In gangster films, when one of these characters wants to get rid of a rival and orders his henchmen to eliminate him, the order comes in the form of a technique: ‘Make it look like an accident.’ The key to the crime is to make sure it doesn’t look like one. It must have the appearance of reality, it must seem natural. This also occurs in the world of advertising and marketing. Since artificial intelligence has made us question whether every image we see is real or fake, it has multiplied. In the product communication sector, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between what is real and what is a fabrication.
From fakes to artificial intelligence
For years, advertising industry contests have been familiar with the concept of ‘trucho’. This word, synonymous with ‘falsification’, is used to refer to fictitious campaigns created for clients that do not exist or for brands that are real but have not commissioned, paid for or launched the campaign publicly. Their aim has always been to showcase the boundless creativity of a professional or agency team and ask the question: ‘Wouldn’t it have been cool to do something like this?’
The result, as is logical, is that many fake ads, taken out of context and spread via email and social media, have ended up being accepted as real creative pieces that people believed they saw printed in the media or broadcast on television. More than one or two car brands have indirectly benefited from the prestige of a boldness that never existed, especially when the fake was based on comparative advertising, which is very limited if not completely prohibited in our country.
When, a few years ago, people began talking about FOOH (Fake Out of Home) campaigns, i.e. pieces that used augmented reality and graphic effects to simulate situations that had never happened, we entered another stage in this race to put creativity ahead of authenticity. The first actions of this kind were given credence until everyone resorted to them and they became exaggerations that aroused amazement at the ingenuity without causing confusion.
We could say that, with artificial intelligence, the final threshold has been crossed. AI facilitates the development of content that is virtually indistinguishable from real scenes. This has led to the difficulty of distinguishing between what is true and what is false, leading us to accept that perhaps this question is not important. He has lowered our defences. If it seems authentic and excites us, we will take it as true.
Emulating the thrill of the real thing
In the meantime, without resorting to technology, it is increasingly common to see companies launching creative campaigns in which they try to convince us of something that never actually happened. Did you believe that fun burger brand hacked a competitor’s conference with audacity and shamelessness? Do you think it did so just because it posted some photos on LinkedIn that could have been taken in a studio? Do you really find that airline’s Christmas campaign more exciting because it was filmed with shots that look like they were taken with a mobile phone, as if they had been captured by a passenger?
When we talk about guerrilla marketing and street marketing, we are referring to actions that take place in real environments, usually urban spaces, where the advertising dynamic involves putting oneself to the test with people who are not involved in the brand’s set-up. The risk of the interaction going wrong is very high, but there is nothing more authentic or satisfying when the outcome ends up being the desired one. The campaign is planned, but its success depends on how spontaneously other people interact with it.
Today, I see that people seek excitement but avoid risk. Actors are deployed, situations are staged, pencils are borrowed from Ikea, recordings are made in an aeroplane cabin in a film studio… and that’s enough to downplay the question of whether it’s real or not. ‘What does it matter if it’s not? It’s exciting because it could be true.’
As passive consumers of content, we are increasingly less willing to engage with that content and more inclined to be spectators. So, you know: if you want to excite people, make it look like a campaign.
