Since everyone is writing more these days, the hardest part isn’t coming up with content, but rather connecting with readers. The cartoonist known as Marketoonist does a masterful job of satirizing this by making fun of the mayhem that is contemporary marketing. But what’s behind the joke? In all seriousness, has AI improved content quality or increased its quantity?

There is a mad dash to automate captions and content across all brands and agencies. The speed, efficiency, and scalability promised by generative AI technologies are delivered. However, production has increased, and significance has diminished now that everyone has access to the same resources.

Although Marketoonist portrays a funny picture of executive suites rejoicing over “doubling content output,” the true worry is muttered behind closed doors: Is anybody reading it?

When Quality Becomes a Liability

AI content is quick, but it’s easy to forget. It can help you get past creative blocks or write your first lines, but it’s not very good at copying what makes a brand’s style unique. And when everyone sounds the same, people stop paying attention. It’s not just an artistic problem; it’s a business problem.

Storytelling has always been a way to stand out in Nigeria and other developing markets. But relying too much on a basis, templated AI material makes it harder for brands to connect with people on a deeper cultural level.

The PR Lesson from Cartoons

The Marketoonist doesn’t just highlight the weird aspects of the business; it also examines itself. AI isn’t able to laugh at itself, but people do. That respect, that wisdom, that knowledge that everyone has? That’s where real participation lives. Not in 500 posts that were made by a computer, but in one really good piece.

So, What Should Brands Do?

Use AI to speed things up, not to replace people. Let AI handle the tedious tasks, such as creating sketches and extracting data, but let people shape the message.

Find out more about your customers: what do they care about? What do they wish someone would tell them the truth? From there, write.

Bring back the tone: Things like humour, understanding, and local slang are not strengths of AI. You can have them.

Again, treat material as art, because people remember what made something feel like a person.

Marketoonist’s cartoons are humorous because they reflect reality. Let’s avoid becoming the next joke. AI is here to assist, yet the voice, the perspective, the essence, must still originate from us.

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