Uber Is Casting Single Parents and Immigrants to Parrot Talking Points In New Ad

As part of an upcoming ad campaign, Uber is looking to cast ride-hail and delivery drivers with “genuine” stories and who "value the flexibility and consistency of Uber's platform” for a new ad campaign. 

All of Us Casting, the agency casting the campaign, styles itself as a "real people casting company" and has worked to humanize tech companies with products that have courted controversy, such as Facebook and Fitbit. The “paid opportunity” promises $500 for 1 day of filming and an additional $1500 if the story is used—much higher than what most ride-hail drivers earn in net income each month, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. All of Us specifies that it is looking for “single parents, military veterans, self-employed entrepreneurs, students, retirees, disabled drivers, and immigrants with family obligations overseas” from across the country.

It’s not exactly clear what the commercial will be for, but casting sympathetic workers who value “flexibility”—a longtime talking point for Uber—suggests it will try and build on the passing of Proposition 22 in California. Passed in November, the ballot initiative (written and paid for by gig companies including Uber), exempted gig companies from reclassifying their workers as employees. 

Uber has already begun to lay the groundwork for Prop 22 clones with Super PACs in New York and Illinois and has established close ties to the Biden administration and lawmakers in Washington, D.C.—all meant to preserve the gig economy’s scheme to keep misclassifying app-based workers as independent contractors.

Prop 22’s passing was itself a victory in advertising. Uber helped bombard California with television, digital, radio, and physical advertisements through its $57.3 million in contributions to the Yes on Prop 22 campaign. Uber and Lyft also paid $400,000 to a firm conducting “independent studies” that backed up their position, and the Prop 22 campaign sent out misleading mailers aimed at deceiving progressive voters into supporting the initiative.

Despite this success, the past few years in advertising have been a mixed bag for the unprofitable ride-hailing giant. 

Just this year, Uber took down one of its 2016 “stories” featuring John Sullivan, a former competitive speed skater turned self-styled activist who was arrested and charged for enthusiastically participating in the attack on Capitol Hill and filming it. Sullivan is not only known for instigating and agitating violence at protests, as reported by Max Blumenthal for The Grayzone, but also for filming the death of Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol Hill riot. 

In 2017, Uber realized $120 million of its $150 million ad spend was being wasted on what amounted to a massive ad fraud scheme. The group Sleeping Giants alerted Uber to ads running on far-right site Brietbart, which Uber had blocked. After turning off $10 million, then $100 million, then $120 million, in spend, Uber saw no difference and realized it was being fed fake numbers. 

In 2021, expect these “genuine” stories to hammer home points that aren’t necessarily true. Prop 22 should be understood as a laboratory for all sorts of narratives that fly in the face of reality: that Uber’s business model helps, not exploits, workers of color; that Uber has always been there for its drivers during the pandemic; that Uber makes its rides cheap and accessible for communities of color; that Uber is helping drivers earn income on the side, instead of scraps to make ends meet; that Uber gives drivers flexibility, instead of chaining them to an inflexible system of ratings and algorithmic overseers.