I hope you are ready for a wonderful season of giving and a break from all things marketing and business. I end the year with a special look back at the past ten years.
This year, artificial intelligence seems to be sucking all the oxygen out of the marketing room. With a nod to brands being forced to fill their marketing with AI-generated content, 2024 feels a little unhappy. So, if you’ll indulge me:
Everyone in marketing is passionate about creativity;
But the senior executives running the business didn’t.
They hate creativity! feelings! trend!
Expensive branding campaigns for emotional purposes.
They giggle at these memes; the idea is so cute.
They sneered: “Who needs empathy when we have computing power?”
“Look at these fools, their thought leadership fluff,
Brainstorm ideas for hours – like this once Enough!
They are slow and inefficient, stuck in their own ways,
While I can optimize content in seconds instead of days!
Now, with the buzz of neural networks and the Tesla-like purr,
Artificial intelligence learns them all in a split second.
They cleverly launched drones over Jersey,
and rewrote their ads with icy robot-generated air.
Stories, joy and fun are gone,
Replaced with Artificial Intelligence: “Deep research and development savings! Buy one, get one free!
Advertisements full of gerunds,
The robot buzzed and banged against the door.
When executives plan to fire teams,
The tech brothers got together and made a plan to log in.
Sam Altman posted, “Let’s use the talents of OpenAI to optimize happiness!”
Bezos declares, “Creativity is dead—artificial intelligence will write more carefully!”
Sundar Pichai echoed: “Productivity is key! No more delays!
“Artificial intelligence will bring Christmas to marketing, Google’s way!”
But in the marketers’ corner, the team regroups,
Ignore the chaos of the tech bro cycle.
They slowed down and created something that humans can feel.
It’s not the algorithms or the billionaires who steal.
They create slow stories with heart and joy,
Handmade events feel human and bright.
When artificial intelligence churns out the dregs—cold, soulless, bland,
Their creative magic soars, crafted by real hands.
Executives stare down at their dashboards and feeds;
Bewildered by the magic conceived by human joy.
They paused the machine, not knowing what to say,
As marketers have shown, they Know The right way.
They don’t need bots or predictive commands,
Just humor, emotion and the work of their hands.
They gathered in the room to share ideas,
Proof that brand talent is endowed by humans.
“What is this?” shouted the higher-ups, “We can’t look away!
How can humans surpass the power of artificial intelligence?
They learned that connections cannot be traced on a graph,
True engagement begins with the heart.
So, what happened next? Well, in marketing they say,
That day, the senior executive’s wisdom grew fivefold!
They join the ranks of marketers and craft beautiful headlines,
And helped Santa Claus upgrade the Wi-Fi for emergencies.
Now, every Christmas, they play a small role,
Balancing big data with the marketer’s heart.
Even Sam Altman had a shy little smile;
Write human Content – No artificial intelligence.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
