When an AI wearable’s ad campaign sparked backlash in New York City, Heineken said: Hold my beer.
Friend, the company behind an AI companion you wear around your neck, spent over $1 million to plaster the city’s subway system with 11,000 car cards, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels on September 25. New Yorkers quickly defaced the ads with graffiti like “surveillance tool” and “AI is not your friend.”
Within two weeks, Heineken joined the fray, launching an ad campaign of its own. Friend’s signature pendant was replaced with a bottle opener with a similar shape, paired with a witty log line: “The best way to make a friend is over a beer.”
The campaign is “tongue-in-cheek” but reinforces Heineken’s belief that “a refreshing social life matters more than we realize,” wrote Guilherme de Marchi Retz, Heineken USA’s marketing VP, in an email to Business Insider.
“In a culture defined by constant scrolling, it’s both timely and intentionally ironic, because we know the best social experiences happen offline,” he wrote.
Friend’s founder, the 22-year-old Avi Schiffmann, has seemed to revel in the attention. Schiffmann called the backlash to Friend’s ad campaign “entertaining” and even attended an anti-Friend protest.
In an email to Business Insider, Schiffmann wrote that Friend had nothing to do with the Heineken ads.
“I think they’re pretty cool & I bought a rack of Heineken to enjoy the night I saw that ad go viral,” Schiffmann wrote.
Heineken declined to disclose exactly how many impressions the campaign has received. “Social media engagements and conversations around this campaign have been above the average for similar topical brand activities,” Retz wrote.
The social media response from many has been gleeful. Six Point Ventures cofounder Trace Cohen posted on X that it was “next level trolling.” EssenceMediacom Global EVP Michael Miraflor wrote that it was “Incredible speed for a giant org.”
Heineken isn’t necessarily anti-AI. In his email, Retz wrote that Heineken uses the tech to “optimize logistics” and support “creative teams in testing new ideas.”
Heineken previously launched a plan for “brewing with AI,” bringing in AI-driven products and supporting AI literacy programs. Their AI goals include operational efficiency, driving smart sales, and hyper-personalized marketing.
But that’s where the buck stops. Retz wrote that Heineken saw AI “as a tool to give our people more time to focus on what really matters: creativity, insight, and connection.”
“Technology should make our lives easier, not replace the human moments that make them meaningful,” Retz wrote.
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