How to beat AI fatigue with old-school creativity 🤖

What Polaroid, Dove & McDonald's knows that you don't...

Give your screen a break. Period. ❌

Polaroid launched a bold campaign in NYC called “The Camera for an Analogue Life.”

In a world of AI filters, algorithmic overload, and phones glued to our palms… Polaroid is telling us to put the tech down and live again.

Billboards read things like:

• “AI can’t generate sand between your toes.”

• “Remember the night we spent on our phones? Me neither.”

It’s a reminder that no AI filter can replace the texture of life, or the charm of holding a Polaroid print in your hands.

And Polaroid is not alone:

• Dove is pushing back against AI-generated beauty standards with “The Code” campaign, vowing never to use AI to distort women’s images.

• McDonald’s launched an adult Happy Meal with retro toys and a nostalgia-packed shake - because who doesn’t crave a taste of childhood simplicity?

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⚡ How to profit from AI burnout

These brands understood something we often miss when positioning our services:

⏰ Relevance is fatigue – Tech burnout is trending. Polaroid didn’t invent screen addiction. They reframed it into their brand story. Ask yourself: what’s my industry’s “fatigue” moment I can tap into?

📸 Tangibility wins trust – A Polaroid print. A McDonald’s toy. A Dove promise of No AI. Tangible, analogue proof makes brands stand out in 2025.

💡 Nostalgia is currency – Childhood memories, rituals, timeless experiences… these create instant emotional buy-in, no ad spend or tech required.

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✅ Stop selling speed - sell realness

Your clients are overwhelmed with "instant," "automated," and "AI-powered" everything.

So when you show up saying:

“What I do takes longer, but it’s real, thoughtful, and human.”

…suddenly you’re no longer competing with AI or algorithms.

A copywriter might frame it like this:

“AI can draft 50 headlines. But it's never had a bad breakup or celebrated a promotion. My job is to inject lived human insight into the words.”

A designer could say:

"AI can generate thousands of logos. But it's never had to explain a creative decision to a skeptical client at 2am. My designs come with the battle scars of real life feedback."

Clients are tired of perfect. They want real.

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🚀 Ideas for testing this quick growth idea

Here’s how freelancers and solopreneurs can apply the AI-fatigue playbook:

📞 The Phone Call Advantage – While competitors hide behind email threads, make your first client touchpoint a phone call. Say: "I know it's old-school, but I learn more about your project in 15 minutes of conversation than in 15 email exchanges."

⏸️ Create Waiting Periods – Instead of promising instant turnaround, build in "thinking time." Frame it as: "I take 24 hours between first draft and revision. Better ideas happen when I step away from the screen."

🎧 Voice Note Everything – Replace long email explanations with 60-second voice messages. Say: "Rather than typing, here's me walking you through this..." It's impossibly personal in an automated world.

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👇 Case Study: Cozy Earth

While everyone else was building chatbots, Cozy Earth’s founder started hand-writing notes to customers. Now people are posting these notes on Instagram - good luck getting people to do that with an automated ‘thank-you’ email.

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💡 Your Friday takeaway

Polaroid didn’t add AI to its camera.

Dove didn’t bow to AI-generated beauty.

McDonald’s didn’t invent a new app. They brought back toys.

All these brands proved the same point: the human, the tangible, the nostalgic - these never go out of style.

As solo business owners, the WIN isn’t chasing every new tool.

We need to show clients our analogue edge. Our perspective, craft, and lived experience make us irreplaceable.

You win by being the human in the room.

TL;DR: AI fatigue is real. Instead of competing with machines, make your humanness your USP. Nostalgia and tangibility beat algorithms every time.

See you next week 🚀

Sam

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