New Yorkers riding the subway have been bombarded by a jarring new campaign for Friend, the $129 wearable AI tracking device that’s suddenly ubiquitous. The startup behind them has spent over $1 million on out-of-home placements throughout the system, a bet-the-company wager that mass reach can kickstart mainstream intrigue in a nascent AI hardware classification.
A Seven-Figure Bet on Out-of-Home Across NYC Transit
The company purchased more than 11,000 in-car cards, 1,000 platform posters and 130 street-level urban panels, according to Friend’s chief executive Avi Schiffman.
- A Seven-Figure Bet on Out-of-Home Across NYC Transit
- Why the Subway, and Why Now for This AI Wearable Push
- A Campaign Designed to Be Talked About Across NYC
- The Wearable in the Eye of the Storm: Public Reaction
- Will the Math Work for Friend’s Subway Ad Blitz?
- What This Subway Blitz Could Mean for AI Hardware
Whole stations, like West 4th Street, have been wrapped in the project’s stark white creative, pushing a pattern-heavy takeover experience during peak commuting times.
It’s a dramatic scale for an early-stage AI company. Schiffman characterized the buy as a high-stakes swing to connect the product with millions of potential simultaneous users, noting that this was also a significant drawing down of cash reserves at the startup. The positioning is clear: get AI hardware into the hands of ordinary cyclists, not just the tech elite.
Why the Subway, and Why Now for This AI Wearable Push
OOH is one of the quickest ways to create brand salience in heavily populated urban markets. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s network, which is sold by Outfront Media, is one of the most valuable canvases in the United States: Its ads can be seen over and over again by millions of weekly riders. For hardware brands, it’s a tested channel: many direct-to-consumer companies from Casper to Hims built household recognition through very similar placements.
Half of the battle for an AI wearable is around awareness. The vast majority of consumers still confuse an “AI device” with a smartphone app. Friend used subway posters to introduce a new behavior — pinning a tiny assistant onto your clothing — in something people can’t scroll past. Industry groups, including the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, have pointed out that tech and digital-first companies as of late more often turn to transit media when determining how to balance performance marketing with brand-building.
A Campaign Designed to Be Talked About Across NYC
Friend’s design is deliberately spare: white space, muted text, and few visual cues beyond the product name. “The minimalism is not just an aesthetic decision,” Schiffman says, “but the invitation for public commentary—particularly in a city where AI skepticism looms large.” The result is a conversation as much as a campaign.
Some posters have been defaced with phrases like “surveillance capitalism” or telling viewers to “get real friends,” a reaction the team seemed to have anticipated. In practice, that graffiti makes nonmoving posters into social objects — raw material for selfies, shares, and conversation that extend the buy well past the stations.
The Wearable in the Eye of the Storm: Public Reaction
Friend sells for $129, putting it in an entirely different range than overpriced AI hardware experiments that flailed this year. But the conversation is not so easily elided with arguments about affordability. And in a widely circulated critique, Wired asked if the device’s always-listening stance was creepy, as well as chronicled the embarrassment and self-consciousness that can come from wearing it in public — highlighting a fundamental adoption obstacle for AI wearables: social acceptability.
That tension between curiosity and discomfort may be the campaign’s real subject. By carpet-bombing a skeptical city with an unfamiliar product, Friend is conducting a virtual experiment to see if relentless exposure can make a new category feel mundane. It’s a classic early-market move: Embrace polarization to stand out and learn faster who will actually buy.
Will the Math Work for Friend’s Subway Ad Blitz?
Subway takeovers can cost advertisers between the high six and low seven figures, depending on how long they last and the amount of inventory available, media buyers say. The ROI argument here depends on exposure turning into device sales, waitlist sign-ups, and earned media. As out-of-home doesn’t have click-level attribution, startups generally triangulate on performance using lift in direct traffic, branded search, and post-purchase surveys.
For Friend, the math might go beyond near-term revenue. A public push in New York can be the backdrop for retail conversations, partnership pitches, investor narrative. If the company can demonstrate a geographically contained surge in awareness and adoption, all of a sudden the seven-figure spend is not just a tale of exposure but also one about momentum.
What This Subway Blitz Could Mean for AI Hardware
That playbook is changing in the age of AI startups. Companies are testing whether low-cost hardware companions can anchor daily use — after a year of software-first launches and viral demos. The subway blitz hints that Friend feels the quickest route to getting that idea out in the world isn’t through yet another benchmark for model design — it is materially, citywide.
It’s a risky bet in a challenging channel — and that’s why it stands out. If Friend can parlay a million-dollar investment into lasting brand equity and a cadre of true believers, bet on more AI startups riding its rails. If not, they will become posters underscoring the fact that in AI, shipping a device is hard but changing human behavior is harder.