Why Polaroid’s Anti-AI Stance Is Making an Impact

Our creative director, Dan Srokosz, has been featured in Creative Moment, sharing his thoughts on Polaroid’s latest campaign, ‘The Best of Summer Is Analog’, and how brands can find a powerful position by championing what makes us distinctly human.

In his piece, Dan explores how Polaroid has taken a decidedly analogue route as brands grapple with AI, smartphones and an increasingly screen-based culture. Rather than simply selling instant photography, the campaign challenges the technology competing for our attention, with messages including “You can’t bask in blue light” and “Dance like nobody is recording.”

For Dan, Polaroid’s strength comes from being “everything AI and technology are not: analogue, simple and physical.” The product itself embodies that alternative, creating a photograph you can hold, share and actually see.

He also explores how the campaign turns FOMO into something more meaningful: “The fear isn’t ‘you’ll miss the [insert thing]’; it’s ‘you’ll miss the memory.’” By encouraging people to put down their phones and experience the world around them, Polaroid taps into a simple human truth: the more time we spend on screens, the less time we spend actually living.

Dan also highlights the campaign’s embrace of imperfection. “In a world where AI can create technically perfect images in seconds, imperfection becomes an asset.”

For Dan, the wider lesson is simple: “Search for the human truth that underpins your product truth and, if it can tie into a wider existential societal issue, even better.”