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  Sara Rosinsky • Shiny Red Copy

sara's Shiny red blog

AI doesn’t care.

5/13/2024

7 Comments

 
Picture
This morning, I encountered this piece of Priceline messaging.
Picture
I looked at it for a ridiculously long time. I thought, “Is that Priceline’s tone now? I don't remember them sounding that way. Why on earth would they remove the ‘g’ at the end of ‘slashing’?”

I took a screenshot and kept thinking about it.

I wondered if there was some ad campaign I didn’t know about. Maybe there was some folksy Priceline spokesperson now. I looked up “Priceline TV ad” and sat through not one but two long pre-roll ads just to access the latest Priceline Super Bowl creation.

Nope, that didn’t explain it.

I thought I’d go to the Priceline website on my laptop. Maybe I’d discover some site-wide brand tone that would make everything make sense. 

And that’s when I discovered Penny.
Picture
Ohhhhhhh. Now everything began to make sense. (Why did it take me so long to figure this out?)

I decided to go right to the horse’s robotic mouth:
Picture
There you have it. AI says that “price-slashin’” is “just a fun and informal way to describe” something.

No, it’s not. It’s weird and awkward and distractingly hokey. It took up a lot of my brain-space today.

So let me say this to Priceline and others of their ilk. Please listen to this living, breathing, HUMAN copywriter. Your brand matters. It is the lifeblood, the heartbeat, the personality of your company. With just a pinch of exaggeration and poetic license I’ll say that it’s the very soul of your company. It’s what makes human beings (read: customers, potential customers, partners, etc.) remember you. Understand you. And ideally, LIKE you. Take care of your brand, for crying out loud!

Penny and the rest of her AI brethren do not care about your brand. The question is, do you?
7 Comments
Dawn Baker
5/13/2024 02:06:12 pm

I thought: Is this ad legitimate?

Are they talking down to me?

I want a travel pic to make me excited or happy about travel. Even a tiny pic.

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
5/13/2024 07:25:49 pm

This was in an email, and I suppose their goal was making sure I know how lucky I am to be a VIP. But “price-slashin’” was (and is) just so weird!

Reply
Dawn Baker
5/16/2024 09:58:18 am

You know what would fix this? Add a "yee haw!" to it. Ask the AI lady her opinion, but don't offer more than one penny for her thoughts.

Jonathan C Pullano
5/15/2024 05:57:39 am

Next thing you know AI will be adding exclamation points at the end of every sentence!

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
5/15/2024 10:40:35 am

Because nothing says fun! And informal! Like an exclamation point!

Reply
Dawn Richards link
6/21/2024 01:11:17 am

Hi Sara
I'm a long-time fan of yours and share your frustrations with abuse of English language. I'd like to repost your post on my linkedin site. I'm terrified of unregulated AI. Could you please tell me how to do this?

Kepp up the brilliant vibes. Dawn

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
6/21/2024 10:13:24 am

Hi, Dawn! Thanks for the kind words. 😊 To share the blog, all you have to do is go up into the browser bar where the URL is. Copy it and paste it into your post. That's it! If you run into any trouble, let me know!

Reply

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