7 Myths About AI Brand Visuals That Could Be Costing You Clients
Aleksandra Di Gesaro is a fashion photographer and visual strategist with over 15 years of experience helping fashion and beauty brands build identities that convert. She specializes in authentic fashion marketing that creates real human connection, not just beautiful imagery.
Can AI-generated visuals damage your brand’s credibility, even when they look flawless? From McDonald’s Christmas ad disaster to Nike’s award-winning campaign, this article challenges seven common myths about AI-generated brand visuals and explores what makes them succeed or fail.
The hidden risk of AI-generated photos for your personal brand
Lately, my Instagram feed has been full of the same ad for various apps promising the same thing: ten professional photoshoot pictures from one selfie. Using the promoted apps, you can turn a single photo into a whole portfolio of polished portraits in different outfits and settings within minutes. I understand why it can be very tempting, but using AI to create your visuals can be tricky.
I have worked with many coaches and consultants on showing up on camera and creating visuals that communicate their expertise and personality, and I know how much they struggle with showing up on camera. Most of them are not professional models and have no idea what to do with their hands or where to look, so standing in front of a camera feels awkward. A professional photoshoot is also expensive, and you leave with a limited number of pictures while social media asks you to post consistently, week after week. When an AI photo generator offers to remove the camera, the cost, and the awkwardness for the price of a monthly subscription, saying yes feels like the sensible choice.
But there is a difference between creating beautiful pictures and creating effective brand visuals. When you're a coach, consultant, or service-based entrepreneur, people aren't simply buying your expertise. They're deciding whether they can trust you with what they're struggling with most at the moment. Your pictures play a part in that decision before you've had a chance to speak to a potential client. While some AI-generated images are easy to recognise, others are convincing enough to fool the eye. The bigger question is what happens to your credibility when people discover that the person, place, or situation you've shown them isn't real.
Before you buy a subscription to one of the AI image generators, I'd like you to look at what happened when seven major brands used AI in their advertising. Some faced criticism, while others created award-winning campaigns, and together they challenge seven common assumptions about AI-generated visuals that every entrepreneur should understand.
Myth 1: AI always saves time and money
"McDonald's Netherlands, December 2025"
In December 2025, McDonald's Netherlands released a 45-second Christmas film on YouTube, made entirely from AI-generated clips. Its rewritten jingle called Christmas "the most terrible time of the year", and the film showed holiday chaos, Santa stuck in a traffic jam, a cyclist loaded with presents slipping in the snow, and other familiar seasonal disasters.
The idea itself was questionable. A brand associated with happy moments and togetherness was telling its customers to skip the most emotional season of the year and hide out in McDonald's until January. Viewers found the message cynical, while the AI-generated execution added another problem. Critics described the film as creepy and soulless, pointing to unnatural-looking faces and rapid cuts. One commenter said it had single-handedly ruined their Christmas spirit. McDonald's switched off the comments and removed the video on 9 December, just three days after its release, describing the episode as an important learning experience.
But the production story is just as interesting as the backlash. According to The Sweetshop, the production company behind the film, the team spent weeks generating thousands of takes and correcting AI errors in post-production. Its chief executive described seven weeks of work with very little sleep and said that the hours involved exceeded those of a traditional shoot. McDonald's hasn't published the campaign budget, so we can't compare the exact costs. But the promise of effortless AI production looks rather different when you consider how much specialist work went into a 45-second film that was withdrawn within three days.
Now imagine this on a smaller scale. An AI photoshoot app might generate twenty polished pictures in minutes, but how many will actually be usable? How much time will you spend regenerating faces, fixing strange details, or trying to make the images look like you? Most importantly, will those pictures communicate anything meaningful about your business?
AI can reduce certain production costs, but it doesn't eliminate the need for planning, creative direction, and quality control. A faster way to create the wrong message isn't much of a saving.
Myth 2: If people can spot AI, the campaign won't work
"Coca-Cola, 2024 and 2025"
Coca-Cola remade its beloved 1995 Christmas advertisement, "Holidays Are Coming", using AI in 2024, and did it again in 2025, this time with animals gathering to watch the famous red trucks pass. Both campaigns attracted criticism. The 2024 version was called soulless, while viewers of the 2025 film pointed out visual glitches, including trucks that appeared to change shape between shots.
You might expect the campaigns to have failed. But here's the interesting part. System1, a company that tests advertisements with real viewers, gave Coca-Cola's AI Christmas ads its maximum rating of 5.9 stars, indicating exceptionally strong predicted brand-building potential. Its analysts explained that viewers responded to the familiar Coca-Cola elements, the illuminated trucks, the music, the Christmas atmosphere, and the emotional associations developed over decades. In the testing, respondents weren't told that AI had been used. The brand's established visual identity did much of the work.
That doesn't mean everyone loved the campaigns. Online criticism was real, and different audience groups reacted differently. But the testing results demonstrate that visible imperfections and online controversy don't automatically mean an advertisement fails to connect with its wider audience.
