Polaroid turns data centre water consumption into a beachside statement

Polaroid has unveiled a giant billboard on New York’s Coney Island Beach that uses growing concerns around data centre water consumption to encourage people to spend less time online and more time engaging with the world around them.

Installed at the start of summer, the beachside execution carries the line: “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up”.

While the message references one of technology’s most debated environmental issues, Polaroid says the installation is intended to spark a broader conversation about over-digitalisation and the value of real-world experiences.

The stunt launches The Best of Summer Is Analog, a new campaign supporting the release of the Polaroid Go Generation 3 camera.

Running across New York, London and South Korea, the work includes a station takeover at King’s Cross and outdoor lines such as “You can’t bask in blue light”, “Dance like nobody is recording” and “What a glorious day to stare into various screens for hours on end”.

The campaign builds on last year’s widely shared “AI can’t generate the sand between your toes” message, continuing Polaroid’s effort to position analog experiences as increasingly valuable in an AI-driven world.

“When we stopped asking ‘How do you make instant cameras appealing to Gen Z?’ and started asking ‘Why should Polaroid exist at all in an AI era?’ we knew we were on to something,” said Patricia Varella, creative director at Polaroid.

“While our campaigns are provocative and challenge our relationship with technology, we’re not anti-digital. We know we have to live alongside it, but we’re deeply pro-human.”

The campaign extends beyond outdoor media.

Polaroid has also paid 12 creators to temporarily step away from social media, encouraging them to pursue offline versions of the activities that made them popular online. The initiative was supported by a sensory seeding experience for influencers and media, designed to immerse recipients in the sights, sounds and scents of summer before revealing the new camera at its centre.

In our H1 report we noted that “tech is getting worse” is something audiences feel, and the brands willing to say it out loud sound like allies rather than vendors.