Slop is a choice

Chief Creative Officer Steve Babcock joins us to talk about why cost-cutting became AI's top selling point, and what that trade-off is doing to consumer trust. He also makes the case for what should stay scarce even as AI makes everything cheap. 

—Elena

82% of ad executives think young consumers like AI ads. Only 45% actually do. 

The IAB and Sonata Insights found Gen Z drives most of the skepticism: 39% feel negative about AI-generated ads, nearly double the rate of millennials.  

 

Cheap AI or Smart AI? 

Why did cost efficiency jump from AI's fifth-ranked benefit to its first? 

Budget pressure. Steve says the ad industry is racing to produce cheaper work, and AI is an easy way to cut costs. Agencies under that pressure start treating AI as a shortcut instead of a craft tool. Steve calls that mindset "a huge mistake and shortsightedness." 

Is AI creative really all "slop"? 

Steve blames laziness for most AI slop. AI video often sits in the uncanny valley, the same discomfort people felt watching early CGI humans. Getting out of that valley takes work refining prompts, testing platforms, and polishing the result.  

If AI makes production cheaper, why does that barely matter? 

Production is the wrong line item. Angela points out that production is a single-digit percentage of total marketing spend. Media is the major cost. Cut production costs with AI, and you're optimizing the smallest number on the page. Use AI to make the idea better instead, and you improve the return on the entire media budget. 

If execution gets cheap, what actually becomes scarce? 

The idea. Steve calls it "the hook," the same thing that holds up a song or a story. Production choices need to protect the hook. A dazzling AI shot can't save a spot that doesn't have it. 

 

Listen in on our discussion.

 

"The AI Ad Gap Widens" 

IAB and Sonata Insights surveyed over 500 Gen Z and millennial consumers and 100 ad executives to map exactly where AI adoption and consumer sentiment split. It's the clearest picture yet of how far ahead of trust the industry's AI use has moved. 

Read the article.

 

The tool was never the point. 

 “Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.” 

— Steve Jobs

This newsletter comes from the hosts of The Marketing Architects, a research-first show answering your biggest marketing questions. Find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.