EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum: This Is Not Us

The Public House’s continuation of last year's ‘This Is Not Us' campaign for EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum scrutinises the prevalence of negative Irish stereotypes found in modern technology and popular culture, with particular focus on 2023’s most talked about topic, Artificial Intelligence. The campaign runs across social, digital and OOH, with a specific emphasis on Dublin Bus T-Sides, and Tour Bus Rears targeting tourists on the streets of Dublin. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum exists to demonstrate that the Irish have left a powerful and positive impact on the world. Their museum experience shares the unforgettable stories of those who left Ireland’s shores, influencing and shaping the world along the way. EPIC know that the Irish are more than just stereotypes – we are inventors, poets, designers, leaders and changemakers. Our music, literature, culture, sport, food and dance attract millions of people to our country each year. Following research, it was found that when you prompt the world’s most used AI image generator to show you an ‘Irish man’, the results were, without exception, full of outdated stereotypes. The sad reality is that even though we have come a long way in the last number of decades, popular culture and technology still perpetuates negative stereotypes of the Irish. During the creative development for the campaign, a countless amount of these AI images were generated, with every result containing references to drinking, anger, aggression, ugliness, or leprechaun-like styling. While all bad, a selection of the most hideous images were selected to become the faces of the campaign across OOH, Social and Digital. The (anti)hero images. However, rather than exclusively taking aim at AI in the online film, the potential reasons for AI's negative portrayal of the Irish are explored, with references to the wider pop culture landscape of both the past and present day. This hero film creates a more immersive and comprehensive campaign, which mirrors the museum’s immersive and comprehensive account of who the Irish really are.