Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Jul 14, 2025

Why artificial intelligence is being used to write adverts

Why artificial intelligence is being used to write adverts

What springs to mind when you think of advertising? Don Draper in the TV show Mad Men sipping a cocktail? Or perhaps trendy people swapping catch phrases in a converted warehouse?'

Well, more of the creative work these days is not being done by humans at all.

When Dixons Carphone wanted to push shoppers towards its Black Friday sale, the company turned to Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and got the winning line "The time is now".

Saul Lopes, head of customer marketing at Dixons Carphone, thinks it worked because it didn't have the words Black Friday in it.

His human copywriters had produced dozens of potentially successful sentences but they all mentioned Black Friday. It was technology that broke this chain of thought.

Parry Malm wanted to add some science to the art of advertising

The software in question is from Phrasee, whose boss is Parry Malm, a Canadian who moved to the UK in 2006. Working in marketing he assumed the technology existed to boost human creativity. He describes himself as "flummoxed" that this wasn't available.
Phrasee, the company he set up in 2015, is the product of Mr Malm's perplexed reaction.

"Getting the right message had been left to the Mad Men type characters. But I wanted to apply scientific rigour to those messages," he explains.

Standard copywriting takes place through a process of editing, argument and approval. Mr Malm says Phrasee does the same thing using a technique called Deep Learning, a vast network of parameters and pre-set limits that guide the programme in the right direction.

This allows it to bounce a slogan around, ranking its impact against raw data gleaned from many sources.

How many of these adverts in Time Square, New York, will eventually be generated thanks to AI?

At Rapp, an agency that packages products and services into messages and videos that appeal to the public, Phrasee absorbs a million emails that have been fired off over the years. Then it reassembles those sentences into new messages while adding guidance from Rapp's own writers, technologists and social media experts.

Phrasee builds up models that generate words appropriate to each product and the target audience of consumers. Language that has featured in previous campaigns is poured into the Deep Learning model which applies values based on factors such as the look, feel or taste of a product.

Mr Lopes knows that in an age of information overload consumers are becoming harder to reach as online sales patter diminishes their appetite for any message. As Phrasee comes armed with a terrific linguistic arsenal and is divorced from the individual points of view that shape the words of human copywriters he thinks it suits our jaded eyes.

Dixons Carphone still employs agencies and copywriters, but they come up with an idea which Phrasee then adapts, finessing the human perspective.

For a recent Dixons Carphone campaign Mr Lopes used Phrasee to create variations on messages derived from a decade of sales campaigns. "What surprises me is that we still see wild cards leaping out from the list of messages it generates."

The human brain can't process thousands of options says Saul Lopes, head of customer marketing at Dixons Carphone

That Black Friday message was one such wild card. Working online, Dixons Carphone gets rapid consumer feedback and quickly saw how well "The time is now" was going down with the public.

Copywriters shouldn't fear that AI is about to take their job, says Mr Lopes, because they are still needed to get the ball rolling. "But the human brain can't look at thousands of options. Our writing team sets out the strategy for the messages, we haven't replaced them."

He's convinced about this AI future. "Combining creative people with AI is the next step for the agencies. It's not AI versus the human, it generates creative thought."

This might come as a relief to Ogilvy, the agency founded by advertising legend David Ogilvy. His name invokes brilliant and witty campaigns that inspired generations of copywriters, and today Ogilvy bills itself as the "teaching hospital of advertising".

It boasts a behavioural science practice ran by its vice-chairman and veteran copywriter Rory Sutherland. He's a fan of new thinking, but only if it doesn't dampen the spark of creativity that sets consumers' desires alight.

"AI can't hurt if it generates interesting suggestions," Mr Sutherland concedes, "but it's like satnav in a car. Great for directions but you don't allow it to drive the car!"

He worries that AI will be steered into agencies by "bean counters" and has railed against an "alliance between technology and finance" that uses innovation as a cost-cutting tool regardless of the opportunities that get lost in the process. "These things tend to be viewed through an efficiency lens."

Ogilvy vice-chairman and veteran copywriter Rory Sutherland

Advertising, Mr Sutherland declares, "is about producing something distinctive. It's not a production line." Programmes like Phrasee can mirror a copywriter's work on an industrial scale. This, a digital factory for ads, is Mr Sutherland's worst nightmare.

"My only reservation about using AI is that people will afford it more power and influence than it deserves in an attempt to automate things, to realise the Fordist dream of multiple copies rolling off an assembly line."

In support of the creative human element he cites great advertising slogans that have been fine-tuned by critical voices from beyond the copywriter's desk. After 30 years as a copywriter Mr Sutherland is always ready to listen to someone who spots that a word or image may have the wrong connotation in another culture.

If AI can be that third party source of constructive criticism it has a home in his world. But he definitely won't allow it a deciding vote. "As a stimulus, suggesting ideas, it has a great future. As a source of judgement it's dubious."

Back at Dixons Carphone, Mr Lopes and his team keep trying to outsmart the software. They hold competitions to see who can guess what the winning line from Phrasee will be. "It's an internal game, we do it just before we push every new message out," he says.

"And we always lose to the computer!"

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
×