As for many brands, the threat of machines, AI, and mass production looms large for Etsy, which has stood out in the e-commerce space by emphasising the selling of handcrafted and vintage items.

The brand kicked off this year by reminding customers how its community of seven million sellers can help with all of their shopping and gifting missions. But its latest campaign aims to focus on the more human element of its business, and takes aim at AI and other “soulless” manufacturing methods with one film asking, “What does a robot know about love?” and then showcasing the passion and creativity of Etsy sellers.

Created by New York-based agency Orchard, the spot reinforces Etsy’s mission to ‘keep commerce human’ (a line first introduced by the brand in 2017), and coincides with a set of new creativity standards that label products as either: ‘made by [shop name]’, ‘designed by’, ‘sourced by’ or ‘handpicked by’. These have seemingly been brought in to counteract the backlash the brand has recently faced over the floods of AI-generated products that have infiltrated the site.

Emphasising the notion of craft, alongside the ads, Etsy sellers will be featured in billboards across New York and London, with the campaign’s social content telling the more in-depth stories of its sellers.

The handmade and rustic approach feels like a rebuttal to the churn of shopping giants like Amazon, Shein and Temu. It’s also a counterpoint to Apple’s controversial Crush! ad for the iPad Pro earlier this year. While that spot wasn’t about the power of AI, it was felt to be an attack on the pleasures of analogue creativity.

It makes sense that Etsy might want to dabble in a bit of AI-bashing, which is very much in vogue with creatives right now, but with the increase of AI-generated goods, resistance may ultimately prove to be futile and instead a way of maintaining quality could better serve the brand.

Credits:
Agency: Orchard
Creative director/copywriter: Heather Larime
Art director: Jim Lasser