Coca-Cola had something most entrepreneurs don't: around thirty years of visual consistency. You can recognise the brand from the red trucks, the lights, and the familiar Christmas atmosphere, even without seeing its logo. If you're still building your personal brand, you don't have that advantage. Your audience is learning who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you different. If your photographs look like those of every other business coach, luxury consultant, or wellness entrepreneur using the same AI templates, you're making that job harder.
The problem isn't simply whether people recognise AI. It's whether your visuals communicate an identity that people recognise and remember. Coca-Cola's AI campaigns benefited from decades of brand-building.
Myth 3: If an image looks perfect, it builds credibility
"Guess in Vogue, August 2025"
In August 2025, Guess ran advertisements in the US edition of Vogue featuring an AI-generated model created by the studio Seraphinne Vallora. She looked like a typical fashion model, beautiful, perfectly styled, and photographed in polished editorial-looking images. There was only one problem. She didn't exist.
The advertisement included a small disclaimer identifying the use of AI, but that didn't prevent criticism. People raised concerns about unrealistic beauty standards and the potential displacement of real models, photographers, and makeup artists. Vogue distanced itself from the decision, explaining that it was a commercial advertisement rather than editorial content.
What's particularly interesting about this controversy is that the images weren't criticised primarily for looking bad. They were criticised for what they represented. There's an important lesson here for personal brands.
When a potential client sees a photograph of you on your website, they generally assume they're looking at the person they'll eventually meet or work with. They also assume that the office, stage, or client interaction shown in your photographs is real. Now imagine a business coach posting an AI-generated picture of herself speaking at a prestigious conference in front of hundreds of people, even though she's never delivered a keynote presentation. The image looks impressive, but it suggests professional experience she doesn't have. The same applies to fictional client meetings, luxury offices, or teams that don't exist.
There's a difference between presenting your business beautifully and presenting a business that isn't real. Visual perfection isn't the same as credibility, and for entrepreneurs whose businesses depend on their personal reputation, an image that creates false expectations may do more harm than a less polished photograph that accurately reflects who they are.
Myth 4: Being transparent about AI is enough
"Valentino, December 2025"
In December 2025, Valentino published an Instagram video promoting its DeVain handbag as part of a digital creative project developed with artists. The film showed surreal collages of models morphing into logos, bodies merging into unusual shapes, and the handbag appearing in constantly changing environments. The use of AI was clearly disclosed, yet the comments quickly filled with criticism. Viewers described the campaign as sloppy, sad, cheap, and lazy.
A creative executive at Getty Images told the BBC that audiences hold expensive brands to higher standards, and that even full transparency about AI wasn't enough to win them over. A trends expert from the agency Loop explained that consumers sometimes interpret AI as cost-cutting disguised as innovation.
This matters because the higher the expectations you create around your brand, the more carefully people judge the experience you deliver. If you're a premium consultant charging thousands for your expertise, your audience expects a certain level of thought, care, and professionalism. That doesn't mean you need expensive photography or that you should never use AI. But every visual choice should feel consistent with the quality you're promising, and simply adding an AI disclosure won't make an uninspired image more effective.
Transparency is important, but it's not a substitute for a strong idea or thoughtful execution. People don't judge your visuals only by how they were created. They also judge what those visuals say about your standards.
Myth 5: AI replaces human creativity
"Nike, Never Done Evolving"
For the final year of Serena Williams's tennis career, Nike and its agency AKQA created something that no camera crew could have filmed: a match between the Serena who won her first Grand Slam in 1999 and the Serena who won the Australian Open in 2017. Machine learning analysed archival footage and modelled how each version played, including shot selection, reaction times, movement, and decision-making. The system generated more than 130,000 games to explore how her performance had evolved.
The campaign reached around 1.7 million viewers, according to AKQA, and achieved 1,082% more organic views than Nike's other content. It also won the Grand Prix for Digital Craft at Cannes Lions in 2023.
What made it successful wasn't the simple fact that AI was involved. Nike had an interesting story to tell about a real athlete, her growth, discipline, and evolution over nearly two decades. AI made it possible to express that story in a way that traditional filming couldn't. The technology didn't replace the creative concept. It helped bring it to life.
That's a distinction entrepreneurs should pay attention to. You might use AI to visualise a complex business transformation, explain an abstract concept, or create a metaphor for a problem your clients face. You can experiment with ideas that would otherwise be difficult or expensive to produce visually. But the most important part still comes from you, knowing your audience, understanding the problem, and deciding what the image needs to communicate.
AI is most interesting when it expands what you can communicate, rather than simply replacing the effort involved in making an ordinary photograph.
