Forlorn Marcel Tries to Bring Festive Cheer in Publicis’ Holiday Video

Publicis Groupe’s annual holiday wishes are brought to us this year by its artificial intelligence platform, Marcel.

The playful video shows the cheery AI wheeling on screen as a robot to wish everyone a Happy Holidays. But before that, it has something to address: “I want to clear the air. If what I’ve read online is true, most of you don’t like me,” it says in a warm French accent, before being given the cold shoulder and a barrage of abuse as it tours around the agency.

“Why create me if no one wants me?” it asks in an existential pondering. “I’m actually a pretty nice AI once you get to know me.”

It’s a strikingly honest message from the company, addressing the criticism that it has received since it announced its commitment to building the network-wide global assistant in 2017 and officially unveiled it in May 2018. With Beta testing over, Marcel is slated to officially launch across the Groupe at the start of 2019.