• by Fern Siegel , July 11, 2025

There is much to be said for real life. Just ask Polaroid.

It’s new out-of-home campaign — “The Camera for an Analog Life” — runs in New York and London. Polaroid Creative Studio launched the OOH campaign in high-traffic areas, such as JFK Airport, city centers, busy streets in SoHo and Greenwich Village, and next to Apple Stores and Google offices in New York City and London.

The billboards and posters are placed near tech offices, creating a compare/contrast with digital. Taglines read: “AI can’t generate sand between your toes.” “Real stories. Not stories & reels.”

In addition, phone-free walking tours in Paris, Tokyo and London, are striking a blow for authenticity. People lock away their phones for an hour and experience the city via the instant Polaroid Flip camera. The London tour will be held August 19.

The campaign also includes paid media – search, social, display and targeted digital ads aimed at Gen Z – and social media and creator campaigns to continue to strengthen the campaign message.

“We are analog creatures, built to connect through our senses. But the more we lose ourselves in digital algorithms, the more we drift away from empathy and real connection. There is something magical in a Polaroid picture. It captures the humanness in all of us, wrinkles and all, and reminds us that the best of life happens in the real, physical world,” said Patricia Varella, brand-creative director at Polaroid.

The company, founded in 1937, can be considered the Apple of its time.