Google’s Gemini Ad is Sweet But Predictable

THE AD: Google appeared in Super Bowl LX with a 60-second ad called “New Home” that shows off Gemini’s photo-generating capabilities as a mom tries to prepare her young son, Ben, for a big move. She pulls up photos of the new house before dropping in a picture from Google Photos of Ben’s current bedroom to help him visualize how his bed, toys, and even the dog’s bed will look in his new space. Then, they check out the backyard, where together they imagine the endless possibilities of what life might soon look like.

MY TAKE: Google played it safe with this one, sacrificing the opportunity to do something bigger, better, and more unexpected with the moment. 

Yes, the ad is heartwarming. It hit me with the feels. But ultimately, it reads like a diluted copy/paste of the last five-plus years of Google Super Bowl advertising. Last year, we saw a busy, loving dad practice for a job interview with the help of Gemini Live, a voice-based AI tool, on his Pixel smartphone. The year before, we saw a vision-impaired man fall in love and build a family—while his Pixel phone helped him capture the magic with smart accessibility camera features. And in 2020, we watched an elderly man use Google Assistant to remember his late wife in a heart-wrenching 90-second spot. The emotional poignancy of “New Home” pales in comparison to all of these ads. More importantly, from a strategic perspective, the campaign falls short of its intended aim: to kickstart a bold new era that helps establish Gemini as a fixture in consumers’ everyday lives.

Google’s vice president of commercial and AI marketing Marvin Chow told me that “New Home” is meant to be the start of a bigger promotional effort around Gemini that champions CEO Sundar Pichai’s decade-long aim to make Google an “AI-first company.”

“When I look back, I would hope that this is the beginning of that moment where regular people are starting to learn about Gemini and be like, ‘Oh, that’s the helpful AI. That’s the thing that can do this for me,” Chow said.

If that’s the case, why not show the viewer something truly groundbreaking and unexpected—rather than follow a tried-and-true playbook?