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Marketing in the Canyon of "Meh"

  • Writer: Vincent Grippi
    Vincent Grippi
  • 3 days ago
  • 4 min read
AI has created a Canyon of "Meh" in marketing.


Since the dawn of ChatGPT, marketers have been told the industry would change in ways we’ve never seen before. And it sure has. But is it changing for the better?


We now have:


  • Search engines that steal traffic and content from your site, while simultaneously giving you the wrong answer to “What year is it?”


  • Social media feeds loaded with bland posts that look and sound like they were all ghostwritten by Optimus Prime


  • Email inboxes, DMs, and even voicemails overflowing with clunky, unsolicited outreach - fully automated and fully annoying


  • Fragile “Agents” that fail at tasks almost as often as they fall apart


  • And countless come-and-go wrapper tools that demand a pretty penny, but never perform as advertised


Not exactly the revolution we were promised.


Yet it’s the reality we have to grapple with - a widening crater of soulless mediocrity I’m calling the Canyon of "Meh.”


On one hand, it’s never been easier for good marketing to stand out. On the other, it’s never been easier for audiences to tune out.


In issue 40 of The Grip, we’re trekking through the Canyon of "Meh" to examine what happens when AI gets overhyped, overused, and wedged into every corner of marketing…and how smart teams can find the high ground.


Other stories from this issue include:


👉 High Time for AI Hype in Marketing


👉 Vibe Marketing Isn’t the Future


👉 Gartner’s AI Hype Cycle Highlights Inflated Applications of AI Agents


👉 Google Swears It Isn’t Destroying the Web With AI Search


👉 The Drum Dives Into “Wonderpanic” and Synthetic Marketing Sludge


👉 The Underwhelming Debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5


All this and more, in issue 40 of The Grip!



I Can’t Believe That’s a Keyword

Using Semrush, we hunt down bizarre (and totally real) search queries and try to answer them.


Keyword: AI Girlfriend Love Simulator?

Average Monthly Search Volume: 1,600

Answer: Everyday we stray further from the light.






High Time for AI Hype in Marketing


Lately, you can’t scroll LinkedIn without seeing doom and gloom posts about AI. You know, the posts that say: “AI won’t replace all jobs…just yours.” 


Or the overused favorite: "AI won't replace people, but people using AI will." 


No industry or job seem to be safe from this narrative...and marketing is definitely no exception.


Between buzzwords like "Vibe Marketing" and the shiny promise of "AI agents," it might sound like us marketers are one click away from being fully-automated out of existence.


But the truth...is actually the opposite. 


And two recent studies, one from Salesforce and another from Carnegie Mellon University not only back this up, but they reveal just how far AI hype is from reality.

In this video, I break down both studies and ask the big question on every sane marketer's mind: "Just what does it mean, exactly, to 'use AI,' so that we won't allegedly get replaced?" 


It's not sexy...and definitely not the competitive edge the hype makes it out to be. 





Vibe Marketing Is Not The Future


AI can be a powerful tool in marketing, but nothing is more powerful than FOMO.


Right now, both are being exploited to promote "Vibe Marketing," a new trend that is being hyped as "the future of marketing."


It promises to automate your content, your outreach and ultimately, your marketing team.


But is this really “the future?”


In this video I break down what Vibe Marketing is, how it works and why I think it reflects a much bigger problem facing both the internet and marketers today.


Featuring research from: Harvard Business Review, Gallup , PNAS, IBM and more.



Gartner AI Hype Cycle: AI Agents Overhyped

Gartner’s AI Hype Cycle Highlights Inflated Applications of AI


In Gartner ’s 2025 Hype Cycle for AI, AI agents are perched at the Peak of Inflated Expectations, which is like the top of a roller coaster, right before the drop…minus the fun.


The hype is miles ahead of reality, and while Gartner remains optimistic about the long-term potential of “AI agents,” they make it clear that organizations should proceed with caution and have the right safety nets in place to make “agents” more reliable. I put “agents” in air-quotes because true AI agents do not exist - a point I’ve exhausted in the two videos above.


Regardless, some of the biggest “safety nets” getting tossed around, like MCP and RAG, aren’t solving the reliability issues of “agents.”


What we’re calling “AI agents” aren’t there yet. And “there” can be a loooong time. Like GTA 7 long.


📄 Read the Article (Source: Gartner)



Google AI Overviews

Google Swears It Isn’t Destroying the Web With AI Search


Google says its AI Overviews aren’t tanking website traffic, claiming in a new blog post by Search head Liz Reid that overall click volume has stayed “relatively stable” year over year, with some sites gaining traffic and others losing it.


In her post, Liz Reid argues that AI is helping users discover high-quality content like podcasts, forums, and in-depth reviews. Alas, countless third-party reports suggest otherwise.


But if AI search is really that helpful, why won’t Google share AI Overview/AI Mode data in Search Console?


Despite how it seems, I’m not anti-AI…I'm anti-B.S. And the ongoing dishonesty from tech companies surrounding this technology is total B.S.


📄 Read the Article (Source: The Verge)



Wonderpanic: AI Slop is Giving  Marketers a Headache

‘Wonderpanic’ and Synthetic Sludge: What Does AI Mean for Marketers?


The Drum spoke with creative leaders about the growing challenges AI poses for marketers. The general consensus is the brands that rise above the AI “sludge” will be the ones with a real personality. The ones who are building through experience, contradiction, and emotional depth.


When The Canyon of "Meh” is an easy pit to fall into, the only way to steer clear is to be unmistakably human.


📄 Read the Article (Source: The Drum)



GPT-5 Debut...is underwhelming

GPT-5’s Underwhelming Launch

GPT-5 was rushed out - sorry, I mean pushed out - into the world and early impressions are underwhelming.


Aside from a shaky presentation, which featured clunky AI-generated charts and hallucinations, users have taken to the web to air their frustrations with the “upgraded” chatbot, which was promised to be like talking with “PhD-level experts.”


The ChatGPT subreddit has been particularly vocal, to say the least.


After playing with it for a few hours myself, I can whole-heartedly say I agree with much of the online sentiment that, save for it being faster, GPT-5 does not feel noticeably different from its predecessors.


Of course none of this is stopping YouTube bros from rushing out “ChatGPT is INSANE!!” videos.


Meanwhile…


GPT-5 Hallucination

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