The havoc and hype of ultra-realistic ‘fake’ fashion campaigns

This article is part of our Vogue Business Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our NFT Tracker and TikTok Trend Tracker, weekly Technology and Sustainability Edits and exclusive event invitations, sign up for Membership here. The video Jacquemus posted of buses shaped like its Le Bambino bag scooting down the streets of Paris last week quickly went viral. Over 10,000 people commented on Instagram, many applauding the ironic enlargement of the brand’s typically miniature bags. Though the scene was hyperrealistic, prompting some to wonder whether or not actual Jacquemus bag buses had been built, the supersized bags didn’t exist in real life. Jacquemus pulled off the stunt using digitally generated images created by Ian Padgham, founder of Origiful, a video production company based in Bordeaux, France. The realistic nature of the scene shows how far technology has advanced in just a few years, highlighting a real opportunity — and danger — for brands, as it becomes more difficult to distinguish between what’s “real” and what’s not. Jacquemus joins a growing number of brands experimenting with digitally generated media, which can require less time and smaller budgets to execute than a typical physical marketing campaign, and generates less waste. Coperni used extended reality technology that combines virtual and real-world elements for its Spring/Summer 2021 campaign. Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role: in January, Valentino unveiled an AI-generated campaign for its new menswear line Essentials, while Moncler debuted its first AI campaign to celebrate its latest Genius collaboration in March. Last month, fashion retailer Revolve launched the world’s first AI-generated billboard campaign. The engagement opportunities are clear. Jacquemus’s post has accumulated over a million likes on Instagram, and another 12 million views and 1.5 million likes on TikTok, surpassing the brand’s typical engagement on both platforms. However, the digital manipulation of images and videos carries risks for brands. An image of the pope wearing a Balenciaga puffer jacket, which accumulated millions of views and caused a storm across multiple social platforms, has been confirmed as fake; digitally created by a man in Chicago. Another deepfake video went viral for reimagining the cast of Harry Potter in a 1980s-style ad for Balenciaga (to date, it has over 6.3 million views on YouTube). Both were created without Balenciaga’s involvement, but some people believed the brand was behind them — leading to confusion and reputational risk. “There is artistic potential for doing incredibly cool things. On the other hand, there’s the darker side of social manipulation that can be used to create fake news,” says Padgham, who previously held creative roles at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Twitter, but developed an interest in short-form video during the rise of Vine, a once-popular app where users could share six-second-long looping video clips. It led him to launch his independent studio Origiful, which has since worked with Kering-owned Gucci and Inditex brands Zara and Bershka. Emotional connection The rise of digitally generated campaigns comes at a time when luxury brands are leaning more heavily into large-scale marketing spectacles as a way to build an emotional connection and increase loyalty with consumers. Successfully executing a project of this size requires big budgets, and can be tricky to measure and scale. A campaign can go viral without having to be “100 per cent real”, says Cyril Foiret, founder and creative director of Maison Meta, which developed the AI campaigns for Moncler and Revolve. “AI and 3D artists are proving that they have the tools for brands to be creative in a faster way, and with smaller budgets needed for execution.” Digitally generated videos can take anywhere between 24 hours to multiple months to create, depending on their complexity, says Padgham. Pricing also varies: he declined to share his rates but says that junior 3D art producers tend to charge around $1,500 to $2,000, whereas more experienced artists with larger followings price their work from anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000. The downside is that consumers aren’t able to engage with the brand in real life, and document it in their own way. “If somebody sees something in person and they take part in it, they might think what a cool thing it is and that they have to tell other people about it,” says Jared Watson, assistant professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business. While Jacquemus benefited from social sharing, it’s “a different kind of emotional connection”, he believes. To get around this, some brands are blurring the lines between digital and physical. Last February, Burberry introduced an AR filter, which activated a mural inspired by its Spring/Summer 2022 Rodeo Drive collection, outside its Beverly Hills flagship. In January, Louis Vuitton partnered with Snap to create an AR filter that covers six global landmarks with polka dots. “[Digital] campaigns up until now existed primarily on social media but I think there’s going to be more of a push to experiment with it in real life,” says Padgham. He believes that digitally generated media has value beyond a marketing campaign, and as brands build on their internal archives, which in recent years have become a valuable commodity, they should think about how digital creations can be sold, monetised or used as inspiration. Ethics and disclosure Critics say there should be requirements on brands to disclose when campaigns have been digitally manipulated. Social media platforms have long faced the question of if and how they should curb the spread of misinformation; artificially generated images could add to that confusion. Yet it’s not common for luxury brands to publicly credit their collaborators. It’s even less likely that brands will voluntarily state if something is digitally generated, says Maison Meta’s Foiret. Padgham admits that his work has caused havoc. In June 2021, he created a viral video of a wine bottle-shaped train running through the streets of Bordeaux. “Almost two years later, tourists from around the world come to try and ride the tram,” he says, even though the Transports Bordeaux Métropole in France has issued an official decree that the video is a digital creation and commuters should not expect to be greeted by a wine bottle-shaped train at their stop. For Valentine’s Day this year, Padgham created a video showing lots of red heart-shaped balloons bubbling up within the Louvre pyramid, before the roof opened and released them into the sky. “That had millions of views. People were irate because they thought I had released thousands of balloons out into the ocean and that was going to kill the dolphins. Some of these [artworks] sometimes go viral and escape the corral of what I can control.” There’s an even greater need for disclosure if human identities are involved, believes NYU’s Watson. Gaming avatars are overlapping with real-life identities, and virtual influencers are mixing with real-life ones. Levi’s recently faced a backlash over its announcement that it would use AI-generated models to increase the diversity of its advertising. Dior created a digital double of real-life ambassador Angelababy to virtually attend its Pre-Fall 2021 show in Shanghai, while a CGI of model Naomi Campbell appeared in Burberry’s campaign in July 2021. People look to those they trust for advice and make decisions based on information, which makes human identities more dangerous than digitally generated art, Watson argues. Padgham says he discloses on his social media that his videos are digitally generated art but sometimes “they go massively popular and get shared on other accounts that don’t disclose that and then people think it’s real”. He asks that clients credit his work, and/or provide a disclaimer that the image is digitally created, but says brands don’t always adhere to his requests. “Putting these things out there and not letting people know it’s fake has a danger,” he says. “You can no longer believe everything you see in a photo or video format.” To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Think big: Why luxury is betting on giant marketing spectacles From Jacquemus to Balenciaga: Luxury fashion brands go hyperphysical How deepfakes could change fashion advertising

Make better business decisions

Make better business decisions