As robots take on an increasingly prominent role in our lives, are they developing self-awareness? This question might arise after watching Suchard’s Christmas advertising campaign. However, beyond the message it aims to convey about a Christmas without borders or the importance of companionship during the festive season, viewers cannot help but notice the campaign’s central figure: a small robot (which personally reminds me of the ones from the film Wall-E). Despite being a human creation designed to work on research missions on Mars, the robot exudes personality and conveys emotions such as happiness, sadness, and even more complex feelings like envy or homesickness. After watching the advertisement for the first time, I found myself questioning what extent we believe that robots can experience independent emotions and, more importantly, whether they can perceive their own existence and place in the world. Beyond the automation of machines to release them from their programmed and assigned functions (in the advertisement, collecting rocks and sending them to Earth), how can we know if a machine truly feels? What defines a robot’s self-awareness? The question of machine consciousness has sparked much debate across various philosophical currents (physicalism, functionalism, and specific frameworks combining both approaches). Now I raise these questions and highlight the importance of identifying, analysing, and subsequently regulating the various ethical issues surrounding such developments. As portrayed in the advertisement, these matters are far from distant realities. Instead, they are evolving around us and becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives. Will robots eventually play a fundamental role at Christmas dinners? Will stricter international regulations on machine self-learning be required? While so many questions remain unanswered, I wish you all a joyful holiday season!
In collaboration with Passion Pictures, Hogarth Spain produced OgilvyES recent work for Suchard. The campaign demonstrates how Christmas transcends distances and borders through the emotional story of a solitary robot from Mars who manages to celebrate the festive season in company. Hogarth España, en colaboración con Passion Pictures, ha producido la reciente campaña de OgilvyES para Suchard que demuestra cómo la Navidad trasciende distancias y fronteras a través de la emotiva historia de un solitario robot de Marte que consigue celebrar las fiestas en compañía. #QueNuncaFalteLaNavidad #HogarthSpain #creativeproduction #contentproduction