“What if a fork was a spoon? Cutlery.ai”
These words appeared on a blank poster temporarily affixed to the wall of a New York subway station this week. Its simple style was similar to many other ads from nearby AI startups, but with one key difference. That said, Cutlery.ai is not real. That’s what’s important.
“This is obviously nonsense, but it feels like a lot of companies are saying it to you,” Dave Ross, one of the two New York comedians behind the fake ads, told Business Insider. The other was Harris Alterman, and together they made nine similar posters and hung them up in Manhattan basements.
“1 + 1 = ____. Dennis tells us,” reads another.
A video of their prank has since gone viral, racking up more than 3 million views on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
“I ride the subway all the time, and it’s always full of gibberish AI ads and ads for tech companies,” Alterman said.
Alterman said that spoofing parody content felt like a natural move since he makes a living creating parody content. He hired his friend Ross, who has a talent for turning comedic ideas into real-world objects, to help him create the posters.
One of the fake ads was briefly posted on a subway wall in New York. Harris Alterman and Dave Ross
They then learned that at least one of the fictional startups featured in the ad, Wireflow, was the name of a real AI company that appeared under the fictional slogan, “You pay us, we pay you.”
In response to an email seeking comment, Wireflow AI founder Andrew Adams said his company’s software “can create these AI images at scale.”
“We had the money, so it just happened to become a reality,” Alterman said.
The job costs about $200, he and Ross said, and the popularity of the ads has led cartoonists to monetize their creativity with T-shirts. They said they quickly removed the posters because they expected MTA officials to remove them after filming a viral video showcasing the posters. In the end, they were caught red-handed.
“At one point during filming, they were like, ‘Hey, what the hell are you doing?'” Alterman said.
Both men said they have experience working in the technology industry. Mr. Alterman, 34, previously worked as a social media director, and Mr. Ross, 43, worked as a web developer for several years.
The success of the stunt convinced the duo that there might be more material hidden in New York subway stations.
“This is a pretty deep well of comedy,” Alterman said. “We could probably make a lot more.”