Advertising with celebrity deepfakes: a new scandal from an affiliate marketing point of view

Deepfake is a controversial technology that causes a lot of questions. Is it a powerful modern tool for work or fraud? Let's discuss this fascinating topic through a recent incident and from an affiliate marketing perspective.

What happened:

The phony giveaway of cookware Le Creuset by deepfaked Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

In these AI-generated videos that ran on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, Swift's appearance and voice were imitated to express that she's "thrilled" to give away free Le Creuset sets. There are also fake ads of Selena Gomez, according to cybersecurity site MalwareTips, where a deepfaked Gomez promises free cookware due to a warehouse error.

Why is it important:

The fake ads led people to phishing sites that collected their personal information and debited their accounts.

What about Meta? A representative of the corporation agreed that these fraudulent ads violate its policies, but are often missed by its review systems because creators cloak their content. Meta has taken legal action against some perpetrators of these scam ads. A TikTok spokesperson told that creators are required to disclose whether media is synthetic or manipulated, and that advertisers must obtain consent for "any synthetic media which contains a public figure."

Aff1.com comment:

Deepfake technology is evolving, becoming more and more convincing. It is logical that scammers will use it for their own purposes. But if you are not a scammer and are running legal advertising campaigns, be careful.

First of all, don't be tempted to use celebrities in advertising if it's prohibited. A creative with a star is a goldmine, no one argues. But violating advertising rules will ruin all possible benefits. Therefore, pay close attention to the restrictions: they are always indicated in the offer descriptions:

If you are still thinking about this opportunity, we recommend reading our article about bad celebrity marketing experiences. A small spoiler: the most striking, effective and expensive way to increase attention to advertising is to attract a famous person. And the fastest way to ruin an advertising campaign and get yourself in trouble is to take an image of a celebrity without permission.

And a few words in defense of technology. Deepfake is used not only to create fake advertising and pornographic videos of celebrities. Deepfake technology can also be used to create retrospective concerts, films and museum performances. For example, the Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida organized a special exhibition Dalí Lives in honor of the famous artist’s 115th birthday.

Instead of conclusions

AI is evolving and is easily deceiving the target audience. Your protection as a marketer is to follow the rules.

First, follow the restrictions specified in the offer descriptions.
Second, check the facts: if a celebrity ad is not posted on that celebrity or company's social media accounts, it is likely fake.

Finally, a universal rule: if you have any doubts or questions, contact Aff1.com managers for exclusive offers, advice and tips in your work.

And don’t miss new articles on the Aff1.com blog, where we write about news, life hacks and the most useful tools!