Meta set a new AI optimism ad to David Bowie's Five Years, a song about the end of the world. A craft failure and a sign the public mood on AI is turning.
Meta made an ad to convince everyone that AI is going to be wonderful. It set the ad to David Bowie's "Five Years". That song is about humanity finding out it has five years left to live before the world ends. Someone at Meta either did not check the lyrics or did not care.
It would be funny if the numbers behind it were not so serious. Meta has guided full-year 2026 capital spending to as much as 145 billion US dollars, nearly double the 72.2 billion it spent in 2025. This is a company spending more on AI than most nations spend on infrastructure, and it chose an apocalypse anthem to sell you the optimism.
Why it matters
Two things here, and both matter for marketers. The first is a basic craft failure. Nobody vetted the source material. That is what happens when creative moves faster than judgment, and it is a mistake AI-accelerated production makes easier, not harder. The second is the sentiment underneath it. Meta is spending an optimism campaign because it senses the public mood on AI is turning, and a slick ad set to the wrong song is not going to fix that.
Meta has guided 2026 AI capital spending to as much as US$145 billion, nearly double its 2025 outlay. Source: Meta via Fortune.
What to do about it
Distinct beats fast. A brand that ships the wrong reference at scale just scales the mistake.