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AI commercials: are the people real?

Updated · reviewed by a human

More brands now make their ads with AI, and the people in them may not exist. Some ads say so on screen. Some say so in print too small to read. Some brands only say so after the backlash. This is our running file: each ad, who's in it, how it told you, and the evidence.

How we call it

4 ads so far: 4 AI-made · 0 with real people · 0 unproven.

The ads

◆ AI-made BAERSkin Tactical

Is the man in BAERSkin's hoodie ad a real person?

The answer: AI-made. The ad says so itself, in small print at the very end: "Models depicted generated using artificial intelligence."

How the ad told you: Small print, last 3 seconds

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The ad

"Bearskin Man", 30-second TV spot. Talking bears around a campfire, then a man showing off the hoodie.

How it told viewers

One line of small grey type under the web address, on screen for about the last 3 seconds of the 30-second spot. Nothing earlier in the spot mentions AI.

What the evidence shows

In the spot, bears around a campfire swap stories about the legendary "Baerskin Man" before a man shows off the hoodie's fleece and 12 pockets. The closing card, with the offer and the web address, adds in small grey type: "Models depicted generated using artificial intelligence." We watched the spot as listed by iSpot, the TV ad tracker: the line appears about 27 seconds in and stays to the end (screenshot on record).

The company has also described how it works. Its head of marketing, Luke de Kock, told the TV ad platform Tatari: "Instead of turning to cameras, we turn to AI." Tatari reports that the brand started with 8-second AI clips made with Google's Veo 3 and was making fully animated 30-second spots by early 2026, using ElevenLabs for the voiceover and ChatGPT and Claude to help write scripts. It still films its longer YouTube videos with cameras.

This entry covers "Bearskin Man" only. BAERSkin runs other TV spots, and we haven't checked each one; a spot without the line isn't proof either way.

Checked

◆ AI-made McDonald's Netherlands

Were the people in McDonald's AI Christmas ad real?

The answer: AI-made. McDonald's Netherlands called it its "AI-generated Christmas advert" when it took it down.

How the ad told you: Said so when it pulled the ad

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The ad

"The most terrible time of the year", Christmas 2025. People caught in holiday mishaps: a present sliding off a car roof, a skater taking a fall, Santa stuck in traffic.

How it told viewers

We couldn't check the ad itself for a label, because it has been taken down. The company called it AI-generated when it removed it.

What the evidence shows

The 45-second ad went up on McDonald's Netherlands' YouTube channel on December 6, 2025. Set to a reworked Christmas song, it showed people caught in holiday mishaps and ended by inviting viewers to hide out in McDonald's until January.

It drew heavy criticism, and within days the company took it down. A spokesperson told Fox Business: "we have decided to remove our AI-generated Christmas advert" and "This moment serves as an important learning as we explore the effective use of AI."

NBC News reported that it was made by the Dutch agency TBWA\Neboko with the US production company The Sweetshop, whose chief executive defended the work in a LinkedIn post she later deleted.

Checked

◆ AI-made Coca-Cola

Were the people in Coca-Cola's holiday ads real?

The answer: AI-made. Coca-Cola says it made both versions with generative AI. The 2025 versions lean on animals over people.

How the ad told you: Press release

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The ad

"Holidays Are Coming", 2024 and 2025 versions. 2024: the convoy of red trucks and the excited children who used to be filmed live. 2025: trucks and animals; the company's own stills show owls and a panda.

How it told viewers

Coca-Cola announced the AI in a press release and in interviews. We haven't confirmed an on-screen AI label in the TV versions.

What the evidence shows

Coca-Cola remade its 1995 "Holidays Are Coming" spot with generative AI in 2024, and again in 2025. TheWrap reported in November 2024 that the remake, with its convoy of red trucks and the excited children who in past versions were filmed live, was created with AI by Silverside AI and the agency Pereira O'Dell.

In its own press release of November 3, 2025, Coca-Cola announced "two AI-driven reimaginations" of the 1995 spot, made with the San Francisco studios Secret Level and Silverside AI. Its head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, said in the release: "Last year we set a global milestone with the world's first entirely GenAI-created film on broadcast media."

The 2025 campaign's third film, "A Holiday Memory", is not one of the two the company calls AI-driven. Coca-Cola runs a new holiday campaign every year; when the 2026 ad arrives, we'll add it here.

Checked

◆ AI-made Guess

Is the model in the Guess ad in Vogue a real woman?

The answer: AI-made. The agency that made the ad says its models were generated with AI, and the page says so in small print.

How the ad told you: Small print on the page

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The ad

Print ad, Vogue's August 2025 issue. Fashion models in Guess clothes; Good Morning America named the AI models Vivienne, a blonde, and Anastasia, a brunette.

How it told viewers

A line of small print on the page itself.

What the evidence shows

The ad ran in the August 2025 issue of US Vogue and showed a model who looked like any other fashion model. Small print on the page said she was made with AI. Readers objected, and some called for a boycott of Guess and Vogue.

It was made by Seraphinne Vallora, a London agency that makes AI models for brands. Its co-founders, Valentina Gonzalez and Andreea Petrescu, told CNN the work began with a real model, photographed in a studio for a week in Guess clothes so the team could see which poses suited the product, before the AI version was made. We don't know who that model is, and this entry says nothing about her.

Condé Nast told CNN that "an AI model has never appeared editorially in Vogue": this was a paid ad, not a fashion story. Guess did not respond to CNN.

Checked

Quick answers

How do you decide whether the people in an ad are AI?

The same way we decide whether a creator is real. "AI-made" needs the brand, its agency or the ad itself to say so, or named reporters to document it. "Real people" needs a credited cast or behind-the-scenes evidence, reported by named press. Everything else stays "unproven". AI-detector scores and "it looks off" never settle a case on their own.

Do ads have to say when the people in them are AI?

In New York, yes. Since June 9, 2026, a state law requires an ad to clearly disclose a "synthetic performer", a digitally created person, when the advertiser knows one is in it. Fines are $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 after that. The law doesn't say what the label must look like, and it has exceptions, such as audio-only ads. We describe each ad's label as it is. Whether a label is clear enough under the law is for regulators and courts to say, not us.

Source: Cooley, "New York enacts synthetic performer disclosure law", January 29, 2026 (archived)

Can I suggest an ad?

Yes. Use the corrections address on our About page, and tell us the brand, where you saw the ad and roughly when. We add an ad when there's enough on the record to check it, and we update an entry when new evidence lands.

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