The Art of Advertising is Dead, and AI Killed It

The art of advertising is dead, and I think AI killed it.

Art should be subjective. Some people — me included — don’t understand the hype behind the Mona Lisa, and some people think Lady Gaga is overrated (I am not among them). The point is that many people hold strong opinions about art and entertainment. Advertising is a form of art, whether it be photography, video, graphics, audio, or any other medium. The majority of artistic forms can be tied to modern advertising and marketing. The issue is that modern advertising has lost its way. It has shed its whimsy and artistry, leaving behind something hollow and transactional. An article by RetroMash explores why people love retro advertisements — why audiences find them nostalgic and visually dynamic — qualities we rarely encounter in contemporary ads.

“Retro advertisements are renowned for their distinctive visual style. Bold colors, whimsical illustrations, and stylized fonts are hallmarks of vintage ads that stand out even today. This aesthetic is a breath of fresh air in the often minimalist and sleek design trends of contemporary marketing.” (RetroMash, 2024)

It feels as though companies — and the people behind them — have lost both artistry and integrity in advertising. Everyone is simply trying to sell something, and the art has become an afterthought.

Consider TikTok. I am tired of scrolling and having every other video be an ad. The platform is saturated with canned, disingenuous “influencer” promotions, and most of the products follow an identical formula. If it’s a clothing ad, a couple will appear on screen, one breathlessly exclaiming, “Babe, where did you get those jeans?!” before the other responds in the same hollow tone you’ve heard across thousands of similar videos: “Omg, babe, they’re like totally only $20 on Pacsun!” The exchange is so rehearsed, so devoid of authenticity, that I often imagine them awkwardly parting ways immediately after the camera stops rolling.

Do I enjoy these TikTok ads? No. But I can at least appreciate that they are made by real people featuring real people. That distinction matters more and more as AI becomes a dominant force in digital advertising. I am not a technophobe. I can see how AI streamlines processes, provides useful information, and serves as a collaborator across a wide range of industries and creative endeavors. What I find deeply troubling is AI completely replacing the artistic process — and the artist themselves — removing human beings from the narrative entirely.

The Guardian interviewed photographer Oliver Feigal from Munich, who described AI’s impact on his livelihood in stark terms. “AI’s had the most devastating effect on the industry,” he said. Feigal recounted the moment he was reading his Sunday newspaper and came across a front-page image of a boy chasing a football on a pitch surrounded by wildflowers. Something was off. On closer inspection, the boy’s hands were missing, and the wildflowers had no stems. The image had been generated by AI. For Feigal, who has worked as a photographer for 18 years, the moment was more than jarring — it was emblematic of a profession slipping away beneath his feet. He says he can no longer make a living from his craft due to recent AI developments (Bartholomew, 2025).

Feigal is just one voice from one industry. Across the board, AI is displacing artists at an alarming rate. We have also reached a point where celebrities are being deepfaked to sell products without their consent. High-profile figures such as Scarlett Johansson, Sabrina Carpenter, Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift, and many others have been victims of these deepfake cybercrimes — all to promote low-quality, dubious products (Knutsson, 2024). The brazenness of it is staggering.

What disappoints me most is how thoroughly AI has infiltrated content creation across digital advertising. A Harvard Business School article notes that “AI is changing the way companies create blog posts, social media messaging, and ad campaigns” (Russell, 2025). I believe social media can be a remarkable vehicle for art. I have watched incredible short films on TikTok, encountered eloquent illustrations on Instagram, and learned new techniques from artists who generously share their work in hopes of reaching the right audience. I personally see this kind of content far less often now, crowded out by either the canned ads described above or videos that turn out, disappointingly, to be AI-generated.

My experience working at The 5th Avenue Theatre, one of the largest nonprofit theaters in the country, brought these issues into sharp personal focus. Like most theaters nationally, we faced chronic underfunding. Over the course of two years, I witnessed firsthand how AI began reshaping our digital advertising approach. We transitioned from producing commercials with locally sourced talent and a regional video production agency — investments that cost upwards of $15,000 — to relying on AI-generated stock footage at under $2,500 per spot. On paper, the savings seemed like a practical solution.

The reality was something else entirely. After the AI-generated commercial went live, the backlash was swift. Patrons, theater enthusiasts, and artists quickly identified the footage as artificial and questioned why a theater built on live human performance wasn’t using its own cast to promote the show. More troublingly, several of the AI-generated actors appeared to be Black, which led to accusations of “AI blackface.” The optics were damaging, and the criticism was warranted.

Our marketing team pulled the commercial from all platforms and entered full damage control mode. Senior staff had to rebuild the entire marketing plan for the show from scratch, and leadership sat down personally with the cast, who were rightfully offended by the decision to represent live art with artificial imagery. When you tally up the cost of producing the original AI commercial, the staff hours spent managing the fallout, the creative resources required to redo the campaign, and the trust lost with artists and patrons — the “cheaper” option became far more expensive than simply investing in a quality commercial from the start. Some costs don’t appear on a balance sheet, but they are real.

This experience was a painful reminder of what is at stake when art is treated as a line item rather than a craft. What made it especially frustrating was the missed opportunity: this was a chance to showcase local Seattle talent, to create a commercial that genuinely reflected the spirit and humanity of the show. We squandered it. And this is not an isolated case. According to a Forbes article, more than half of consumers find AI-generated ads to be a turn-off (Petro, 2024). The market is speaking. The question is whether the industry is listening.

It is difficult, as someone who loves the arts and has always seen marketing as an extension of that passion, to watch the world of digital advertising change so profoundly — and so rapidly. But here is the thing about AI: at its literal core, it is a machine. It cannot create art that demands genuine emotion. It cannot convey pain, joy, or love in the ways that only human experience allows. Even when the medium is “just an ad,” digital advertising is a deeply underrated and vital form of artistic expression. Real art requires real emotion, and real emotion requires real people, regardless of the product or service being sold.

It seems as though marketing’s only function has become to promote overconsumption. I have enough things. What I don’t have enough of is content that truly inspires me, that engages me, that reminds me what it means to be human. That is what advertising, at its best, has always been capable of delivering — and what we stand to lose entirely if we let machines replace the artists behind it.

References

Bartholomew, J. (2025). ‘It’s happening fast’ – creative workers and professionals share their fears and hopes about the rise of AI.

The Guardian.

Knutsson, K. (2024). 10 celebs most targeted by malicious deepfake scams, dangerous search results.

Fox News.

Petro, G. (2024). Half of consumers say AI-generated ads are a turn-off.

Forbes.

RetroMash. (2024). Why people love retro advertisements.

RetroMash.

Russell, M. (2025). AI will shape the future of marketing.

Harvard Business School.