London bus ad targets Meta’s Kylie Jenner glasses push

A UK protest group has hijacked Meta’s latest smart glasses marketing with a bus stop ad near the company’s London headquarters, taking aim at both Kylie Jenner’s campaign and the broader privacy risks around wearable cameras.

The lenticular poster, created by the UK activism group Everyone Hates Elon (EHE), flips depending on the viewer’s angle. One view shows a glossy branded-style image of Jenner wearing Meta glasses; the other turns her into a black-and-white skeletal figure under the slogan “We’re always watching.” Hyperallergic says the design appears to nod to They Live (1988), the sci-fi film in which special sunglasses reveal the coercive messaging hidden inside ads.

A video shared with the piece shows the ad switching between the two images.

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Meta partnered with Jenner late last month on an “entry-level” line of its camera-equipped glasses, a move that quickly drew criticism over privacy, consent, and personal safety. EHE said the campaign was meant as a direct challenge to what it sees as expanding real-world surveillance.

“Meta has spent years tracking us online. Now it wants to track us in the real world too.”

Privacy concerns around Meta smart glasses

Meta first launched its Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2021, initially allowing up to 30 seconds of recording, later increased to one minute. The latest generation can record for three minutes continuously. Meta has said it would issue a software update that disables the camera if the built-in LED recording light is obscured or damaged.

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But critics argue that does little to answer broader concerns. Hyperallergic notes that the glasses have been widely criticized online, including for use by “Manosphere” content creators posting point-of-view videos of cold approaches to women in public without their knowledge.

“Meta and Ray-Ban’s new AI glasses can be used to secretly record women and young people for sexual reasons. Simply put, that’s abuse.”

The article also points to risks in places where privacy is expected, including hospitals, restrooms, fitness spaces, locker rooms, and private businesses. In 2024, Harvard researchers showed they could use facial recognition on footage from Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses to identify passersby and retrieve names, addresses, and other personal data from public databases.

EHE boiled its critique down to a single line: “Billionaires could fund cures for cancer — so why are they funding glasses for perverts instead?”