Brands Like Jason Kelce’s Garage Beer Embrace AI Bashing in Ads

Bashing AI data centers is all the craze, and types are cashing in.

“AI knowledge facilities waste tens of millions of gallons of water,” former NFL participant Jason Kelce says as he seems to pee right into a jar in a brand new advert for his beer model, Storage Beer, and the canned water model Liquid Dying.

“We would like your pee to chill these knowledge facilities,” Kelce says, earlier than breaking right into a track with lyrics like “please give us your pee” and “let’s pee on computer systems collectively.”

The advert says to have a Storage Beer or a Liquid Dying Glowing Power drink, then “ship your pee to the AI knowledge middle of your alternative,” as an individual within the advert drops a jar of pee at a publish workplace.

Small print on the backside of the advert cautions that “The fits need us to let you know to please do not truly ship your pee.”

The advert highlights the uphill PR battle AI corporations and knowledge middle builders face as extra Individuals report considerations about AI’s impacts.

“There are numerous issues that Individuals cannot agree on, however opposition to AI knowledge facilities is the one factor nearly everybody can agree upon throughout the political and cultural spectrum,” Andy Pearson, Liquid Dying’s vice chairman of inventive, mentioned in a press release to Enterprise Insider.

Andy Sauer, CEO and co-owner of Storage Beer, mentioned in a press release supplied to Enterprise Insider that each Storage Beer and Liquid Dying are “humor-forward manufacturers” which are “additionally severe concerning the vital issues.”

“Water is the world’s most useful useful resource, and knowledge facilities are a scorching matter, so we acquired collectively to have some enjoyable, whereas elevating a bit of consciousness,” he mentioned.

Kelce and his brother, Travis Kelce, each co-owners of Storage Beer, haven’t been vocal critics of AI, however their model is not the primary to leap on the AI-criticism bandwagon in its advertising.

After the advertising marketing campaign for Good friend, the wearable AI companion, confronted backlash final yr, Heineken put up a billboard in New York Metropolis that includes the same system that mentioned: “The easiest way to make a buddy is over a beer.” Legacy digital camera model Polaroid’s summer season advertising has included pictures of individuals swimming outdoors alongside messages like: “Go soar in some water earlier than the info facilities drink all of it up.”

AI corporations have been responding with adverts of their very own. A Meta ad final month promoted a cheerful imaginative and prescient of the AI future and mentioned the corporate disagreed with damaging predictions concerning the tech’s impression. An Anthropic advert additionally addressed AI nervousness head-on, that includes alarming pictures comparable to a home on fireplace and a voiceover of individuals questioning AI’s impacts. “There’s hope in onerous questions,” the advert mentioned.

AI knowledge facilities, specifically, have drawn rising opposition throughout the nation from residents holding protests and submitting lawsuits to dam proposed developments over considerations about water and vitality use, increased utility payments, and noise. A Enterprise Insider evaluation final yr discovered the increase in knowledge facilities, a few of which use water for cooling, was deepening the water crisis.

In response to the Information Middle Coalition, an business commerce group, knowledge middle corporations use numerous cooling strategies, together with some closed-loop or waterless programs, and prioritize environment friendly water practices that account for native water availability. The group cites a 2024 report compiled by a authorities fee in Virginia that discovered that the majority knowledge facilities use about as a lot water as, or lower than, a big workplace constructing, however that some require rather more.

As for whether or not mailing your pee to knowledge facilities to be used as coolant is a good suggestion, the US Postal Service didn’t reply to a request for remark.