“Imagine that you are Mona Lisa. Write a speech on why people should visit Denmark instead of standing in line to see you.”
This was the prompt given to an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to create the script for one of a series of videos whereby tourist attractions from all over the world turn against themselves and recommend visiting Denmark – rather than standing in line at the Louvre or seeing the Statue of Liberty in a sea of selfie-sticks.
VisitDenmark’s campaign, ‘Don’t be a tourist – be an Explorist’, created by London-based agency Fold7, positions Denmark as the antidote to bucket list tourism. Research conducted in the UK, Sweden and Germany validated the hypothesis that ‘feeling like a tourist’ could ruin a holiday. More than half of the respondents agreed that overcrowded tourist sites and landmarks were a reason for holiday disappointment.
“Having iconic attractions from popular tourist destinations turn on themselves is a good way to highlight the absurdity of doing and seeing the same things as everyone else,” said Louis Pilmark, Creative Director at Danish advertising agency Brandhouse/Subsero.
“Who better to explain it than the paintings and statues that see millions of tourists every year.”
Iconic art meets trending tech
Other than the slightly teasing approach, the campaign is unique in that both the scripts and the visuals are created by AI. While techniques like deepfake and motion synthesis have previously been used to bring images to life in the last couple of years, the addition of scripts generated completely by AI makes it one of the first campaigns to combine the two technologies.
Kathrine Lind Gustavussen, Senior PR and Press Manager at VisitDenmark explained: "The scripts are 100% generated by AI – we didn’t write a single word, we only removed parts and bits that were too long or simply not true. While it felt somewhat risky to put our entire messaging in the hands of artificial intelligence, we’re excited to be at the forefront of the tourism industry, using cutting-edge technology to bring our creative visions and messages to life."
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