9 AI-generated ads just won awards. Can you tell what's real?

The advertising industry presents several major awards, such as the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the CLIO Awards. Now, a new awards show honors the best AI-generated ads.

The Generated Awards took place on May 27 in New York City, where the Generated Group presented 9 awards to AI video creators and brands. Many of the nominated ads were "spec ads," unofficial creations by AI hobbyists and creators. However, ads from Google and the Gorilla Glue Company were also considered.

For instance, "Pac-Man Reimagined," winner of the "Best Visual Effects" award, is not actually an advertisement from Bandai Namco Entertainment, which owns Pac-Man.

Still, the event shows just how quickly the advertising agency is adapting to new AI technology. Last year at Google I/O, the company dropped the AI video model Veo 3 like a bomb, and ever since, we've had to question every viral video we've seen. Since then, we've seen rapid advancements in text-to-video models. AI video creators often use multiple video models, including Seeddance 2.0, Kling 3.0, and Luma Ray2, as well as tools to improve the resolution to 4K.

Google has explicitly pitched Veo as a tool for quickly creating advertisements at scale, and multiple ad agencies now specialize in creating low-cost AI ads. Coca-Cola's most recent holiday campaign was centered on a controversial AI video, and Jeep has several AI-generated commercials on the air now.

As I've said before, whether you like it or not, I think artificial intelligence in advertising is a train that can't be stopped.

Over email, I asked Tanya Porquez, the Generated Group CEO, if AI-generated ads should have mandatory disclosure requirements. She said, "I don’t think there should be a required disclosure unless there is a legal requirement."

"We’re going to have a crawl-walk-run situation where 'made with AI' disclosures are present to build public trust. There is a transparency issue where people want to know that they’re not being manipulated by AI tools. For example, in New York they’ve passed legislation to require disclosure of AI-created people, something we welcome. I can understand why they’re asking for it now at this early state."

The Generated Ads: See the winning ads

To see what advertising could look like in the near future, I've gathered all the award winners into this piece. You can watch them for yourself to see if you can tell the difference between what's real and what's not.

Some of the videos are more obvious than others, and feature the tell-tale glossy sheen that's a hallmark of many AI videos. However, as with AI-generated images, the tells are becoming harder and harder to spot.

Though this should be obvious, please note that all of these videos contain AI-generated content.

Best storytelling: "Perfection by Mistake" by Michal Kuzminski

Best Direction: "Meet the New Chief Tough Officer at The Gorilla Glue Company" by The Gorilla Glue Company

Best Audio Experience: "Instant Grind, Nescafe" by Blackbrightstudio

Fictional Ad of the Year: "Puppramin" by PJ Accetturo

Spec Ad of the Year: "Vans" by Çağlasın Yılmaz and Bilgehan Yoldas

Commercial of the Year: "The Watch" by Runway Creative and J. Felipe Orozco