{"id":251892,"date":"2026-07-14T19:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/anthropics-newest-ad-is-creeping-people-out-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:41:27","slug":"anthropics-newest-ad-is-creeping-people-out-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/anthropics-newest-ad-is-creeping-people-out-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic&#8217;s newest ad is creeping people out | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anthropic is known for its creative marketing, but the AI company may have been a little bit <em>too<\/em> creative when it conjured up its most recent advertisement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Titled \u201cThere\u2019s hope in hard questions,\u201d the company\u2019s latest ad has been unsettling viewers with its weird imagery and doomer-ist tone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ad begins with a video of a burning house (not exactly a heartwarming start) before pivoting to a series of still images. These images include a crowd of people being surveilled by facial recognition, a homeless person sleeping on the street, rows upon rows of tombstones in a cemetery, and what appears to be a group of laborers toiling in a mine where (presumably) raw materials for smartphones are being dug up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, a voice-over track features different people asking questions like \u201cCan AI be trusted?\u201d and \u201cWho\u2019s gonna hit the brakes if we need to?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"There\u2019s hope in hard questions\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jVbGX7zJHi8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In short: Not exactly the family-friendly crowd-pleaser of the year. At the same time, it\u2019s also not particularly far afield from the company\u2019s past messaging. Anthropic has consistently attempted to depict itself as the ethical foil to other AI companies. This latest marketing stunt \u2014 which leans into criticism of AI as a way to make Anthropic seem aware of (and therefore distinctly worthy of) the responsibility it carries \u2014 would appear to be more of the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not everybody is having it, however. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sam Altman \u2014 the CEO of OpenAI, Anthropic\u2019s chief rival \u2014 kicked off the criticism with some pithy trolling. \u00a0\u201ci thought this was satire, kept looking for the handle to be spelled c1audeai or something,\u201d Altman <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sama\/status\/2076824686307271125?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">posted to X on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other skeptics \u2014 many of whom seem to work in the tech industry \u2014 came out of the woodwork to remark upon Anthropic\u2019s odd choice of imagery and tone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnthropic is quite an amazing company. With the worst corporate communications ever,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/__paleologo\/status\/2076989101236961434?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">another person said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[T]he EAs [effective altruists] at anthropic really must be living in a bubble of ai psychosis to think this would go down well,\u201d a critical\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/liquiditygoblin\/status\/2076990544673440094?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">poster remarked<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/responsibility-play-anthropic-hard-questions-branding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">some have pointed out<\/a>, Anthropic is following a very time-tested marketing playbook here. That playbook involves a brand calling out and owning the harms caused by its industry as a way to demonstrate that it is the company best positioned to avoid or correct those harms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even if it\u2019s a familiar playbook, it seems to have backfired here \u2014 particularly the decision to include a brief shot that appears to be from Arlington National Cemetery. \u201cI can\u2019t stress enough how fucked up it is that Anthropic is running an ad that includes this image asking \u2018Who\u2019s gonna hit the brakes if we need to?\u2019\u201d said one commenter, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ZackKorman\/status\/2076983480064352388?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">sharing the<\/a> cemetery image that appears in the ad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People kept coming back to the graveyard imagery. \u201cOut of everything in that ad, this part was exceptionally weird and sinister,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/growing_daniel\/status\/2077101330242691127?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">another person wrote<\/a>, sharing the same image.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Personally, the ad vaguely reminds me of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vhztDt7-QT8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">propaganda sequence<\/a> in \u201cThe Parallax View\u201d \u2014 the 1970s paranoid thriller about an evil corporation involved in an MK-Ultra-esque conspiracy to create brainwashed assassins. This is probably not the best association to have for a company that would like to prove it is acting as a force for good in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anthropic\u2019s marketing has made a splash before. In February, during the Super Bowl, the company unleashed <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/08\/super-bowl-60-ai-ads-svedka-anthropic-brands-commercials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a slew of ads<\/a> that humorously took aim at OpenAI\u2019s decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/16\/chatgpt-users-are-about-to-get-hit-with-targeted-ads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">include ads in ChatGPT<\/a>. Those ads earned it a <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/13\/anthropics-super-bowl-ads-mocking-ai-with-ads-helped-push-claudes-app-into-the-top-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">good amount of positive buzz<\/a> \u2014 as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/04\/sam-altman-got-exceptionally-testy-over-claude-super-bowl-ads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">smoldering rage<\/a> of its competitor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/07\/14\/anthropics-newest-ad-is-creeping-people-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthropic is known for its creative marketing, but the AI company may have been a little bit too creative when it conjured up its most recent advertisement. Titled \u201cThere\u2019s hope in hard questions,\u201d the company\u2019s latest ad has been unsettling viewers with its weird imagery and doomer-ist tone. The ad begins with a video of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-251892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}