Algorithms decide what you will want to watch, read, discover and buy. Everyone’s freedom to explore culture is limited by them. Fnac, a retailer of books, tech products and home appliances in Europe, has been defending cultural freedom in France since 1954. Now it is helping people to break out of the cultural bubble into which algorithms have locked them with a campaign by Publicis Conseil called Unrecommended By The Algorithm.

The partners have developed digital banners that recommend the opposite of what algorithms would have recommended: cultural items people are less likely to buy. Based on real data profiles from publisher ad servers, Fnac flipped around the algorithm recommendation mechanism to select and serve content that people had only a 2% chance to like. The aim of Fnac’s campaign is to offer an alternative where algorithms are not the only ones to decide people’s cultural choices and allow humans to keep their role as influencers.

The campaign delivers the banners along people’s daily digital journey on news and culture websites and drives them to unrecommendedbyalgorithm.com/ to learn more about the experience.

On social, under the #UnrecommendedByAlgorithm hashtag, a Twitter bot publishes tweets with cultural content at the opposite of what people like & share on the social network.

The experience is completed with a print campaign to denounce the bias of algorithms in our cultural choices and emphasise what makes shopping in a Fnac store a unique experience. Behgind the campaign is the message that most of the time, the unexpected opens us new horizons.

“We are living in the age of the algorithms. It’s never been so important to nourish the unexpected, search for serendipity and to escape from the recommendation bubble. It’s a cultural battle, and a human battle after all,” stated Marco Venturelli, chief executive officer and chief creative officer, Publicis Conseil, and chief creative officer Publicis Groupe France.

Credits
Client: Fnac
Client Team: Julien Le Bescond, Hélène Brosselin, Mélanie Milhau, Christelle Belat

Advertising Agency: Publicis Conseil
CEO & CCO Publicis Conseil, CCO Publicis Groupe France: Marco Venturelli
Vice President Publicis Group: Nicolas Zunz
Vice President Publicis Conseil: Alexandra Evan
Creative Directors: Bénédicte Pelletan, Aurélie Breton
Creative Team – Digital: Julien Colas, Kamel Makhloufi
Creative Team – Print: Thelma Cherpin, Robin Schneider
Strategic Planning: Théo Tiret
Account Managers: Claire Viala, Florent Moignard, Ysora Begotti, Alice Arnaud
Head of Digital: Pascal Gaveriaux
Social Media Manager: Chloé Ballay

Media Agency: Havas Media
Account Managers: Romain Merielle, Juliette Dupuis, Shadé Tairou, Gregoire Auffret