Wednesday January 21, 2026; 9:50 AM EST
The ads I like on TV these days are the ChatGPT ads that show you how it makes your life better. In the first ad two college age people, brother and sister it turns out, are on a cross-country drive and have a great trip planned. You can tell they love each other, and have a casual familiarity and trust and laugh a lot, teasing, as the itinerary scrolls by too fast to read more than two or three lines, but you can see they're going to have a better trip than I've ever had and I've done a lot of cross-country trips with friends over the years. #- The other ad, again with the young college-age people, this time a date, probably not the first date, at his apartment, and the guy is making dinner for his guest, and again, the plan scrolls by. He's making something nice, but not too much, and like the last ad, they're confident, young, full of life, and since I've used ChatGPT for just this purpose, they're probably going to have a great meal, and they'll go out again, for sure. #
- This is the perfect advertising for this stage of their business. They are the leading product, the Coca Cola of AI systems, so they don't need to compare themselves with anyone, they are the standard -- and now they get a chance to define it. It's about friendship, love, looking good, getting the girl, etc. But it's wholesome and American. I bet they run the same ad in Denmark, only the kids are speak Danish and have blonde hair and they go to places in Denmark. #
- I don't think Google or Facebook did these kinds of ads as they were rising to dominance. Microsoft didn't, Apple did. This will also change the press coverage they get. Journalists like to pretend that ads don't infulence what they think, but good ones like these do. #