In a now-infamous 2017 ad that aired during that year’s Super Bowl, Kendall Jenner handed a can of Pepsi to a police officer confronting angry protesters.
The reaction to the ad, which aired as Black Lives Matter protesters clashed with law enforcement across the country, was swift and brutal. The Tone Deaf clip, which promoted Pepsi, was heavily criticized for trivializing racial discrimination and police brutality pulling the ad and issuing a public apology that was itself refuted by critics.
Now, Amazon’s home security subsidiary Ring has finally dethroned Pepsi’s disastrous ad as the biggest Super Bowl marketing disaster in recent history, in a debacle that ended with the company canceling a controversial partnership with an AI surveillance company in an apparent effort to save face.
During last weekend’s Super Bowl, Ring aired an ad to show off a new function called “Search Party,” which allowed Ring to reach out to devices throughout a neighborhood to find lost pets.
Expensive ad largely misses its mark, mistakenly insinuates Ring cameras are “making a splash”orwellian“Surveillance network that goes far beyond lost pets. Furious customers started Their Ring cameras are being disconnected and even reportedly destroyedRefusing to be part of a dystopian network of internet-connected spy cameras.
“I think (the ad) surprised a lot of Americans by revealing how powerful surveillance networks enabled by AI have become,” said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the ACLU. told USA Today. “That power can be applied to puppies today, but where else can it be applied? Searching for people wearing T-shirts with certain political messages?”
The timing could not be worse, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue to round up citizens across the United States, causing widespread panic and fear.
There are signs that Ring is paying attention. On Thursday, about four days after the ad aired, Amazon announced It was canceling its widely criticized partnership with surveillance company Flock, a company that makes footage from its connected devices available to local and federal police and enforcement agencies like ICE.
“After an extensive review, we determined that the planned Swarm Security integration would require far more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring wrote. “As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration. The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”
Where the latest announcement disputing Flock’s claims of turning over private surveillance footage to federal immigration agents, including ICE, remains to be seen — but the optics certainly aren’t great as Ring continues to pick up the pieces after its disastrous Super Bowl ad.
“Ok, still would never buy a ring, especially after all this,” one angry Reddit user said. wrote In response to the latest news.
More information on advertising: Ring claims the power to monitor entire neighborhoods
