Can robots really dream?

In an attempt to be creative and witty, marketers are increasingly facing criticism from activist groups concerned about how a certain group or class is being portrayed in commercials. Whether it is gay and lesbian groups concerned with how gay people are represented in a Snickers commercial, or the Society for the Preservation of Leprechaun Lore suing an advertiser for suggesting that a leprechaun was incapable of defending himself, more and more groups are rebelling against ads that they claim are detrimental to their particular societal group.

A recent ad for GM portraying a despondent robot in a dream sequence in which he commits suicide was protested by the New York based American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In their view "It was inappropriate to use depression and suicide as a way to sell cars. " Although GM initially defended its actions and refused to change the ad, they have since conceded and agreed to change the ending.

Although I would agree that depression and suicide are not topics that should be taken lightly, can consumers not distinguish between fantasy and reality? After all, this was a robot that was portrayed, was it not? Can robots actually commit suicide? Do they have the ability to dream? These ads are not necessarily based in reality, they are commercials, not scientific discoveries. Or perhaps the marketers missed an opportunity here. Should a pharmaceutical company have used this ad to promote an anti depressant?

To illustrate this point, a response was published on a website called autoextremeist (http://autoextremist.com/page2.shtml). In this article a different perspective is given, this one from the mind of the robot. The robot is asked his opinion on the backlash, and in general what life is like as a robot. The robot gives us some insight into his psyche, and how this ad has changed his life. The last part of this interview, I believe sums up this blog pretty well:


" Q: Any last words for our humanoid audience, Ricky?"

"A. Yeah, how about it's only a frickin' TV commercial? You humanoids need to stop allowing a few with a cause (noble, or otherwise) to adversely affect the lives of the majority. I mean, we got our causes too, man - but we don't go around shoving them down each other's throats. And you humanoids used to have a sense of humor too. What the hell happened to that? Now you spend so much time wandering around trying not to offend anyone that no one can't get anything done out of fear of pissing somebody off. You've become a race of touchy-feely, spineless, worrywarts who can't get shit done without having a group hug and discussing your feelings, and that's a bunch of bullshit - in any language. Grow some stones back, have your spine removals reversed, and for crissakes if you're lucky enough to have a point of view, stick to your guns and tell the special interest groups to go take a flyin' uh, well, you know what I mean. I gotta run, time to go back to work."