Why Are Brands Using CGI Influencers to Promote Skin Care and Fashion?
In this op-ed, writer Tatum Dooley explores the reason brands are using fake influencers and what makes them so popular.
A running theme throughout J.D. Salinger’s famous novel The Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield’s hate of phonies. The novel’s protagonist complains non-stop about other people being fake, how they navigate through the world only trying to get ahead. After leaving an all-boys school he laments, “It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day.”
According to our friend Holden, a phony is a sell-out (one can imagine that Kurt Cobain was a fan of the book). They pretend to like people and things they don’t actually like as a way to keep up appearances and because pretending is easier than being real. Phonies aren’t authentic or truthful. The Catcher in the Rye also touches on the correlation between inauthenticity and material things—to get a promotion or big deal, you might have to fake it. In recent years, there’s been a strong desire for “authenticity.” Accordingly, companies attempt to “authentically” connect with their market via influencer marketing.
Today, the popularity of influencer marketing is connected to companies wanting to speak directly to their customers. And who better to do so other than an influencer? Influencers gain a reputation for being authentic by letting viewers into their lives, and in turn, followers trust their recommendations. Although many rightfully consider influencers to be phony, they’re deemed more authentic and relatable than the traditional advertising model. But using an influencer can run the risk of controversy—there’s always the potential for an influencer to be involved in a controversy that reflects poorly on the brand—something brands try hard to avoid. But at the end of the day, brands can’t control every aspect of what an influencer says and does (they’re human and inherently flawed).
The answer to these potential hiccups? Fake influencers are being created with CGI and AI technology — something we’ve been seeing more of recently — which brands can use as a gimmick that draws people in, but it also helps them retain control of their image. A return to the age of brand-to-consumer advertising, but this time under the guise of an influencer model.
Welcome to the age of digital (AKA fake) influencers! The avatar Shudu is a digital image of a black woman, made by a white man. Last August, he created three other CGI models for a Balmain campaign. The idea of a white male receiving the payment for a black woman’s image (opposed to an actual black model or creator being paid) feels unethical. The questions of who gets paid—and who doesn’t—when using digital avatars is only the tip of the moral iceberg.
Perhaps the most recognizable is the Instagram star Lil Miquela (she has more than 1.6 million Instagram followers and has worked with fashion brands such as Ugg, released a single, and publicly supports Black Lives Matters and the Innocence Project) who recently made out with Bella Hadid in a Calvin Klein ad. Another extremely questionable decision, that Calvin Klein later apologized for. If brands are using CGI influencers as a way to avoid the possibility of controversy at stake when featuring a real (and flawed) human influencer, the snafus that brands have made using digital influencers demonstrate that the problems of representation and the potential offense could be rooted in brands’ own cultural insensitivities.
High off success, the makers of Lil Miquela, Brud, followed up by making Blawko and Bermuda. And while Lil Miquela and Blawko are racially ambiguous enough to allow the creators’ to hint at diversity, Bermuda is a pro-Trump conservative. The company even staged a fake fight between Lil Miquela and Bermuda as a way to incite outrage and, you guessed it, get more publicity and followers! Dare I say...how fake!
And now, Japanese skin care brand SK-II has announced that the new face of its brand is YUMIi—an AI avatar. YUMI, who was created in partnership with AI company Soul Machines, almost looks real in the glare of your phone. Her face is wide and she wears a serene smile. YUMI’s skin is, of course, perfect. Soon, YUMI will be able to interact with consumers on her own accord, providing beauty advice and answering questions about their skin care concerns. It appears the future is here, and the future is asking a robot for skin care advice.
“YUMI is more than a digital influencer. She is a digital human capable of interacting and engaging in ways technology hasn’t been able to do until now,” said Sandeep Seth, global CEO of SK-II in the brand’s press release. “YUMI personifies our goal to combine technology and creativity to benefit customers. She provides the warmth and connection of human touch in the form of a digital experience…” he continued. It’s worth remembering that AI influencers aren’t sentient beings with thoughts of their own. For example, YUMI will likely never break ties with the brand and become a spokesperson for a rival skin care company. They’re branded to SK-II through its DNA (or should we say, coding). Another example of a brand creating a digital avatar solely for their own promotion is the online lifestyle store YOOX, who’s CGI influencer Daisy has become the face of the brand.
“YUMI personifies our goal to combine technology and creativity to benefit customers. She provides the warmth and connection of human touch in the form of a digital experience to make the overall skin care experience at home and in store more enjoyable and compelling,” a SK-II spokesperson told Teen Vogue. At the moment, there’s no concrete date on when Yumi will hit our phones, “but once unveiled, consumers will be able to interact with her across smartphones, home devices and in-stores,” the brand said. Of course, there’s value to be had for customers to get 24/7 personalized service. What I’m curious about is the vessel they embody, that of a replica of a human influencer.
YUMI isn’t the first digital ambassador (nor will she be the last). An AI influencer marks a progression from the digitally-rendered CGI contemporaries into a territory where brands can create their own spokespeople advocating on their behalf. And we can expect to see more AI spokespeople in the future. In a tweet, the company who created YUMI with SK-II, Soul Machines, reflected on their creation, saying it was a, “Great step forward in humanizing brands.” We clearly have very different definitions of “humanizing.”
What makes these avatars so popular, and in turn, successful? The novelty of it doesn’t hurt. Nor does the fact that they’re created according to current trends creating unrealistic, and impossible, beauty standards. I can't help but wonder why people like these influencers so much (because personally, they make me wildly uncomfortable). Is it because you’re able to project an image onto them easier than you can project onto another human? Or maybe it's because the sterile nature of the creatures allows a detached relationship that’s easier to reckon with?
Since AI and CGI influencers are fake, and beholden to the brands, they’ll say anything they’re directed to. Without their own agency, they’re simply extensions of brands. That can become a dangerous territory, especially when brands expect us to accept digital avatars’ recommendations over real humans. The avatar is literally the company talking. The equivalent to a billboard ad with the text “buy this.” A new version of branded content awaits us, where we get our advice directly from brands, under the guise of human influencers. As Holden Caulfield would say, they’re total phonies.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
