An ad agency submitted a faked case study video to Cannes and got busted
What happened?
Brazilian ad agency DM9 just got caught using AI to generate and manipulate content in a case study to simulate real world events and campaign outcomes. Chief creative officer Icaro Doria left DM9 following the controversy.
Before this was exposed, DM9 won a Grand Prix for their Consul campaign called “Efficient Way to Pay.”
The campaign idea
Apparently Consul created a purchasing model in which someone buys, for example, a refrigerator, and he only pays the installments with the money he saves on energy by exchanging an old refrigerator for a newer one. Very cool, but fake. No one has ever heard of this campaign. Brazilian journalist Josette Goulart from UOL, went after Consul, who didn't answer whether the campaign existed (it didn't) and said that the responsibility lies entirely with their ad agency. Even though Consul’s head of marketing went up on stage at Cannes to receive the award along with the Brazilian agency's team, demonstrating her approval of the case's submission for the award.
The fakery
The video submitted to Cannes presented campaign results and included a supposed reference to São Paulo’s energy consumption, allegedly highlighted in a TED Talk by U.S. Senator DeAndrea Salvador. However, the original TED Talk—titled “How we can make energy more affordable for low-income families” and delivered in 2018—contains no such reference, according to TED’s official website.
The video also cited a CNN news segment as evidence of the campaign’s media impact. However, the 2021 segment in question—”Demand rises for more energy-efficient appliances,” reported by journalist Gloria Vanique—did not mention Consul at all.
The consequences
In response to the controversy, DM9 announced plans to establish an Artificial Intelligence Ethics Committee, which will include independent members from various sectors. The committee will be tasked with “establishing guidelines, fostering debate, and encouraging responsible use of the technology,” the agency said. It also expressed interest in “broadening discussions across the industry to ensure that the use of AI remains aligned with the principles of truth, respect, and image rights.”
On Monday night (23), Consul issued a new statement mentioning that “legal measures” were being taken. The company has not disclosed when the “Efficient Energy Consumption” program was originally launched.
Takeaways
This is absolutely astounding to me. On one hand, I’m shocked that they thought they could get away with this. And on the other hand, I keep getting surprised at how amazing AI is. DM9 must have some AI gurus to be able to whip up something that looks so convincing.
Hopefully this means that agencies will think twice about lying on their case studies.
I’m also interested in how legit this new “Artificial Intelligence Ethics Committee” will actually be. Color me skeptical.
Check out Creative Director Ashley Rutstein’s great take on the incident (from her account @StuffAboutAdvertising):
“The response to this has really been pissing me off. And what I mean by that is—so many people, upon hearing this news about the fake case studies, are going, ‘Ah, well that’s just advertising! This happens all the time. If we disqualified every fake campaign, there’d be no winners.’
What do you mean?! This complacency drives me INSANE! We need to do more…
If this is happening so often, agencies clearly aren’t experiencing any sort of consequences, and they don’t take it seriously. So what I need the awards shows to do… is start BANNING people! DM9 should be banned. Whether it’s permanently, or for a couple of years, or a year, I don’t care. You need to do something and make them understand that this is serious. Yes, that guy stepped down, but I highly doubt he was the only one that was making this happen.”