Meta’s New Ad Campaign Reminds People That VR Is Already Here

livemint.com:

New ads from Meta Platforms replace earlier campaigns’ visions of a futuristic metaverse with scenes depicting virtual reality as a real, present-day and even prosaic technology. In one video from the campaign, which is dubbed “The Impact Is Real," welders practice welding with virtual metals, doctors rehearse surgeries on virtual eyeballs, and the English soccer player Marcus Rashford uses VR to stay connected to the pitch when recovering from an injury.

Meta hopes the campaign, which is slated to run in the U.S. and Europe across television, podcasts, email newsletters and print, will pique the interest of software developers in various sectors who may not have considered using virtual or augmented reality, according to Rob Sherman, Meta’s vice president overseeing policy at its Reality Labs unit.

Internal research found that too many people still associate virtual reality purely with videogaming, Meta executives said. But the campaign also aims to remind executives, governments and general consumers that virtual reality is already being used in the real world for critical purposes, he said.

“This is technology that exists now, it’s not science fiction," Sherman said. “It’s important for us to be transparent and help people see what our vision is, so they can anticipate it and participate." The ads represent a change of tack in Meta’s ongoing efforts to sell its grand vision of the metaverse to investors, governments, business customers and consumers, many of whom remain skeptical the company was wise to bet its valuation on a future society’s appetite for virtual and augmented reality technologies.