There’s a new publicity stunt tapping into widespread opposition to AI data centersand it’s using bathroom humor to make a statement.
Former NFL player Jason Kelce, who is also the co-owner of Garage Beer and the co-host of the New Heights podcast with his brother Travis (Taylor Swift’s husband), is the unlikely face of a marketing campaign, launched Tuesday, that puts artificial intelligence on notice. And, well, it’s all about the power of pee.
You read that right, and I apologize in advance for the amount of urine jokes in this article. Tread lightly, I guess.
The now-viral ad opens with Kelce using the bathroom. It cuts to him holding a jar of yellow liquid, issuing a call to action to a happy mob of folks frolicking through grassy terrain, singing, “Let’s pee on computers together and save humanity.” It immediately conjures up that iconic 1970s Coke commercial where hippies harmonize a message of peace, love and unity on a sunny hillside. Except instead of teaching the world to sing, Kelce is asking you to bottle up your pee in a collectible mug and send it to the AI data center of your choice.
If you’re not yet up to speed on the matter, AI data centers are large facilities that store the massive amount of hardware needed to train and run AI models. These warehouses are stocked with high-performance graphics processing units, which provide the power for you to use AI for researching, streamlining video production and, well, creating all the slop your heart desires.
Despite the unserious angle of the marketing stunt taking the piss out of AI (I’m sorry), Kelce’s ad carries a deeper message about the threat data centers pose to our neighborhoods, our resources and our future.
AI data centers guzzle resources
There are nearly 4,000 AI data centers in the country, currently. A database created by environmental activist Erin Brockovich shows where they’re located, with the majority being built in rural areas.
To keep data centers running, an excessive amount of fresh water is required to cool servers so they don’t melt down or explode. Evaporative cooling towers use water to absorb heat generated by servers.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute published a report in 2025 that says large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons each day, which is equivalent to the amount of water used by a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.
As massive amounts of potable water are being redirected, people who live near these data centers have growing concerns about how this water extraction will affect their daily lives, farming and basic household needs. Another fear: Who will be stuck paying these ginormous utility bills? Consumers are left holding the bag.
The other resource to discuss is electricity. New facilities, like the recently announced data center from OpenAI and Nvidia that would be built in Pike County, Ohio, are projected to use a lot of compute. The Ports-Pike Technology Campus is projected to consume roughly 8 gigawatts of power, equivalent to the annual energy use of 6 million average US households.
Then there’s Meta’s Hyperion, the 4-million-square-foot AI campus being constructed in Louisiana. It’s flattened an area known for its soybean crops and river cane, and when it’s all built and operational, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says the gargantuan data center will consume three times the power New Orleans uses on any given day.
In other words, more than a piss load of energy.
AI backlash across party lines
Resource consumption, uncertainty over costs and environmental concerns have helped fuel a growing AI backlash.
So, antics aside, Kelce’s trolling ad touches a hot-button issue. The collective sentiment against AI data centers is trending downward. A recent Gallup poll indicated 71% of Americans oppose the construction of new AI data centers in their community.
With the midterm elections a few months away, this negative sentiment has blossomed into a major talking point for both Republicans and Democrats in their campaigns. Another major issue with these data centers is a glaring lack of transparency.
As reported by Brockovich in a blog post, a trend of backdoor deals, elusiveness and secrecy has accompanied the facilities as they pop up all over the country, with the trust of community members tanking. “They’re watching their utility bills climb, finding sick animals they can’t explain, and worrying about the long-term impacts on their health and property values,” Brockovich wrote.
This brings me back to Ohio, an important state for the GOP during the midterms if the party wants to maintain a slim Senate majority. A memo circulated by the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned of a potential defeat for incumbent Sen. Jon Husted unless there’s a fix to the public relations strategy toward AI data centers.
“If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio,” the NRSC stated in the memo, as reported by Axios.
Real-life action versus promotional gimmicks
I now return you to the matter of, ahem, the general public sending urine to an AI data center to cool the machinery of the future.
According to the Cleveland Clinicurine is 91% to 96% excess water. Heck, there’s a reason Saul Goodman survived the desert in that one Better Call Saul episode. Watch any number of programs featuring survivalist Bear Gryllsand he, too, will tell you this. But I digress.
The marketing ploy here is to equate pee with water and, considering the massive water consumption that keeps AI data centers running, put the public disdain into the type of prank (which you’d normally see in a Jackass episode) to make its point loud and clear.
But you could also argue that it makes no point at all. Ordinary people (those without Super Bowl rings) who have protested data centers IRL have gotten arrested for it. There is real work to be done policy-wise. A trolling ad like this fits into the performative and parasocial attention economy, not into genuine activism.
Remember, this is a commercial for Liquid Death and Garage Beer — a product is being sold here. A collectible mason jar, which is currently sold out, is listed on the Liquid Death website for $18. The product is currently rated five stars, with a single review saying, “the perfect product for shipping your locally sourced urine to your friendly neighborhood data center.”
So, are people actually sending their excreta through the mail? A spokesperson from the United States Postal Service didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
That said, USPS rules say urine specimens can be sent by mail, but only for medical purposes such as drug and alcohol testing. To do this right, you’d need to carefully package the fluid in a leakproof container, then place it in appropriate packaging to prevent a messy spill.
Truth is it was never meant to be an action at all. Small print at the bottom of the ad says, “The suits want us to tell you to please don’t actually send your pee.” So yeah, Liquid Death and Garage Beer are really just pissing in the wind.
One thing is certain: Jason Kelce’s reach is strong, and his blue-collar persona can help give this campaign — and the message behind it — legs in rural America, the exact place battling against the spread of water-guzzling AI data centers.