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Cheering for ads in ChatGPT
Arguing for ads
When the rumor surfaced that OpenAI would put ads in ChatGPT, the general response was that ads are bad. TBPN, a daily live tech and business show that loves advertising, took the other side, arguing that ads can make things free and that a company with OpenAI's ambitions needs an ad-supported version of its product. Most American households will cancel a $10-a-month streaming service when no show they love is on at that moment, so $20 a month for software does not reach everyone.
Celebrating the milestones
The show celebrated each milestone on the path to ads in a half-ironic tone while believing it was a real business model. It ran a Super Bowl ad with shoutouts to everyone in its community. It also launched a product called Clawed with ads, which made fun of an Anthropic ad that had punched at OpenAI, a punch OpenAI couldn't really return.
The acquisition
This spring, OpenAI made TBPN its first acquisition. The work the deal covers is marketing, from billboards to the next Super Bowl ad.
Why do ad-supported tiers make products cheaper?
An ad-supported product earns money from advertisers instead of charging the user the full price. Broadcast television worked this way for decades, with viewers paying nothing while sponsors covered the cost. Streaming services followed: Netflix launched a cheaper ad-supported plan in November 2022.
Why do brands run ads that mock rivals?
This is called comparative advertising, and it puts a competitor's product next to one's own in the viewer's mind. The Pepsi Challenge, which began in 1975, set blind taste tests of Pepsi against Coca-Cola. Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign ran from 2006 to 2009 and personified a Mac and a PC as two men. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has long allowed truthful comparisons, on the view that they give consumers useful information.
Why is the Super Bowl such a big stage for ads?
The game draws one of the largest television audiences in the United States each year, with Nielsen counts above 100 million viewers in recent years. Apple's "1984" commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, aired during Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984. It is often credited with turning the broadcast into a showcase for new advertising.
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