Myth 6: AI makes marketing less personal
"Cadbury, Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad"
In India, much of Cadbury's gifting chocolate is sold through small local shops, many of which suffered during the pandemic as online shopping grew. Cadbury wanted to support these businesses during Diwali, so it created a campaign featuring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
Using AI voice and face technology, the company made it possible for him to appear in personalised advertisements mentioning individual local stores by name. Shop owners and consumers could also create their own versions through a dedicated website. The campaign generated thousands of personalised advertisements, and Cadbury Celebrations sales rose by 35% during Diwali. Household penetration also reached a three-year high of 9.4%, while the campaign topped WARC's ranking of the most effective campaigns in 2024.
AI made something possible that would have been impractical to produce manually: a famous actor promoting thousands of individual businesses by name. But what makes this case particularly interesting is how the technology was used. Rather than replacing the human element, Cadbury used AI to create more personal connections between a global brand, local shop owners, and their communities.
For entrepreneurs, the lesson isn't that you need sophisticated voice-cloning software or a celebrity ambassador. It's that personalisation should make your audience feel understood. Think of a consultant who works with different industries. Instead of using the same generic imagery everywhere, she could create visual explanations tailored to the challenges of manufacturers, retailers, or service providers. AI might help her develop those concepts quickly, while her expertise ensures they're relevant.
AI doesn't have to make marketing impersonal. Used thoughtfully, it can help you communicate more specifically with different audiences, provided you understand those audiences before you start generating anything.
Myth 7: AI is just a cheaper way to create visuals
"Heinz, A.I. Ketchup"
Heinz approached AI from a completely different direction. The brand asked an image generator to draw ketchup, and the results often resembled Heinz, even when the prompts didn't mention the company. Instead of using AI to produce a conventional advertising photograph, Heinz made that observation the concept of the campaign.
The company invited people to submit their own ketchup-related prompts and used the resulting images across social media, print, and outdoor advertising. The campaign reported more than 1.15 billion earned impressions and became part of the wider "It Has to Be Heinz" platform, which went on to win the Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in 2024.
The idea worked because the use of AI was central to the message, Heinz was so strongly associated with ketchup that even an AI generator appeared to make the connection. It was playful, easy to understand, and rooted in the brand's identity.
Heinz didn't ask how AI could make its usual advertising cheaper. It asked what the technology could reveal about the brand.
Imagine applying a similar approach to your own business. Rather than generating another polished portrait, could you use AI to illustrate a misconception about your industry, show the difference between how clients imagine a problem and what actually causes it, or make an invisible process easier to understand? Those visuals could offer something more valuable than another attractive picture of you, a reason for your audience to stop, think, and remember your message.
The greatest opportunity AI offers isn't necessarily cheaper content. It's the possibility of communicating ideas in ways you couldn't easily explore before.
What these 7 campaigns mean for your business
Looking at these campaigns together, two lessons stand out. The brands that faced criticism often treated AI as a shortcut to producing visuals, without giving enough consideration to the message, their audience's expectations, or the values those images communicated. While not every controversial campaign was ineffective, the reactions showed how easily a visual decision can raise questions about a brand's authenticity and standards.
The successful campaigns approached AI differently. They started with a strong creative idea and used technology to bring it to life, making marketing more personal or communicating something that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. AI added value to an existing strategy rather than becoming the strategy itself.
For entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants, this distinction is particularly important. Unlike large corporations, your personal reputation is often inseparable from your business. The visuals you publish influence how potential clients perceive your expertise and trustworthiness, long before they decide to work with you.
So, should you avoid AI-generated visuals altogether? Absolutely not. But you should be intentional about how you use them. In my next article, I'll share practical ways to incorporate AI into your brand photography and visual marketing without compromising authenticity or losing your clients' trust.
In the meantime, if you're interested in learning how to create visuals that strengthen your brand, attract the right clients, and turn attention into conversions, subscribe to my Substack, where I explore the psychology behind effective visual branding and share practical strategies for entrepreneurs.
Read more from Aleksandra Di Gesaro
Aleksandra Di Gesaro, Fashion Photographer & Visual Strategist
Aleksandra Di Gesaro is a fashion photographer and visual communication strategist based in Italy, with over 15 years of experience in the fashion industry. She has collaborated with brands including MAC Cosmetics, shot Milan Fashion Week, and directed short films recognized at the Aphelion Film Festival. She specializes in helping founder-led fashion and beauty brands move beyond polished, forgettable imagery toward visual communication that speaks directly to their ideal customer and converts.
References:
AFP via CTV News (10 December 2025). "Not lovin' it: McDonald's pulls Dutch AI Christmas ad."
BBC News (10 December 2025). "McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash."
BBC News (2025). Report on the Guess AI model advert in Vogue.
B&T (2024). "Coke Christmas and the AI challenge" (System1).
Futurism (December 2025). "McDonald's Pulls Down AI-Generated Holiday Ad After Deluge of Mockery."
System1 (2024). "AI or No AI, Coke Gets the Christmas Love."
The Grocer (2025). "Coca-Cola runs AI-generated Christmas ad for second year."
Storyboard18. "How Heinz reasserted its reign in the ketchup aisle with 'It Has To Be Heinz'."
