It was 2005 when Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik founded Etsy in Brooklyn, intending to create a website designed for the sale of handmade goods by artisans. Nearly twenty years later, Etsy is a thriving company, with the New York Post reporting that in 2023 alone, there were approximately 92 million buyers who spent a total of $13.2 billion, bringing the company’s annual revenue to $2.7 billion. In its latest campaign—created by Orchard, a New York-based creative agency—Etsy reflects on the value of personalization, in contrast to the rise of AI in many areas of daily life.

«Keep commerce human» is Etsy’s claim—already in use since 2017—reminding us that creativity remains one of the platform’s founding values. Emphasizing the strength of craftsmanship and everything we consider handmade, Etsy sellers will be featured on billboards in New York and London, with the campaign’s social content aiming to delve deeper into the stories of its sellers.

Creative Review points out that the decidedly more rustic approach of this campaign—amid the era of Temu, Shein, and Amazon—stands in opposition to the world of AI, following a hugely popular trend in the creative world. With the proliferation of so-called AI-generated goods, is it really worthwhile to focus on a storytelling narrative against Artificial Intelligence, or will we eventually need to think about how to integrate it constructively into the creative world?