She doesn’t exist! The gorgeous model in a controversial ad campaign

The experienced modeling agency owner admitted in an interview that she found this girl very beautiful. Only after a second, and maybe even a third, look did she notice his disproportionately long arms, but also his unusually cold gaze.
He says this retrospectively, of course, after learning that the girl who will front the new advertising campaign for the Spanish clothing company MANGO is a creation of artificial intelligence (AI). And so are the mysterious and indifferent scenes behind it.

It looks like any other campaign, launched in late July, and it won’t make any consumer fall out of their chair. But the “reveal” the company made about it has given it much more attention and sparked debates and confrontations between supporters and opponents of this choice. A year ago, another cosmetics company (Dove) publicly announced that it would never use artificial images and photos in its own advertising.

Calm is required

Will the time come when expensive models and a host of advertising professionals, from photographers to makeup artists, could lose their jobs? Fortunately, there are quiet voices in the field who seem not to worry about such a thing, and who are reassuring those who have risen up, protesting the “superhuman” nature of this particular campaign, which they consider… almost misleading.

Perhaps because the specific technology is still in its infancy and the cost is estimated to be prohibitive compared to the result produced. The entire process remains very complex and imperfect, meaning that its completion requires corrections that cannot be made without human input.

For example, clothes “fall” unnaturally on artificial bodies and need to be corrected with “complementary” compass photography on human bodies. It’s also that unnatural icy appearance. And you don’t have the possibility to… promote videos on social networks about preparing for the shooting process, with the “undressing” process that usually collects many clicks.

It’s all about the cost.

However, in a related survey, more than 7 out of 10 fashion companies stated that they want to deal more systematically with artificial intelligence in the future. For this to happen, technology must advance, which it is already doing rapidly, and supply will increase and prices will fall. Today, it costs more than 100,000 euros to “produce” such a model, and to this amount a few tens of thousands of euros must be added for each separate “image”. The companies certainly believe that they can save on model fees in the future, but also all the incidental accounting expenses that organizing such a campaign requires, travel, accommodation in expensive hotels in exotic locations and much more for all stakeholders.

The ultimate recipient will be the judge.

In other words, the answer seems likely to come from cost criteria rather than ethics. And of course the final judgment on which direction the space will take will be given by consumers themselves, the ultimate recipients of advertising. The question is how they will react when they learn that the model they are called to follow or imitate ultimately does not exist.

Could this be seen, consciously or unconsciously, as an attempt by fashion companies to “mocking” them? And how can an artificial effect be disgusting or attractive based on the “absolute beauty” standards that some computer algorithms have come up with? A recent study by the University of Vienna has shown that even AI creations can evoke emotional reactions. But they are less intense than human-made creations and humans as protagonists.

Source: Deutsche Welle