AI Backlash Forces Marketers to Rethink: The New Trust Crisis in Advertising

Ivy Liu

If this year's Super Bowl commercials revealed anything, it's that companies are still trying to sell Americans on AI. But as public sentiment shifts from hype to skepticism, brands are now forced to recalibrate how they position themselves in this new era.

The Growing Trust Deficit

There's a mounting distrust in AI-generated content, and the numbers don't lie. While 82% of advertising executives believe Gen Z and millennials feel positively about AI-generated ads, only 45% of those consumers actually share that sentiment, according to recent research from the IAB and Sonata Insights. This trust gap has only widened since 2024, revealing a significant disconnect between marketers' perceptions and consumer reality.

Brands are beginning to recognize that technology now carries emotional weight, signaling messages about ethics, morals, and trust. Even companies not directly offering AI services are becoming increasingly careful about their campaign language, brand voice, and positioning around AI usage.

Take He Gets Us, the Christian nonprofit that has become a Super Bowl regular. This year's spot was intentionally shot on film and featured real people, according to Simon Armour, chief creative officer at Come Near, the creative team behind the campaign.

"Even the use of film, and therefore not using AI, we want it to feel as human as possible," Armour explained. "We want the connection to feel real. Particularly in a very digital world, we want that warmth."

For Come Near and other forward-thinking brands, the approach must be nuanced. While advertisers recognize AI as a tool promising faster and cheaper creative production, eliminating it entirely—or taking a strong stance against it—isn't always practical or desirable.

Re-centering Human Agency

Interestingly, AI-produced spots aren't guaranteed to fail. Only 21% of people say they'd like an ad campaign less if they discovered it was AI-generated, according to VML Intelligence. Some AI-generated ads are now performing at the same level as human-made creative, with a recent study from Taboola in collaboration with researchers at Columbia University, Harvard University, Technical University of Munich, and Carnegie Mellon University showing AI ads had an average click-through rate of .76% compared to .65% for human ads.

Transparency appears to be key. About 73% of Gen Z and millennials say clear disclosure about AI usage would either "increase or have no impact on their likelihood to purchase the product or service," according to the IAB's reporting.

Brands are taking varied approaches:

• Aerie and Dove have publicly vowed not to use AI in their advertisements
• He Gets Us opted for film and real people in their Super Bowl spot
• Porsche created a hand-drawn holiday campaign produced by animation team Parallel Studio
• Panda Express rolled out a human-made animated short celebrating Lunar New Year with Passion Pictures

Finding a Nuanced Approach

Advertisers are using generative AI for everything from customer insights to content creation. Even if AI wasn't used to produce the final advertisement, it was likely employed somewhere in the process. This raises important questions about authenticity when brands posture themselves as anti-AI.

"That's a very dangerous thing for a brand to do because if you scratch below the surface, AI is being used everywhere," said Justin Booth-Clibborn, co-managing director and executive producer at Passion, whose agency uses generative AI tools for client work.

The AI hype train hasn't come to a complete stop, but as the technology struggles to gain consumer trust, brands are pulling back on overt AI messaging.

There's even been a shift from an RFP perspective, according to Atlantic NY, an independent creative agency. RFPs that once required agencies to use AI for work now appear more thoughtful about implementation—especially in light of public backlash, as seen with Coca-Cola's holiday ads or McDonald's now-removed AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands.

Backlash to AI Slop and Jobs

AI has sparked widespread concerns around job security, data privacy, environmental impacts, surveillance culture, and so-called AI slop—low-quality, mass-produced content. Seeing AI in advertisements surfaces these concerns for consumers, according to Marco Pupo, co-founder and chief creative officer at Atlantic.

"You're trying to cut costs, you're trying to cut your head count, and you're trying to be more profitable at any cost. That's what makes people [say], 'Hey, I don't want this'," Pupo explained.

Increasingly, brands are distancing themselves from AI in their campaigns. Gartner analysts predict that by next year, "20% of brands will lean into positioning and differentiation based on the absence of AI in their business and products."

This trend is reminiscent of the #nofilter era of social media, where there was a cultural shift toward realistic, unedited photos as opposed to overly curated and polished aesthetics.

"A few years from now, it's going to be the same as a brand saying we don't use Photoshop in our ads," said Pupo. "Use it, but use it in a good sense."