Live data from Hacker News

Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

soranews24.com

21–30 of 82 posts

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#21
post #5

This is such a weird angle for the story. The only "spokesperson scandal" I can think of is the Subway guy, and I don't really think even that enormous scandal hurt Subway very much. I have to believe the reduced effectiveness of a fake spokesperson outweighs the benefit of avoiding a minuscule chance of scandal. Also, fictional spokes"people" like Mr. Peanut or whatever already exist. I don't think I understand why…

> The only "spokesperson scandal" I can think of

There have been a few over the last few decades…

https://www.linkdex.com/en-gb/inked/worst-celebrity-spokespe...

And then the Bud Light thing more recently.

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#24
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reducing controversy could reduce costs. Plus I’m sure Disney would be happy to have fully generated and manipulable actors protected under copyright for decades upon decades. Essentially zero risk of actors making “bad” choices, especially “aging” or “getting fat”, or “retiring”.

And the worst choice of all - asking for more money. Imagine how much money Hollywood could have saved by being able to digitize Tom Cruise, Will Smith, or Leonardo DiCaprio early on in their careers, when they were doing acting gigs for beer money - and then simply use the digitized versions in lieu of the real thing after they made it big.

That’s exactly part of the issue in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/13/23794224/sag-aftra-actors...

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, "person I've never seen before" doesn't give any clout to the product. Why would I care if that person drinks it? Other than the appearance that it took like 30 years off her hair and skin, that is.

Does a celebrity provide any real clout to a product? Just because you see Joe Celebrity using a product in a commercial, all that really means is that they paid her enough money to say that she uses the product. There have certainly been celebrities outed for not using their endorsed product - for example, when Samsung paid a number of celebrities to endorse their phone, then the celebrities were caught tweeting or…

I don't think its anything as serious as believing someone's endorsement

If my default is to not pay attention to an ad, but then someone I like looking at appears in the ad, now I'm paying attention

Or music videos where a certain cellphone appears - do I think that singer really uses the samsung fold? no, but because I was watching her video I got an eyefull of the new folding phone. simple eyeball gathering tactics, "impressions"

tbh tho I did test drive the car I own because it was mentioned in one of my jams

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, "person I've never seen before" doesn't give any clout to the product. Why would I care if that person drinks it? Other than the appearance that it took like 30 years off her hair and skin, that is.

Does a celebrity provide any real clout to a product? Just because you see Joe Celebrity using a product in a commercial, all that really means is that they paid her enough money to say that she uses the product. There have certainly been celebrities outed for not using their endorsed product - for example, when Samsung paid a number of celebrities to endorse their phone, then the celebrities were caught tweeting or…

I don't have any industry knowledge, but brands would not be shelling out for these celebrities if they didn't have an impact. Of course it doesn't make sense on paper, but that doesn't matter when your favorite actor/musician is shilling a product you're in the market for.

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#27
post #3

I true HN style, I'd like to reply in an only tangentially related way... That would be: How could a tea commercial actress cause scandal anyway? I mean, who really cares if your tea commercial actress has an abortion, or just breaks up with her boy friend? In Japan, there's a really weird relationship between "fans" and "idols". The public has very extreme expectations that the performer will somehow conform to thei…

> How could a tea commercial actress cause scandal anyway?

Imagine someone at the company makes a lewd prank involving the model and it gets out of hand, making its way into the public

A couple of examples of something similar happening already: In 2005, people discovered the "Hot Coffee mod" in Rockstar's game Grand Theft Auto which showed a sex scene that would have given the game an "Adults Only" rating, meaning that most stores wouldn't carry it. The game had to be recalled and reissued, resulting in at least tens of millions of dollars in losses

Later, in 2013, the game "Beyond: Two Souls" had a scandal with actress Ellen Page who contributed her likeness, voice acting, and mocap animation. There is apparently a shower scene in the game that is censored, but a fully naked version of her character's model leaked online. This sparked controversy since Page herself didn't appear naked for the game's material, nor did she consent to being depicted fully naked as far as I'm aware. I don't think this resulted in any lawsuits, but this was being talked about as a possibility at the time

Now imagine if this happened with the tea commercial AI model. People would start coming forward, claiming that the model is based on their appearances. They would demand compensation for being defamed. Under the right circumstances, it could have devastating results for whoever is involved

(To that, I'm almost surprised that the "AI art is theft" crowd hasn't been making noise about AI actors and actresses potentially being made to bear the likenesses of real people)

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#28
post #5

This is such a weird angle for the story. The only "spokesperson scandal" I can think of is the Subway guy, and I don't really think even that enormous scandal hurt Subway very much. I have to believe the reduced effectiveness of a fake spokesperson outweighs the benefit of avoiding a minuscule chance of scandal. Also, fictional spokes"people" like Mr. Peanut or whatever already exist. I don't think I understand why…

Yeah, "person I've never seen before" doesn't give any clout to the product. Why would I care if that person drinks it? Other than the appearance that it took like 30 years off her hair and skin, that is.

Why do people care about what [insert famous person] eats for breakfast? Imo it's all about para social relationships. And if tomagotchis and chat bots have told me anything, humans can just aswell get attached to these things as they do other humans.

Re: Japanese tea commercial actress created by AI, is it the scandal-free future

#29
post #5

This is such a weird angle for the story. The only "spokesperson scandal" I can think of is the Subway guy, and I don't really think even that enormous scandal hurt Subway very much. I have to believe the reduced effectiveness of a fake spokesperson outweighs the benefit of avoiding a minuscule chance of scandal. Also, fictional spokes"people" like Mr. Peanut or whatever already exist. I don't think I understand why…

Not to get all “orientalism” but celebrity scandal is a pretty big deal in Japan and South Korea. It can kill a career quite easy, for (by US standards) innocuous things. Smoking pot, spicy selfies, having a significant other - it’s not uncommon. Japan at least is also fairly receptive to artificial spokespeople, like mascots and avatars. Maybe there’s simply higher demand for this, and turning to AI is a good strate…

I understand the first two, but I could never wrap my head around the "having an SO" is a scandal. Why is that?
Post reply on HN