Skies Above Media Owner and CEO Glyn Williams writes this in response to Billboard Insider’s What Do You Think of IRL?

Billboard Insider may be right that the abbreviated form, IRL, won’t land with every client. But spelled out, In Real Life is as straightforward as it gets. And the phrase itself isn’t the point. It’s the idea behind it that should land with everyone.

In a postdemic, post–social media, algorithm-driven AI era, no one can tell whether what they see online is real. Anyone can make an image, a video or a meme convincing enough to fool us, and most of us have been fooled at least once. Out of home is the opposite. It’s physical. It’s standing right there across the street, and you know it’s real because it’s in front of you.

The next time you’re in a restaurant, look around. Dozens of people are looking down at their phones. Each one is served a different ad, and each one is laughing alone at a different reel than the person across the table. They are alone together. Advertisers pay a premium to reach them that way, targeting the demographic boxes they fit into rather than who they actually are. Then those same people walk outside and see the same billboard together. They get in their cars, put their phones down (or at least they should), and look at the world around them.

I think people are craving that. You can see it in how much they want shared, in-person experiences, more now than they ever did predemic: concerts, festivals, games, a night out with friends. Everyone wants to put the phone down and live in the real world. No one has told them yet that it’s OK.

That’s what IRL says, and it’s exactly right for this moment. Whatever catchphrase we use, our industry has always been in the business of making impressions of the human kind. Now more than ever.

What do you think of IRL?  Email davewestburg@billboardinsider.com.