As AI flyers proliferate, more Utah businesses promise human-only advertising
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Some Utah businesses and organizations are getting so much backlash to AI-generated ads that they've banned them from their platforms and pledged never to promote themselves with slop.
The big picture: You've probably seen hundreds of them on social media for concerts, sales, grand openings and other events — promoted in visually busy rectangles packed with sentence fragments and a hodgepodge of colors.
- Audiences say they can spot the slop immediately, usually thanks to the flyers' careless or repetitive designs — and that it's a turnoff.
What they're saying: "Once I began noticing them, I saw them everywhere," 404 Media cofounder Jason Koebler wrote last month. "The scourge of low effort, stylistically indistinguishable AI-generated signs and flyers have flooded both social media and, increasingly, posters, billboards, and signs in real life."
State of play: In Utah, pleas for non-AI flyers are popping up in groups as disparate as addiction recovery, community theater and motorcycle clubs.
Case in point: Aces High Saloon this summer announced it would no longer share AI flyers for events and shows there.
- "Please hit up a local artist, or cut out magazines or we can help too," the venue posted on Instagram, adding: "DIY or die baby."
Zoom in: Utah political candidates of both parties have made similar vows.
- In the primary that unseated Senate President Stuart Adams after his involvement with a controversial data center, his Republican challenger Stephanie Hollist leaned hard on anti-AI sentiments.
- "There is so much AI garbage in this campaign right now. But not from me," she posted shortly before the election. "I will never use AI slop in my ads or flyers."
The other side: Some artists and small businesses say not everyone can afford to hire a graphic designer to make non-AI marketing materials look professional.
Yes, but: Others argue even an amateur design is better than AI.
- One Salt Lake artist pointed to a flyer they made for a punk sewing group, saying, "It's hideous and handmade, and still better than AI."
Between the lines: AI marketing provokes a special ire when artists and creatives do it, because AI trains on human-made creations that tech companies are accused of using without permission.
Flashback: Ballet West was called out last Christmas over a "limited edition" poster that appeared to use AI-generated images.
Reality check: Sometimes the AI accusations prove false.
The bottom line: As AI-generated content becomes harder to identify, just being able to say you didn't use it may be the important part.