Aerie and Pamela Anderson’s Anti-AI Pledge | Fast Five Shorts

ARI, the American Eagle Laundry brand, has launched an anti-AI campaign starring Pamela Anderson. Under a pledge, the brand is calling 100% ARIREAL, which is a commitment to never use AI-generated bodies or people in its marketing. According to Marketing Dive, ARI first formalized its 100% ARIREAL pledge in October 2025, committing to never use AI-generated bodies or people in its marketing. The latest campaign centers on a film starring Pamela Anderson in which she has shown prompting an AI to generate female models and growing increasingly dissatisfied with the artificial results until real women appear on a live ARI set. Chris, this is also the A&M Put You On The Spot question of the week. So get ready. I get it. You don't get it this week. I get it. No, I don't. Thanks, producer Ella. Thanks, producer Ella. I'm happy to pass it over there. Why all the public debate around AI-generated content? Today focuses on keeping it real. Can the same brands making stances today hold firm over time against the temptations of lower production costs by using AI? What do you got, Chris? Oh, man. Yeah. Why can't it work? Can't it work without this one? Wait, wait, wait. This is a media comment. Start to fly on this one. Oh, man, Laura. My thoughts on this have swung back and forth so many times. And I think we talked about this on the show like six, seven months ago, too. I think I would give Aerie, who has a better chance of others, and I'll talk about them more in a second of why. But I give them even a five and 10 shot, like a 50-50 shot of being able to hold this over the long term. I like it for them right now because they've got a, they're doing it from a high perch. I mean, their cop was 24% in the quarter, which is just absolutely insane. They get first mover on this type of positioning. And using Pamela Anderson is also very smart, given how she's kind of had a resurgence, too. But is it applicable to everyone? I don't think so. And the other part, which I'm curious to get your take on, too, is where does this actually begin and end? You could say you're not using models, but you're supposed to get some big prize out of that, but are you using it in your video editing? Are you using it in your copywriting? Are you using it in your background imagery for your website? So there's just so many shades of gray here where I actually start to question the real authenticity of it, too, if everyone starts to follow suit. I think there is something about models being different than copywriting and video editing tools and productivity tools versus the actual models themselves. But are you still gonna be able to hold onto this mantra when you're not on as high of a perch? And everyone's congealing that way and the AI generated content gets better and better and hooks us better and better? I don't know. I don't know, but what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think it's wild. You said Aries comp is 24%. I mean, the rest of American Eagle, they still make up like 40% of American Eagle, right? The rest of American Eagle is like 2% comp. It's like that is rough. I mean, they're holding this ship afloat pretty much. So they obviously have a lot of power. I think there's again, sort of two parts to it. AI overall, I agree. Well, I guess I'll start with talking about Aries. I think this is much stronger as just branding rather than a moat. And maybe you mean the moat is branding, but Aries already has this positive body image thing. To your point, Pamela Anderson has been doing this whole no makeup thing. So it's like very on brand for her. It is interesting if you think about the consumer base of Aries versus people who know who Pamela Anderson is, but that's for like a celebrity analysis podcast, I guess. But still, the brand's lineup, you can make it the argument that maybe brand trust becomes even more important when consumers might think everything is fake. And that gets to the other side of things, which is I just agree with the idea that AI is just such a slippery slope. And I think the real issue is that we just don't know how big its impact is going to be. And this is true across like every part of life. I know you talked about it a few weeks ago in the context of Jack Dorsey laying off so many people because they're gonna use AI and it's sort of like, well, where does AI come in there in the workflow? Where are you eliminating people? So we don't know there. We don't know how much content it's going to impact. Like you said, isn't just the backgrounds, is it the people? I hope it doesn't permeate everything in our lives and things reach an equilibrium. But needless to say, I do think a lot of consumers are already really skeptical of everything they see. So it might be AI. And so then you're saying anti retouching and AI generated bodies. And Adobe Photoshop has AI features. Everybody uses Photoshop, everything's retouched. I think I'm like wondering what's the word that we're gonna use in place of greenwashing? You know, is it gonna be like AI washing? Or once other brands copy this, because inevitably to your point, they're the first mover, but like other brands are gonna copy this. That was gonna be my question. So you think this is the first domino to fall? You think other specialty barrel brands will come out and say similar types of things? That's my first question to be that I have one more question. Yeah, I mean, that's a good point. I guess you wonder what other brands really have a lot of ground to stand on. I could see like Patagonia saying something about their use of AI, but not in the, they don't care about their models being retouched or something, but like they're gonna make some kind of AI statement, you know? So then it just becomes all these different things. And then like to your point, it's like, you're gonna tell me that really like nobody at XYZ brand will just, Patagonia obviously is a great brand. Nobody's using chat, you know, to help with their work. And it's like, that would be strange, honestly. So I have to imagine others are gonna do it, but I don't know that actually anybody else is in quite the position for their models. I mean, Victoria's Secret's trying to get back with it, right? And they maybe they'll do it. Yeah, they probably would do it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think, I think you're right. My hunch is you'll actually see a lot of people go this direction on the model side. But my other question for you is, because this is like current retailers and we talk about the future too, in terms of upstart retailers and how they'll approach things, I think upstart retailers are probably less inclined to lever into models because they're expensive. So my other question for you is, as all these digitally native brands start up and try to get, you know, cashier in the marketplace, I personally, I'm curious if you have the same experience. When I'm scrolling, when I'm do scrolling on, you know, Instagram and Facebook at night, the AI catches me in a different way than the other stuff. Is that true for you too? It is, I think the quality is still not there where if you look at it for one more beat, you're like, ooh, this is weird. Like I can tell this is weird. I'm probably going, is this AI or not? You know, like that's weird. Yes, exactly. So I think we're already at like, is this AI? And, you know, there was a time like five years ago where we were talking all about like the virtual avatar is gonna take over, oh, it's cheaper for, you know, you don't have to model on people and all this kind of stuff. And I think there's still a lot of room for that if you're a fashion designer, of course, you don't have to produce every single garment and stuff like that. But like I said, the quality right now, I feel pretty quickly, you can see that said, I mean, I think everyone's got got by something, you know, in the news or whatever, so it's on its way. But yeah, you wonder if the newer brands are gonna dip their toe in it and they could really get burned though. I almost wonder if the risk is actually higher for a newer brand, because if you are instantly known as the brand that used all AI models, is that good for you? Yeah, or you just hold to it, you know, you just hold to it like, hey, we're gonna do the anti-branding, right? It's kind of like, you know, that whole thing too. So we're probably seeing that too. Yeah, hey, we're just, hey, we just are who we are, you know, we made big stuff, good clothes that you wanna buy. I don't know, we'll see. It's a dark time, I don't know. It's a dark time, yes, yes. 12 sides of the apocalypse is upon us.