When New Zealand Kiwibank launched Buck, a bright green AI sheep designed to promote its services, it expected a cute and memorable marketing campaign. Instead, the mascot became a target for explicit internet humour and NSFW memes.
The state-owned financial institution unveiled a new green-wooled and brown-eyed mascot. A video shared on social media showed the AI sheep riding a bus, drinking coffee, and even getting a haircut.
Things, however, took a dark turn quickly. It started with a confronting tweet that went viral, gaining millions of views. A social media user shared a post sexualising the mascot.
Unsurprisingly, Kiwibank was not happy with Buck’s sudden fame. The bank filed a series of copyright claims trying to stop people from using its mascot as the subject of NSFW memes.
Bank addresses controversy:
{{/usCountry}}Unsurprisingly, Kiwibank was not happy with Buck’s sudden fame. The bank filed a series of copyright claims trying to stop people from using its mascot as the subject of NSFW memes.
Bank addresses controversy:
{{/usCountry}}Following the row, the bank shared another AI video addressing the controversy. “There’s been some stuff made about me – put on the internet. And if you saw what I had seen, you’d be shocked,” the AI sheep says in the video, adding, “Like, really, really shocked.
“You know what really ruffles my fleece? This happens a lot, OK? It happens to a lot of people. It could happen to someone you know – someone that it really affects.”
Alongside the video, the bank wrote on Instagram, “Jokes aside... the internet can be a weird place.”
The post added, “Buck was created by Kiwi VFX artists and this video uses AI editing tools to animate her movements. She is voiced by a Kiwi actress. Shot on location in Auckland, New Zealand.”
John Oliver features sheep row:
The controversy reached American late-night TV when it was picked up by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. He called the bank’s crackdown “completely counterproductive”.
“The first five weeks after that ad campaign launched, out of the 10 Tiktoks they posted, six featured Buck,” he said.
“But since then they have posted 18 times and the sheep is in exactly none of them. Basically, the sheep has gone.”
Bank faces criticism for crackdown:
Alongside, Free Speech Union also criticised the bank’s response and wrote an open letter to Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich.
The advocacy group said, “Whether people found the posts funny, offensive or simply baffling, they were jokes about a bank's mascot. At least one used Kiwibank's own advertising image, unaltered, with the joke in the caption.”
It stated, “The notices described the posts as sexualised copies that infringe Kiwibank's copyright. But the image was Kiwibank's and the joke was the poster's.” The group demanded that the bank withdraw the notices against the posts featuring Buck memes.
What did Kiwibank say?
A spokesperson for the bank told the Guardian that it has been addressing “explicit and harmful content being shared using Buck’s image”.
“Our concern was a serious one, and we believed it was important to address it,” the spokesperson continued, adding, “We recognise that the response became part of a conversation. We felt doing nothing wasn’t the right thing to do because of the harmful content.”