The recent ‘action figure’ trend that’s been circulating Instagram and TikTok has acted as a sense check around where the general public and brands are at with AI in marketing.
They’re surreal and satirical, sometimes glamorised to the point of absurdity, and they’ve somehow become the digital trend du jour.
If you’ve been spared this trend (jealous) you might not know that businesses, brands and normies alike are uploading their best selfies into image generators and requesting dollified, hyperreal avatars of themselves.
The crowd goes mild.
Well, not really. Most people love it. I, however, do not. I tried to do it and it kept looking weird so I got impatient and gave up.
After spending far too much time fighting with ChatGPT, this experience made me question why people and brands were so quick to jump on the AI bandwagon when all I hear from the industry, my peers and general public is their distaste for AI, and the importance of authentic art.
So why are we so into this? Why are we feeding this thing we supposedly fear?
Because while everyone’s playing dress-up with their AI dolls, there’s been another AI aesthetic surfacing, one not met with the same playful applause.
When The Business of Fashion spotlighted the work of French independent creative director Sybille de Saint Louvent, people had thoughts. Sybille, known for creating hyper-realistic AI-generated campaigns for luxury brands like Prada, Gucci, Miu Miu, and Hermès, faced backlash. The comments on the post were filled with hate and had fashion fanatics fuming. Amongst the hate for Sybille’s work, there was a general fear from commenters that this form of ‘fake imagery’ marketing would become the norm for fashion brands sooner rather than later.
But what’s interesting (maybe even ironic) is that while Sybille’s work triggers outrage, the dolls evoke delight. Why? Perhaps it’s about visibility. The AI dolls are obviously fake. Exaggerated. Playful. Their artificiality is part of the appeal. In contrast, Sybille’s campaigns are too good. They blur the line too convincingly and they threaten our ability to tell the difference.
That tension between delight and discomfort is where AI now sits in fashion marketing. It’s a fine line some brands are playfully toeing, others are jumping headfirst.
H&M recently announced it would begin producing campaigns using AI-generated digital twins of real models. Mango and Levi’s have done similar tests. The appeal is clear: scalability, localisation, cost-efficiency. AI offers brands the chance to reimagine campaigns quickly, across markets and timelines.
But with that, ethics are put into question. What happens to the real photographers? The makeup artists? The stylists and the models? Even H&M has acknowledged the impact on human talent.
Digital artists, too, are watching this doll trend unfold with a wary eye. Many argue that major brands have the resources to commission real creatives but are opting for AI instead. It’s not just about cost, it’s about creative control and speed. But at what cost to art?
And yet, the reality is, AI isn’t going away. With OpenAI’s image generation tools now widely accessible, the ability to create high-quality visuals is in the hands of anyone with a point of view and a few hours to kill.
Here’s the plot twist: maybe the value of AI in fashion isn’t in its realism, but in its fiction. Maybe its role isn’t to replicate reality, but to reimagine it.
For decades, fashion has worshipped authenticity. But recently, what captivates culture isn’t realness, it’s world-building. Some of the most compelling fashion campaigns we’ve seen lately haven’t come from global powerhouses, but from digital outsiders like Sybille, using AI to craft alternate realities more vivid and imaginative than anything on a billboard.
Campaigns no longer need to live in the physical world to resonate. In fact, fiction might just be the most truthful form of branding we have left. Because in a cultural moment where “authenticity” has been flattened into an algorithmic buzzword, offering a beautifully constructed fantasy might actually be the most honest thing a brand can do.
So yes, we’re all OK with AI now, or at least pretending to be. The question isn’t whether brands will use AI. The question is whether they will use it well. Not to copy what’s come before, but to push into what’s possible. Not toward replication, but reinvention.
Maybe the real power of AI in fashion isn’t in replicating reality, but in reimagining it completely. And perhaps that’s why we’re all turning ourselves into dolls. Because we’re ready to play with the idea that fiction might just be the new reality.