fake AI – Two New York comedians posted nine parody AI startup posters in the subway—only for one fictional company name to turn out to be a real AI firm. The stunt cost about $200, went viral with more than 3 million views, and was taken down immediately after filming—
A blank subway poster in New York carried a punchline instead of a pitch: “What if forks were spoons? Cutlery.ai.” It stayed up briefly, pinned like the rest of the ads nearby for AI startups—simple, bright, confident.
But the confidence was the joke. Cutlery.ai isn’t real. The creators behind the stunt say that was the point.
“It’s so obviously nonsense, but it also does sort of feel like what a lot of these companies are saying to you,” Dave Ross, one of two New York comedians behind the phony ads, told Business Insider.
The other comedian is Harris Alterman, and together they made and hung nine other posters throughout Manhattan’s underground. One read, “1 +1 = ____. Dennis can tell you. ” and another used the same deadpan style—tech-sounding taglines meant to mirror the tone of real marketing. while delivering something clearly invented.
A video of the shenanigans quickly went viral, racking up more than 3 million views across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Alterman said the subway is where he sees the pitch the most. “I take the subway all the time, and I’m constantly inundated with AI ads and tech company ads that make no sense to me,” he said.
Because Alterman already makes parody content for a living, he described the spoof as a natural move. He recruited Ross—friends who share a knack for turning comedy ideas into real-world objects—to help create the posters.
Then the joke collided with reality. The duo learned that at least one of the fictional startups in their ads—Wireflow—is the name of a real AI company. In the poster, it appeared below a made-up slogan that reads: “You pay us, we pay you.”
A spokesperson for Wireflow, whose website says it’s based in Australia, didn’t immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.
Alterman didn’t sound embarrassed by the mix-up. “We were so on the money that it happened to be a real thing,” he said.
The effort cost about $200, the comedians said. And because the stunt drew attention fast, they tried to monetize the creativity while it was still hot—selling T-shirts featuring the ads.
They also say they took the posters down immediately after filming the viral video, because they expected MTA officials to remove them anyway. That expectation didn’t hold.
Eventually, they got caught filming in the act. Alterman said that at one point during production, the confrontation came in plain terms: “At one point during filming, they were like, ‘hey, what the hell are you guys doing?’”
Both men said they have experience working in tech. Alterman, 34, was once a social-media director. Ross, 43, spent several years as a web developer.
The response, they say, has them looking for more. The success has convinced the pair that more material may be waiting in New York’s subway stations.
“This is a pretty deep well of comedy,” Alterman said. “We could probably make a lot more of these.”
AI ads subway posters New York Manhattan underground parody marketing viral video Wireflow Cutlery.ai Dave Ross Harris Alterman MTA
So they accidentally made an actual ad? NYC is wild.
I mean… if it’s ‘AI’ ads everywhere anyway then who cares right. Like Cutlery.ai coulda been real and nobody would’ve known. The whole point flew over people I guess lol.
Wait but they said one fictional company name matched a real firm, so like did the real company sue or get mad? Also why leave the poster up for filming, seems like fraud to me but I guess it’s comedy.
This is what happens when the internet turns into ads for everything. I don’t even understand the ‘forks were spoons’ part, but it sounds like those AI companies that promise they’ll replace everyone and then never do. They spent $200 and got millions of views, that’s basically the American business model now. Glad they took it down though, but also feels like it proves the ads work even when they’re dumb.