Warner Bros.’ new film is being promoted on a podcast with AI-made dogs and the Internet is up in arms against it

AI still isn’t managing to convince the general public, no matter how much they claim otherwise. Advertising campaigns with AI aren’t working and, outside of very specific trends, everything associated with AI ends up feeling tacky, which isn’t a positive. That’s what happened to Warner Bros. with the promotional campaign for its new film, The End of Oak Street.

A decision that wasn’t very well thought through

To promote the film they decided to collaborate with a podcast made by three dogs created with AI. And the results are proving catastrophic. The public has reacted very angrily, asking whether the film itself might also have been made with AI. Thus raising doubts about the film that didn’t exist before.

Although the podcast is popular, since DogPack has nearly a million followers on Instagram, that doesn’t change the fact that in the process they’ve managed to alienate an important part of their audience. On social media most of the comments are angry, asking whether AI was also used in the film. This shows that, while this podcast may have an audience and may amuse certain people, it wasn’t the kind of place where a film that wants to reach the general public should be promoted.

In any case, it seems this is a problem that the big studios are going to have to face more and more often. As the divide between people who are fine with AI and those who oppose it grows wider, using it publicly is becoming riskier and harder to justify. Something Warner has had to learn the hard way and we’ll see how it ends up affecting The End of Oak Street, a film that hadn’t been getting much attention and now is getting it for the wrong reasons.