Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind Claude AI, has rolled out a series of cheeky Super Bowl ads titled Betrayal, Violation, Treachery, and Deception. The films depict everyday AI conversations being hijacked by intrusive sales pitches, an unmistakable dig at ChatGPT’s recent announcement that it plans to introduce advertising on its platform.

The campaign, with the tagline ‘Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,’ underscores Anthropic’s stance to keep Claude ‘ad-free forever,’ positioning it in direct contrast to OpenAI’s stated plan to introduce labelled banner ads across its Free and ChatGPT Go tiers to fund broader access.

Comprising four short films, the spots dramatise hypothetical conversations with an anthropomorphic chatbot whose tone and attitude feel eerily similar to familiar generative AI interfaces such as ChatGPT. What begins as routine user prompts, including seeking help with a new business idea or discussing challenges around fitness, assignments, or even relationships, quickly takes an uncomfortable turn. The chatbot begins inserting awkward, ill-timed promotions for completely unrelated products, ranging from height-increasing insoles and 400% APR loans to jewellery discounts and even a dating site for cougars.

Unsurprisingly, the brand's messaging struck a nerve, with the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly responding to the campaign, calling the ads “funny but dishonest,” while defending non-intrusive banner formats and highlighting his platform's massive user scale in contrast to Claude’s more premium-led positioning.

What we think about it: The campaign lands at a precisely opportune moment, coinciding with OpenAI’s move to monetise generative AI through advertising, an announcement that has reignited anxieties around trust, neutrality, and whether AI responses can remain truly objective once commercial incentives enter the frame. The films cleverly dramatise a fear many users are quietly harbouring: how long before assistance turns into persuasion, and answers begin to carry the invisible weight of paid influence? Adding to the impact is the deliberately cold, borderline creepy enthusiasm of the films' chatbot characters, a trait uncomfortably close to the forced warmth many AI systems adopt to sound human, making the ads instantly relatable, humorous and unsettling in equal measure.

Of course, whether ChatGPT will ever go the full length, weaving paid promotions directly into its responses, or whether Claude itself will succumb to the tempations of advertising in the long run, remain to be seen. But for now, Anthropic has succeeded in firing a mischievous but well-timed shot at its rival, offering a tongue-in-cheek glimpse of what ad-saturated AI conversations could look like. Message delivered. Loud and clear.