Former NFLer Jason Kelce is jokingly telling people to send their urine to data centers over the mail.
USPS rules say most people should just flush.
On Tuesday, Kelce, the co-owner of Garage Beer, starred in a now-viral ad campaign featuring the canned water brand Liquid Death. After standing next to a toilet, he turns to the camera, revealing a glass jar containing a (concerningly) dark yellowish liquid.
"AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water," he says, before launching into a song with lyrics like, "Let's pee on computers together."
The ad ends with a chorus of supposed pee-ers at the "Post Office," complete with an American flag, handing over jars of their "data center coolant" to a postal worker. (Those jars are now available for $18 on Liquid Death's site, with a description that reads, "Mailing your pee to AI data centers has never been easier with these limited edition resealable jars.")
"The suits want us to tell you to please don't actually send your pee," small print at the bottom of the ad says.
That's probably good advice.
USPS rules do, in fact, allow some urine to travel through the mail. Human "excreta" sent for certain routine tests — such as drug or alcohol testing — can qualify as an "exempt human specimen." The mailing service requires those samples to be carefully packaged, including in leakproof containers with absorbent material and rigid outer packaging.
A mason jar of pee destined for a data center is another matter. The exemption applies to specimens being transported for routine testing, not bodily fluids being mailed as a prank or as an unconventional computer-cooling system.
USPS rules also say nonhazardous liquids must be properly packaged, and that anything producing an "obnoxious odor" is nonmailable.
USPS declined to comment on this story.
Data center back(sp)lash goes viral #
Garage Beer previously told Business Insider that the campaign was designed to tap into an area of common agreement.
"There are many things that Americans can't agree on, but opposition to AI data centers is the one thing almost everyone can agree upon across the political and cultural spectrum," Andy Pearson, Liquid Death's vice president of creative, said.
Opposition to data centers has become a potent issue across the political spectrum, with communities raising concerns about their water use, power demand, and impact on local infrastructure. That backlash has continued, even as the AI industry argues that developers have responded to criticism by improving water efficiency, investing in communities, and trying to reduce their strain on electric grids.
Drew Pusateri, a communications officer at OpenAI, highlighted that tension Tuesday in a post on X featuring an image of Kelce holding his jar of supposed urine.
But the ad and its online virality point to a long road ahead for AI labs on the public-persuasion front.