Anthropic is pitching its Claude chatbot as the opposite of "AI slop" with a pop-up in New York's West Village focused on free coffee, "thinking" caps, and analog tools.
The event drew over 5,000 visitors and generated more than 10 million social media impressions. Anthropic turned a newsstand into a "Zero Slop Zone," a direct jab at the flood of low-quality AI-generated content online. Visitors could pick up free baseball caps with the word "thinking" and were encouraged to work with coffee, books, and pen and paper - no screens allowed.
The pop-up is part of Anthropic's multi-million dollar "Keep Thinking" campaign, which marks the company's first major push into the consumer market, a space dominated by OpenAI. Developed with the agency Mother, the campaign includes ads during sports events, on streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, and in print outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
To get a cap and coffee, visitors had to show the Claude app. They could also read a printed copy of CEO Dario Amodei's essay "Machines of Loving Grace."
Growth Despite Losses
Anthropic is projecting $5 billion in revenue for 2025, driven mainly by strong demand for its coding tool, Claude Code. CEO Dario Amodei says the company is intentionally unprofitable, treating each new AI model as a major reinvestment in the future.
Anthropic recently hit a valuation of $18.3 billion after its latest funding round - a sign that investors believe in the company's long-term vision. Backers include tech giants like Amazon and Google, along with venture firms such as Menlo Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company also recently launched Claude 4.5 Sonnet, its most powerful code model to date.
