Pinterest recently launched a new advertising campaign positioning itself as an "anti-social media" app, encouraging users to spend less time in noisy feeds and more time in real life. The campaign videos have been published on its official YouTube channel.

The campaign emphasizes how people interacted with the world before social media, with the slogan: "The best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline."

This slogan is quite compelling. Pinterest hopes to position itself as a key platform for discovering offline projects. While this may seem counterintuitive—since Pinterest's main revenue comes from ad impressions, and longer user engagement benefits it—the campaign actually targets other social media apps that aim to keep users swiping as long as possible, which is not Pinterest's core use case.

In fact, over the past few years, Pinterest has been distancing itself from its social media roots, instead defining itself as a "discovery platform" where users can find products related to offline activities. Although the vast majority of Pinterest's revenue still comes from ad impressions, and it benefits from increased user dwell time, the company is seeking to differentiate itself in terms of use cases and fit. This is also why it pitches matching relevance and the value of Pins as discovery elements to advertising partners.

From this perspective, it is in Pinterest's interest to stand with users who view social media as an "addictive time sink."

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready has publicly called for banning social media for teenagers to limit the impact of overexposure and overuse. He expressed this stance in an interview with Time magazine.

However, this stance is not entirely selfless. Pinterest stands to benefit from reduced usage of other social platforms. It is again trying to position itself as the "good guy," the only platform that believes in real connection, yet at the same time, it uses the exact same mechanisms as other apps to drive usage and engagement.

This strategy may work. The new ad campaign will undoubtedly appeal to older audiences who view social media negatively. Additionally, a social platform CEO's endorsement of social media bans will strengthen calls for restrictions that would harm other social apps far more than Pinterest.

Pinterest said the new ad campaign will roll out on TV, in theaters, out-of-home, and digital channels starting May 1.