Skechers just can't quit making crappy AI ads

As AI becomes more accessible, it seems we've been plagued with an increasing number of AI ads. Lacking both quality and style, these sloppy marketing ploys are hard to ignore, but Skechers' latest ad might just be the worst offender I've seen in some time.

The best billboard ads are crafted to make us stop in our tracks, whether that's with guerrilla marketing or ingenious design, but Skechers' ad has caught attention for all the wrong reasons. Obviously AI to a painful degree, the abysmal ad is a troubling reflection of a looming future without AI regulation in advertising.

The ad in question features an image of a blonde girl squatting on a lantern-lined street, supposedly sporting the new Skechers 'Uno' sneakers. With AI's signature faux-sketch style, paired with the girl's generically beautiful 'Instagram face', the design has all the hallmarks of a basic AI image. Sadly, slapping the Skechers logo over it wasn't enough to stop people from noticing.

"The determination not to use a human illustrator is incredible," one user on the r/graphic_design subreddit wrote. "The weird folds and shapes of the crotch area and perspective is wild," another added, while one user scathingly wrote, "They should be ridiculed by every design website and mag for this tacky, unprofessional dross." On it chief, don't worry.

It's not the first time Skechers has used AI in its advertising. Last year, the brand was caught using AI for a double-page spread in Vogue, causing many to question the slip in ad standards. Even as recently as last month, Vogue was accused of publishing more AI ads, proving that the industry is in a concerning state of flux. If AI ads are an inevitability, can we at least have some that aren't quite so obvious?