Cases of using celebrities for advertising and advertising videos without permission using deep fakes appear one after another

The image synthesis technology 'Deepfake' is capable of extremely high-precision synthesis, and in the drama 'Mandalorian' distributed by Disney +, actor Mark Hamill appears when he was young, but YouTuber deepfakes the main story. There are even cases where Lucasfilm hires them because they made higher quality images . On the other hand, there are also uses such as synthesizing the face of an actor into a pornographic image, and recently there have been confirmed cases of using celebrities in promotional and advertising images without permission.

'Deepfakes' of Celebrities Have Begun Appearing in Ads, With or Without Their Permission - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/deepfakes-of-celebrities-have-begun-appearing-in-ads-with-or-without-their-permission-11666692003

One example that has been pointed out is the appearance of actor Bruce Willis in a commercial for the Russian telephone company МегаФон (MegaFon). Below is a commercial like one scene of an action movie that Mr. Willis was tied up on a ship with his partner Mr. Azamat Musagalyev. Mr. Willis in this commercial is made with deep fake.

МегаФон Брюс Уиллис - YouTube


Mr. Willis announced his retirement from acting in March 2022 due to ' aphasia '. It was reported that he sold the rights to use himself in movies and advertisements with deepfake technology, but after that he claims that he has not signed such a right sale or a contract to appear in MegaFone's commercials.

In addition, the following video is from real estate startup reAlpha Tech Corp, and Elon Musk, who is known as the manager of EV maker Tesla and SpeceX, appears. Compared to MegaFon's CM, the degree of perfection is quite low, and it can be seen at a glance that it is synthetic.

Elon Musk Held Hostage In Warehouse (Will He Comply?)-YouTube


A tech company called Paperspace has released videos of Tom Cruise, Ron Swanson, and Leonardo DiCaprio changing faces.

Deepfake with Paperspace-YouTube


Virginia bans deepfake revenge porn production, Texas bans the use of deepfakes in political campaigns, and California bans both, according to The Wall Street Journal. Although there are laws regulating the use of fakes, there are no laws regulating their use in advertising.

On the other hand, publicity rights have become a point of contention regarding the use of celebrities for advertising and publicity, and there is a case where director Woody Allen settled with American Apparel for $ 5 million (about 740 million yen).

However, MegaFon's is completely 'CM', but reAlpha and Paperspace explain that it is 'for demonstration of technology', and celebrities rarely appeal for this kind of use. At the same time, he believes that celebrities rarely sue, so startups are more likely to risk using celebrities.

In addition, it is not that ``deep fake is bad'', Deepcake, who produced Mr. Willis' commercial, created 10 types of images in half a year, and explained that ``If you use a real actor, you can't do this.'' . The fashion industry is also showing a willingness to actively incorporate deep fakes.

How deepfakes could change fashion advertising | Vogue Business
https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/how-deepfakes-could-change-fashion-advertising-influencer-marketing