Brands Are Finding Deepfakes Increasingly Appealing for Ad Campaigns

Hulu, Spotify and State Farm have all explored the tech

Viewers tuning into ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries may have done a double take when the show led straight into what appeared to be a 1998-era clip of SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne predicting in far-fetched detail the exact circumstances of the documentary’s airing.

The attention-grabbing stunt was the culmination of three weeks of scrambling on the part of ESPN, State Farm—which sponsored the segment—and their respective agencies. They attempted to parse an emerging technology better known for its nefarious potential for fake news: AI-powered deepfakes.

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 5, 2020, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.