Italian luxury fashion house Valentino is facing criticism after posting “disturbing” adverts made using artificial intelligence (AI) for one of its luxury handbags online.<\/p>\n
The brand announced a collaboration with digital artists as part of what it dubbed a “digital creative project” promoting its new DeVain handbag.<\/p>\n
But an AI-generated advert it posted on Instagram has been met with intense criticism from fans, who called the visuals – and use of AI – “sloppy” and “sad”.<\/p>\n
The BBC has approached Valentino for comment.<\/p>\n
The Instagram post promoting the handbag<\/a>, which has a label to say it was made using AI, shows a “surreal” collage of models spliced between Valentino logos and its DeVain bag.<\/p>\n At one point it shows models seemingly emerge from an ornate gold version of the handbag. At another, the brand’s logo transforms into people’s arms, before these morph into a coalescing swirl of bodies.<\/p>\n Among hundreds of comments left on Valentino’s Instagram video on Monday were many criticising its AI use as “cheap” and “lazy”.<\/p>\n “Disappointing from a couture fashion house,” wrote one user responding to the video on Instagram.<\/p>\n “Advertising campaigns are an opportunity to put talented creatives centre stage. AI in this instance is lazy at best.”<\/p>\n Others called on the company’s marketing department to “read the room”, likened the content to “AI slop” and accused the company of “rage-baiting”<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fashion industry, like many other creative sectors, has seized on generative AI tools which can create images and video in seconds as a way to cut production and promotion costs.<\/p>\n It has also been cited as an opportunity to examine how new and emerging tech can enhance key processes like design, manufacturing and sizing<\/a>.<\/p>\n But doing so has also given rise to concern its increased adoption may displace human workers, or reduce the quality of fashion products.<\/p>\n Anne-Liese Prem, head of cultural insights & trends at creative digital agency Loop, said although Valentino was showing “the right instinct” by being upfront about the generative AI use, backlash to it showed “a deeper cultural tension”.<\/p>\n “The main issue is not the technology itself – it is the perception of what the technology replaces,” she told the BBC. <\/p>\n “When AI enters the visual identity of a brand, people worry that the brand is choosing efficiency over artistry.<\/p>\n “Even if the execution is creative, audiences often read it as cost-saving disguised as innovation.”<\/p>\n H&M’s use of AI to create “digital twins” of models for ads and social media posts<\/a> sparked criticism about its effect on human models, as well as on photographers and make-up artists who play a key role on shoots.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, an AI-generated Guess advert spotted in Vogue earlier this year raised concerns about its impact on female beauty standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms Prem said while there were clear benefits and “new creative possibilities” for brands using AI, “the risk is equally clear”.<\/p>\n “Without a strong emotional idea behind it, generative AI can make luxury feel less human at a moment when people want human presence more than ever,” she said.<\/p>\n