Also, fictional spokes"people" like Mr. Peanut or whatever already exist. I don't think I understand why making them more photorealistic would make a difference.
Japan at least is also fairly receptive to artificial spokespeople, like mascots and avatars. Maybe there’s simply higher demand for this, and turning to AI is a good strategy. (I’m personally bothered by it.)
It's this weird toxic aspect of idol culture that sees the "idol" this way whether they are a man or a woman, and whether they are an actual idol, musician, actor, voice actor, etc. If they are young and are a public face (other than politician but even then...) then odds are they are affected by this culture.
Even if they are OK with their celebrity getting an SO, they might take issue with who the SO is.
Either way, it’s a loss.
In this case, a fictional photorealistic woman is a good alternative: she can maintain a "perfect" physical appearance, never change and never have a life.
* Or idol, or weather woman (look for Hiyama Saya).
There have been a few over the last few decades…
https://www.linkdex.com/en-gb/inked/worst-celebrity-spokespe...
And then the Bud Light thing more recently.
It’s different in countries like Japan. A spokesperson must generally be squeaky clean.
The biggest fall of a celebrity in Japan is probably Noriko Sakai. Got caught doing drugs with her then husband.
All ads featuring her instantly disappeared. Almost all media works with her were pulled from the shelf or had parts her removed and redone with another actress.
Other than the appearance that it took like 30 years off her hair and skin, that is.
Just because you see Joe Celebrity using a product in a commercial, all that really means is that they paid her enough money to say that she uses the product. There have certainly been celebrities outed for not using their endorsed product - for example, when Samsung paid a number of celebrities to endorse their phone, then the celebrities were caught tweeting or going out with an iPhone.
If my default is to not pay attention to an ad, but then someone I like looking at appears in the ad, now I'm paying attention
Or music videos where a certain cellphone appears - do I think that singer really uses the samsung fold? no, but because I was watching her video I got an eyefull of the new folding phone. simple eyeball gathering tactics, "impressions"
tbh tho I did test drive the car I own because it was mentioned in one of my jams
He certainly did, and that's the precise reason why they hired him instead of say some coffee expert that would cost them 1/100. They don't even need celebrities; just look at how many hot girls you see at motor shows posing by the various cars: they're 100% unknown but the induced association "You buy this car -> You'll get laid with her" will help sales for sure.
More than scandals, though, stuff like this will save money for smaller brands.
It actually hugely increased sales among reddit and discord moderators.