the area. In other words, it sounds like he was suddenly awfully scared to engage with actual New Yorkers about the amazingly unpopular campaign."
Friend launched a million-dollar subway campaign featuring an anxious, condescending imaginary-friend AI. The campaign placed over 11,000 AI ads across the transit system, including 53 concentrated at West 4th Street station. CEO Avi Schiffmann said he was 'tired of talking to New Yorkers' and declined to let reporters identify him to passersby, saying he did not want to keep convincing people. He claimed some conversations were 'great' and 'very entertaining' but could not cite specifics. A Queens resident attempted to deface one ad with a Sharpie while Schiffmann remained at the station.
Read at Futurism
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