• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, July 26, 2024

I don’t care how many times I’ve viewed it. When I hear a voiceover asking, “What does a robot know about love?” I’m drawn to the romance of it, the seductive thought and sheer poetry of that line, as well as the cadence and assonance in the flow of words. 

Perfectly written, elevated opening thoughts like this don’t happen too often in ads. 

But in this masterly spot for Etsy, created by the agency Orchard and set to run during the Paris Olympics (speaking of romance), the spoken line is matched with an equally artful image. 

On its own in a white room, we see a stainless-steel robotic arm, that, while swinging and sculptural, is also hideously cold, with two off-putting pincers sticking out of the top.

Then, after black and white shots of factory automation, by enormous contrast, we see quick, warm-color cuts of artisans plunging their human hands into a variety of deliciously tactile materials like clay, or working a potter’s wheel or wooden lathe. And the voiceover delivers an answer about what robots know. 

“Nothing. They know nothing about love, or the joy of someone creating a table from a piece of wood, or jewelry from a sheet of metal.”

The voiceover continues, “Fingerprints we leave behind show how determined we are to give the world a piece of ourselves.”

The poetry is killin’ me!  

The spot is part of a bigger message about the importance of keeping the human in business. 

Obviously, we live in an age of unrelenting digital experiences and involvements, soon to be more dehumanized by the total encroachment of AI.  

So, it’s delightful as well as smart strategy for Etsy to stop the hard, cold speediness for a minute to stress the hand-crafted, small batch, warm and inspired work of imperfect human hands. 

And to give the artists/small business owners who do the work center stage. 

In addition to commercials, the campaign will include clips on social media, plus billboards in New York City and London, that allow us to meet the people and stories behind the carefully crafted products. 

Etsy will also promote the makers by tagging them under new category designations like “Made by,” “Designed by” and “Sourced by.” 

"In an increasingly automated world, Etsy stands for something different," said David Kolbusz, chief creative officer of Orchard, in a release. "Their sellers aren't just filling orders, they're conjuring magic from their fingertips and channeling their talents into the creation of objects you can touch and keep."

Indeed, no battle between humans and witheringly cold tech can be recounted without referring to the crash this spring of the notorious Apple commercial, “Crush.” 

It featured beautiful musical instruments and a variety of art objects being pulverized under the weight and claws of an industrial press, to fit into “one impossibly sleek tablet, “aka, a thinner iPad.” 

They made it even more ghastly by seeming to anthropomorphize the objects they were crushing. A guitar has a face, but does it have a soul?

It resulted in so much immediate, worldwide outrage that it was soon pulled. And in a rare move by the masters of Cupertino, the company apologized for its misjudgment.

So it was easy for other companies and brands to avoid Apple’s fate and and steer clear of any analog-shaming.

But speaking for New-York based Etsy, Kolbusz said, "Our film isn't anti-tech, it's pro-human. It's a reminder that the things that arrive on your doorstep can come from someplace more meaningful than a fulfillment center."

Etsy’s website opens with the line, “There’s a person behind every piece.” Certainly, this far into our inevitable, dystopian tech future, it’s nice to feel grounded, or as this Etsy commercial more poetically put it, to leave fingerprints of ourselves for the next generations. 

But amidst all this poetry, in the final seconds of the spot, perhaps in a homage to Apple’s misfire, and in a flourish of confetti, we see the robotic arm crushed into a sad little pile of dead metal on the floor, followed by the strong kicker, “Keep Commerce Human.” 

(Although there is some contradiction in Etsy’s recent adoption of AI to optimize search.)

Still, I look forward to seeing the spot, called “Human Performance,” playing out on the ultimate stage for human performance next week during the Olympics. 

Because a robot knows nothing of love, never mind about the human hearts, muscles, blood and tears of those top competitors who’ll be sweating by the Seine.