WATCH: AI generated ad promoting Spencer Pratt for L.A. mayor:<\/p>\n
‘So easy to digest’<\/p>\n
In another viral video, this time with a Star Wars-themed<\/a>, Pratt is depicted as a lightsaber-wielding Jedi Knight, taking on Darth Vader Bass and Emperor Newsom.<\/p>\n The iconic superhero imagery in both videos is presumably used without permission in a way a traditional campaign couldn’t get away with. But that’s also why it’s grabbing people. <\/p>\n “The key with that is that it’s so easy to digest,” said Karen North, a communications professor at USC Annenberg and expert in digital and social media.<\/p>\n With the AI videos, voters don’t have to understand each issue and each candidate’s position on an issue, or the feasibility of their promises, North said. “Instead, people look at this and go, ‘Oh, I get it. \u2029Hero and villain.'”<\/p>\n The videos were actually created by filmmaker Charles Curran and Pratt has denied that his campaign was involved. But he has certainly taken advantage of their popularity, reposting them from his own accounts.<\/p>\n Hall said that experts, including himself, had previously warned that the effect of AI on campaigning would be deepfakes \u2014 the creation of ads meant to deceive and misrepresent a political opponent. Instead, candidates like Pratt are now using AI “to evoke emotion, get attention, provoke, and be funny.”<\/p>\n ‘From nobody to somebody’<\/p>\n Before entering the mayoral race, Pratt was known mostly as the trouble-making boyfriend of fellow castmate Heidi Montag on the reality TV series The Hills, which ran from 2006 to 2010 and focused on the lives of young women living in Southern California.<\/p>\n He entered the race in January, gaining attention with a populist appeal, casting blame on Democratic leaders for issues like homeless encampments and the deadly Palisades Fire, which destroyed his home and thousands of others.<\/p>\n But as Wall Street Journal film critic Kyle Smith noted,<\/a> the viral imagery “has elevated Mr. Pratt from nobody to somebody.”<\/p>\n The superhero and Star Wars videos have racked up millions of views, and some polls<\/a> now show Pratt running second to the incumbent mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a way of speaking the language of memes. And the language of memes is the currency of the internet,\u201d Samuel Woolley, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Communications, told NBC News.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, the technology has become widespread, and nearly anyone can effectively create propaganda on behalf of a particular candidate.”<\/p>\n Chris Mattmann, a data scientist and AI specialist who has worked at the University of California Los Angeles and NASA, said the effectiveness of the Pratt ads are in part due to the way AI technology has evolved just in the past few years.<\/p>\n “It’s very realistic. And that adds to that sort of evocation of emotion and realism. “<\/p>\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779981909_379_default.jpg\")
The Pratt superhero and Star Wars videos have racked up millions of views, with some polls suggesting the candidate is second in teh mayor’s race to incumbent Karen Bass. (Damian Dovarganes\/The Associated Press)’Would have been an afterthought’<\/p>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779981909_56_default.jpg\")
Spencer Pratt, a Palisades resident and husband of Heidi Montag, speaks during a ‘They Let Us Burn’ rally on the first anniversary of the deadly Palisades Fire of Los Angeles on Jan. 7 to announce his candidacy for mayor. (Daniel Cole\/Reuters)<\/p>\n