DuckDuckGo has launched a new US advertising campaign for Duck.ai, its privacy-focused AI chat service, using giant "prying eyes" to highlight concerns around sharing personal information with artificial intelligence platforms.
Integrated marketing consultancy Rival developed the national campaign concept, which focuses on the tension between the increasingly personal nature of AI conversations and concerns about online tracking. The campaign is currently running across the United States and is expected to continue for at least 14 weeks into early fourth quarter 2026.
The creative depicts oversized eyeballs moving towards people while they interact with AI assistants, visually representing the feeling of being watched online. Duck.ai is then positioned as the alternative within the campaign, with privacy forming the central product message.
According to DuckDuckGo, its research found that users can feel watched when using AI chats for personal questions involving areas such as careers, finances and health. The company is using the campaign to differentiate Duck.ai from other AI services through its approach to data collection and user privacy.
The campaign includes three 30-second films titled "Prying Eyes," "Office" and "Skincare," produced by Partizan. The films are running across television, connected TV and YouTube, with additional digital activity on Meta and TikTok. The media plan also includes out-of-home and audio advertising, while shorter 15-second versions and other cutdowns are planned.
DuckDuckGo Chief Marketing Officer Cristina Stanley said the "prying eyes" concept was designed to translate users' concerns about being observed while having personal AI conversations into a clear visual idea.
Duck.ai provides access to third-party AI models from companies including OpenAI and Anthropic while placing DuckDuckGo between the user and the model provider. DuckDuckGo says it removes personally identifying metadata, including users' IP addresses, before sending prompts to model providers.
The company also states that Duck.ai conversations are not used to train AI models by DuckDuckGo or its underlying model providers. By default, Duck.ai does not record or store chats, although users can choose optional features that involve storing conversations in an end-to-end encrypted format. The service can be used without creating an account.
DuckDuckGo's campaign arrives as AI companies compete not only on model capabilities but also on how they handle the growing amount of personal information users share with conversational assistants.
For DuckDuckGo, which has built its broader consumer proposition around search and browsing privacy, Duck.ai extends that positioning into generative AI. The campaign gives the company a consumer-facing way to frame privacy as a differentiator as AI chat becomes a more established part of everyday online behaviour.
Disclaimer: This article may include information derived from interviews, press releases, public statements, research, company communications and other publicly available or third-party sources. Such material may be summarised, paraphrased or contextualised for journalistic and editorial purposes. All rights in third-party content remain with their respective owners.