The holiday season is meant to be a time of year filled with tidings and joy, and that gets reflected in the holiday-inspired campaigns that are created each year. However, this last season, human feelings never felt so…artificial.
Last Christmas, Coca-Cola released its holiday ad, much to the dismay of its loyal consumers as it was AI-generated.
“Despite the technological innovation behind the Christmas ad, critics quickly labeled it as ‘soulless’ and ‘devoid of creativity.’ Many felt that the reliance on AI stripped the advertisement of the emotional depth typically associated with holiday campaigns.”
While it is true that many marketers have been able to use it to streamline tedious processes, AI has a time and place, and consumers don’t want it to take over what is meant to be human creative expression.
Taking the “Human” Out of Creativity?
AI can be a helpful tool but using it to spearhead creative projects can easily undermine real creativity done by humans. Many marketing teams have creative departments where the employees work toward this goal every day. To pretend that their efforts are easily replicated by an algorithm isn’t just undermining them. It also sends a message that human creativity isn’t as worth as much as what AI can easily develop in a day.
One of the most important aspects of human creativity is that its manifestation is unique to each person who creates art. Meanwhile, AI is simply taking aspects of work from real artists to generate an image of whatever the user inputs. There is no drive for creation, only information taken from other artists to fulfill the request. Without that drive to create something meaningful and unique, AI art can quickly become repetitive and uninspired.
Artists Have Rights.
Speaking of AI using work from real artists, we can’t forget about the legal issues. When AI takes pieces of artwork, there is no consent given to the AI in that process. Without permission given to the AI, it is then risking a violation of copyright and/or intellectual property rights. If an artist realizes their work has been used for AI-generated content, they could take legal action.
Even if we weren’t to consider the legal complications, there are still ethical concerns regarding respect for artists. Those who practice art have been strengthening and enhancing their craft for years, and many spend tens of thousands of dollars to support their progress. To train AI models on the artwork of others without providing compensation to the original artists is an unequal and unfair exchange of labor.
So, if your brand has decided to use AI-generated content for your campaign, consider how it is approaching the work. Is it being used as a tool to support artists, or is it trying to replace them?
