Cricket great and India's head coach Gautam Gambhir left his fans pondering on Thursday with a mysterious tweet addressing CRED. His tweet was: "DELETE THIS FILE IMMEDIATELY!!" - a response to the latest AI-based ad by the brand.
The ad, as part of CRED's new campaign, is making fun of overuse of artificial intelligence in daily life. Famous for its quirky and celebrity-studded promotions, CRED again employed humor, hyperbole, and a dash of Gambhir's no-nonsense nature to grab eyeballs.
Gambhir's tweet:
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CRED's AI-Themed Ad: Rejection Meets Humor
The ad envisions quirky situations brought about by AI, with weird and humorous results. In one scene, Gambhir has a cameo with his signature piercing stare, which became the talking point at once. X (formerly Twitter) fans converted the scene into a meme fest, further generating the buzz surrounding the campaign.
In a different scene, an AI-produced Gambhir is seen clutching an ice cream topped by a human tongue, before strangely consuming it and turning into an ice cream cone. The actual Gambhir, who can be seen watching this on his laptop, crushes the computer with his cricket bat, excluding the surreal AI creation.
Such play on rejection is very much connected to the message of the brand, reminding the user to settle their credit card bills on CRED.
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Clever Marketing or Genuine Outrage?
Gambhir's tweet stoked rumors. Was he really upset or just a part of the campaign strategy? Fans argued if the post was fabricated to create interest.
Either way, the outcome benefited CRED. By tapping into Gambhir's aggressive image and mixing it with humor, the brand effectively created conversations, memes, and headlines, all essential indicators of an effective marketing maneuver.
Given CRED’s history of bringing in stars like Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev, and others in out-of-the-box ads, this campaign seems no different, using Gambhir’s personality to push its quirky storytelling style.
