A Time and a Place.

On 16 January 2026 OpenAI announced plans to show ads in ChatGPT to users of its free and Go tiers in the US (SiliconANGLE). On 4 February Anthropic said that 'Claude will remain ad-free'. Mother's Clio entry frames the brand's own problem as awareness: 'we had only 17% awareness versus the market leader's 95%'.

Mother and director Jeff Low of Biscuit Filmworks made four films in which someone asks an AI chatbot for help, with a six-pack, talking to his mother, an essay or a business idea, and the answer turns into an ad for things like height-increasing insoles or loans at 400% APR. Each opens on a one-word title card such as 'Betrayal' or 'Violation' and closes with 'Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.' Two ran on Super Bowl LX day, 8 February 2026: the 60-second film about the mother before kick-off and the 30-second 'Can I get a six pack quickly?' during the game (Creative Salon). When the ads were first teased, OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, wrote on X that they were funny but 'so clearly dishonest', and that OpenAI 'would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them' (Tom's Guide).