ChatGPT ads are starting to surface in the wild, including ads from Expedia that were spotted by Ashley Fletcher from Adthena. Asking ChatGPT, “What's the best way to book a weekend away?” resulted in an organic answer, followed by two ads for Expedia at the bottom of the response.
Ashley noted:
“Contrary to early predictions that ads would only appear after a back-and-forth dialogue, these triggered immediately on the first prompt response. Notably, the UI features a prominent brand favicon and a ‘Sponsored' label, slightly different to OpenAI's original concepts.”
I couldn't help but notice how terribly written the two side-by-side ads were.
The first said: “Last Minute Weekend Getaways. Find & Compare Package Deals and You Can Save Big! Browse Last Minute…”
The second said: “Romantic Trips for Couples. Compare Package Deals and You Can Save Big! Browse Romantic Trips for Couples o…”
Did ChatGPT write those ads? I think it must've because they've got that classic ChatGPT-tone, recognizable by any marketer who's ever asked for its help writing ads.
Was “You Can Save Big!” the only benefit-focused verbiage it could think of? That sounds like it was written by a 1980s TV ad writer.
Not to mention it used the verbiage “Last Minute” twice in the first ad and “Romantic Trips for Couples” twice in the second ad. Talk about a waste of space!
On that note, why did the ads get cut off? If ChatGPT is writing its own ads, then why wouldn't it write an ad that fits the allotted character limit? Or even worse, if humans at OpenAI or Expedia wrote those ads, why would they write such horrible ones that got cut off?
Lastly, is that the best it could do in regards to personalization? Generic sounding ads talking about “last minute deals” and “save big” to an affluent user who made no such mention of traveling last minute or searching for budget options?
This is sloppy work, especially by an AI firm asking for $200k commitments and supposedly working with advertisers directly as part of its beta group. These ads look like they were written by an intern who used ChatGPT!
It can only get better from here, I guess.
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