Bashing AI data centers is all the rage, and brands are cashing in.
“AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water,” former NFL player Jason Kelce says as he appears to pee into a jar in a new ad for his beer brand, Garage Beer, and the canned water brand Liquid Death.
“We want your pee to cool these data centers,” Kelce says, before breaking into a song with lyrics like “please give us your pee” and “let’s pee on computers together.”
The ad says to have a Garage Beer or a Liquid Death Sparkling Energy drink, then “send your pee to the AI data center of your choice,” as a person in the ad drops a jar of pee at a post office.
Small print at the bottom of the ad cautions that “The suits want us to tell you to please don’t actually send your pee.”
The ad highlights the uphill PR battle AI companies and data center developers face as more Americans report concerns about AI’s impacts.
“There are many things that Americans can’t agree on, but opposition to AI data centers is the one thing almost everyone can agree upon across the political and cultural spectrum,” Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s vice president of creative, said in a statement to Business Insider.
Andy Sauer, CEO and co-owner of Garage Beer, said in a statement provided to Business Insider that both Garage Beer and Liquid Death are “humor-forward brands” that are “also serious about the important things.”
“Water is the world’s most valuable resource, and data centers are a hot topic, so we got together to have some fun, while raising a little awareness,” he said.
Kelce and his brother, Travis Kelce, both co-owners of Garage Beer, have not been vocal critics of AI, but their brand isn’t the first to jump on the AI-criticism bandwagon in its marketing.
After the marketing campaign for Friend, the wearable AI companion, faced backlash last year, Heineken put up a billboard in New York City featuring a similar device that said: “The best way to make a friend is over a beer.” Legacy camera brand Polaroid’s summer marketing has included images of people swimming outside alongside messages like: “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.”
AI companies have been responding with ads of their own. A Meta ad last month promoted a cheerful vision of the AI future and said the company disagreed with negative predictions about the tech’s impact. An Anthropic ad also addressed AI anxiety head-on, featuring alarming images such as a house on fire and a voiceover of people questioning AI’s impacts. “There’s hope in hard questions,” the ad said.
AI data centers, in particular, have drawn growing opposition across the country from residents holding protests and filing lawsuits to block proposed developments over concerns about water and energy use, higher utility bills, and noise. A Business Insider analysis last year found the boom in data centers, some of which use water for cooling, was deepening the water crisis.
As for whether mailing your pee to data centers for use as coolant is a good idea, the US Postal Service did not respond to a request for comment.
