The rise of made-by-humans marketing
Excuse me, was this post human-made?
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
No AI was used in the making of this post. —Kate
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Five years ago, a brand bragging that its television ad, social post, or other output was “human made” would have sounded like a fast food chain boasting that their burgers are made from “100% real beef”—unnecessary at best, a “my ‘not involved in human trafficking’ T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt”-type situation at worst.
But as Rachel Karten has also noticed, as major corporations like Coca Cola and movies like As Deep As The Grave embrace AI-generated content in advertising and entertainment, other brands are attempting to stand out from the slop by claiming what was once taken for granted: That their post was not made by AI.
“This video from our friend @Origiful was created entirely by hand using digital art and real video footage, not AI,” the pinned comment on a recent Le Creuset Instagram post reads. “The background scenes were filmed in Collioure, France, including the balcony of the restaurant at @Hotel_LesRochesBrunes.”
In this case, as a result, almost every other comment on the post is about the brand’s choice to use real artists, and not the content of the post—or product—itself. “We love brands that value human creativity and work ❤️,” one reads.
Made-by-humans marketing has been quietly on the rise for the last couple years. In April 2024, Dove pledged to never use AI to represent “real women” in its advertising, branding the technology as “a threat to women’s wellbeing.” That year, Discover released a series of ads with Jennifer Coolidge in which at least one emphasized that Discover lets you talk to a human on the phone.
I don’t think a major credit card company has any real moral compass when it comes to AI. Instead, the challenge for these entities is to figure out how many of their customers do. A potential customer’s stance on generative AI is now valuable personal data: while Coke is correct that I’ll still keep helplessly slurping my fridge cigarettes no matter how much AI they use in their ads, Le Creuset was also wise to assume that people who see the value of expensive cookware probably also see the value of making things.
