Big Brands Are Using AI to Make Fun of AI

Audiences have a name for sloppy AI content: “AI slop”. Rather than ignore it, several big brands made it their subject. With AI.

Three campaigns, one idea

Marketing Brew documented the trend in January 2026. Almond Breeze, with the Jonas Brothers, shows a string of AI-generated ad pitches, each more absurd than the last: the brothers in space, the brothers as milkmen riding almonds. Equinox, with its “Question Everything But Yourself” campaign, sets disturbing AI imagery against real physical results. Dollar Shave Club shows executives choosing to replace their staff with AI rather than cut costs elsewhere.

The common thread: the AI is visible, owned, and used to laugh at bad uses of AI.

What the brands say

Dollar Shave Club CEO Larry Bodner says part of the reason they pushed the absurdity so far was to make it clear it is all AI. Equinox CMO Bindu Shah stresses that the campaign is not anti-AI. And McKinney CCO Omid Amidi sums up the logic: “When it’s done intentionally and not as a tool of efficiency, then it becomes valuable.”

The audience went along

According to figures reported by Marketing Brew, Almond Breeze’s campaign drew “overwhelmingly positive” sentiment: 43% positive against 3.5% negative. Reactions to the Equinox and Dollar Shave Club campaigns were mostly neutral, and Dollar Shave Club says site traffic beat its expectations.

Almond Breeze: owned AI was well received

Reactions to the campaign

Almond Breeze: owned AI was well received

Item	Value
Positive	43%
Negative	3.5%

Compare that with the McDonald’s Netherlands holiday ad, pulled in December 2025 after a wave of negative reactions. We analysed it here. Same technology, opposite reception.

What the trend reveals

Audiences do not reject AI as such. They reject AI that pretends and fails. An AI ad that owns what it is and makes people laugh defuses suspicion. An AI ad that tries to pass as a real shoot and shows its flaws confirms it.

A January 2026 IAB report shows the size of the problem: 82% of advertising executives believe consumers feel positive about AI ads, against 45% of consumers in reality. Details here.

What it means for a smaller business

You do not need to mock AI. But you do need to pick a side clearly, because the middle is where the risk sits.

Option 1: quality nobody notices. The video is polished enough that nobody wonders how it was made. The default for a brand that sells seriousness: construction, industrial, professional services.

Option 2: an owned AI style. Surreal, stylised, funny, clearly impossible to film. Viewers see the AI and understand it is intentional. It works well for entertainment, restaurants, consumer products.

Avoid: the middle ground. A video that tries to look real and does not quite manage it. That is the one that costs trust.

In both good cases, disclosure is an asset rather than a confession. In Europe it has become an obligation anyway.