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.

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