Google is once again underperforming the Mendoza line in its AI commercials, this time at the expense of James Blunt. Will the ‘Just Ask Google’ commercial experience the same fate as the AI-written admirer letter from the Olympics last year?
Google is making a concerted effort to promote its Google Gemini AI service, which is purported to simplify daily duties. This particular commercial centers on Ted, a young man born in 1998, the same year as the first Google search. Ted’s initial search as a teenager was for a “James Blunt music video” while the James Blunt song “You’re Beautiful” was playing in the background.
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Ted, who is 26 years old at the time of the commercial, is employing Google Gemini to conduct searches regarding his personal life, such as repairing a malfunctioning grill or locating amusement options in the area. Ted requests that the AI locate “something exciting that is taking place in the city that still allows him to return home at a reasonable hour.” The outcome is a James Blunt Anniversary Tour concert in Chicago, as determined by Google’s AI. The sole issue?
In the subsequent scene, Ted appears to be attending the concert that Google has located for him, with the Tal Bachman song “She’s So High” serving as the supporting track. Oops. I am uncertain as to how this evaded Google’s quality control checks, as it is evident that the company was required to license both James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” and Tal Bachman’s “She’s So High” in order to incorporate them into the commercial. No one paused during the creative process to inquire as to why a song from an entirely different artist was being featured. Wasn’t the purpose of this commercial to illustrate how Ted’s affection for James Blunt facilitated his pursuit of love?
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The majority of individuals who view the commercial are also perplexed, particularly if they were born during the period in which the Tal Bachman song was sufficiently popular (1999) to be played on the radio on a daily basis. One comment asserts that “‘She’s So High’ is not a James Blunt song.” “If only we had the technology to verify information such as this…” Certainly.
James Blunt does have a song titled “High” that is similar to “You’re Beautiful” and was included on the same album. In fact, both songs were published as singles when the album Back to Bedlam was released in 2004. Thus, during the entire period of storyboarding for this advertisement at Google, no one considered verifying that the two tracks featured in it were from the same artist, who was prominently featured in the commercial. One is compelled to contemplate the emotions of James Blunt regarding the error, which bears a striking resemblance to the early days of Napster and its proclivity for mislabeled recordings.
A prevalent misconception from that era was that Bob Seger sang the song “Drift Away” as a result of inaccurate metadata and mislabeling. He does not. Dobie Gray is the owner of that composition. However, we are now in 2025, and Google’s Gemini is causing more trouble than unlawfully downloaded tracks from the early days of the internet.
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