United Kingdom – Digital identity and financial network World lampoons outdated internet captchas in its latest global brand campaign with Iris Worldwide.
Bringing the captchas from the internet to the real world, the campaign aims to promote better humanity tests through an outdoor statement.
Iris and World installed real-life captcha image grids in urban areas, capturing objects like traffic lights, bikes, and street signs among others. It mimics the style of online captchas.
The real-life captcha was installed in Singapore, Berlin, and Buenos Aires. QR codes are featured on each installation, leading to World ID, a digital identity allowing individuals to prove they are human. The technology offers an alternative humanity test without sharing personal data.
The campaign is part of World’s effort to build its real human network through World ID. It is driven by the inability of captchas to stop bot-driven frauds as they become more advanced.
“Proving you’re human is becoming increasingly important online—but the ways we do it are increasingly irritating and, even worse, ineffective. World ID is a simple and anonymous proof of humanity built for the age of AI. To make people aware of it, we reminded them just how ridiculous the current method actually is. The best ideas are simple and surprising. With real world captchas, we’re trying to capture attention with something as playful as it is provocative,” John Patroulis, chief marketing officer of Tools For Humanity, a contributor to World, said.
Menno Kluin, global chief creative officer at Iris Worldwide, commented, “For years, we’ve tolerated captchas as a necessary evil. This campaign challenges that mindset. We’ve taken something people are used to ignoring online and dropped it into the real world to make it unmissable. It’s a disruptive creative device with a clear message: there’s a better way.”
