Perplexity AI Takes on Google with Squid Game Star in New Ad Campaign

Perplexity dunks on Google's 'glue on pizza' AI fail in new ad

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. The AI search engine Perplexity just debuted a new ad featuring Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, who's trapped in a room and must answer a series of questions to escape. One question targets Google's AI gaffe last year, as Lee taps Perplexity to answer, "How do I make cheese stick to a pizza?" The AI Overviews in Google Search use results from across the web to feed a summary written by Google's AI tool. However, users quickly found issues with the feature, including one specific response that said "Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer's glue in the sauce" to make cheese stick to pizza. With growing competition from Perplexity and others, Google announced earlier this month that it would start showing AI Overviews for more queries, whether or not they're wanted. Meanwhile, Perplexity, which bills itself as an "answer engine," has been accused of plagiarizing content. In the new commercial, Lee whips out his phone in search of answers, and after getting disappointing results from "Poogle," he turns to Perplexity for a response. "Use fresh, low-moisture mozzarella. Don't use glue," Perplexity's AI assistant says.

Perplexity just brought in a 'Squid Game' star to convince you to ditch Google

While we're well and truly in the 'Age of AI', we're still waiting for those barbs from one ambitious company to another in the way Mac and PC did battle all those years ago. Thankfully, we're starting to get some hints at that friendly competition (for now, at least), with Perplexity's latest TV spot firing a cheeky dig at Google's search results. In the new 'Perplexity Questions' ad you can see above, the company takes Lee Jung-Jae, star of the popular Netflix drama about a series of contestants tasked with tackling gruesome challenges, with... some kind of challenge. Finding himself stuck in a hallway with a rapidly lowering temperature, the Korean star is asked how to best remove coffee stains from a shirt, turning to 'Poogle' -- a not so subtle nod to one of Perplexity's rivals and the brand most people turn to for answers online. With his feed full of ads and goodness knows what else, he switches to Perplexity ('Where Knowledge Begins'), and gets an instant response that satisfies the monitor asking the question -- even translating from Korean to English in the process. Next up, the mysterious monitor demands to know how to get cheese to stick to pizza, one of Google's AI overviews most notorious gaffes. "Use fresh low-moisture mozarella," the chatbot responds, sneakily adding "don't use glue". It's clear the ad is making a play for ChatGPT's seemingly synonymous nature with chatbot queries, but it's hard to see what it offers that OpenAI's own product can't -- although the digs at Google certainly help it prove its superiority against search engines. Can it win this battle royale of chatbots, though? That remains to be seen -- but it's clearly not afraid to get its hands dirty to achieve victory.

New ad declares Squid Game's real winner is Perplexity AI

AI conversational search engine Perplexity is getting as ruthless in its marketing as the judges in Squid Game's eponymous game show. The company has introduced a major celebrity-driven ad campaign featuring Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae and some jabs at Google. The 90-second spot above portrays Jung-jae playing a game very similar to the Squid Game. First, he must figure out how to get coffee stains out of a white shirt. When he opens the very obvious Google parody Poogle, it responds in typical search engine fashion with a list of blue links. Realizing that sifting through articles for answers isn't going to cut it, he panics and asks Perplexity instead. Using its voice model, the AI chatbot provides him with clear, step-by-step guidance. He next has to ask Perplexity how to make cheese stick to pizza. Perplexity provides the right answer before quipping, "Don't use glue," a direct nod to the infamous mistake Google's AI made in suggesting Elmer's glue as a potential pizza ingredient. The ad concludes with Jung-jae being asked to name the first Korean to win an Emmy award, which he doesn't need any help with as he is that actor. Perplexity pokes at Google The timing of the ad campaign is no accident, as Netflix's third and final season of Squid Game is expected to drop in June. The campaign is also part of a yearlong partnership between Perplexity and Artist United, which Jung-jae co-owns. Artist United has also integrated Perplexity into its daily research and content creation operations. The ad begins running today in the U.S. before rolling out to Korea, Japan, and Europe over the next ten days. Each region will get a localized version of the text and voiceovers, though Jung-jae's dialogue will remain in Korean. Perplexity's strategy with the ad is notable beyond just having a world-famous actor poke fun at the search industry's biggest player. It suggests that Perplexity grasps that accuracy and reliability are what people care most about when it comes to AI assistants. If Perplexity can overtake Google's reputation as the go-to online information authority, it would be a major coup. Even seizing on small cracks in Google's place at the top could propel Perplexity above many of its rivals. Whether Google has the glue to fill in those cracks after making pizza is an open question. You might also like

Squid Game Star Ditches 'Poogle', Finds Answers With Perplexity

AI search engine Perplexity recently released an engaging advertisement that featured the unique advantages of its app and compared it to Google Search. The ad features Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, known for his role in the TV series Squid Game. In the advertisement, Lee finds himself locked in a mysterious room, where he must solve a series of trivia questions displayed on a screen in order to escape. Initially, the actor opens 'Poogle', a humorous take on Google, on his phone and gets bombarded with search results. Frustrated, he turns to the Perplexity app, which immediately launches with its voice assistant mode. With a simple voice command, he asks the AI for the answers. In one of the standout moments of the ad, Jung-jae was asked, "How do I make cheese stick to a pizza?" To this, Perplexity AI responds, "Don't use glue", after offering an actual solution. Notably, this was a humorous reference to a mishap from 2024, when Google's AI overview suggested using "glue" to make cheese stick on pizza. Adweek reported that this ad is part of a year-long partnership between Perplexity and Jung-jae's management company, Artist United. It also stated that Jung-jae's company has integrated Perplexity's Enterprise Pro tier into its workflows for research, drafting, and API-based integration. Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer of Perplexity, told Adweek that this was an organic extension of the partnership rather than a cost-offsetting tactic. He added, "This is a major ad purchase for us." Along with the advertisement campaign, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, took to X and announced that its 'Ask Perplexity' handle on X is now capable of ingesting videos and offering explanations.