Aerie and Pamela Anderson’s Anti-AI Pledge | Fast Five Shorts

Aerie, the American Eagle, you know, lingerie brand has launched an anti AI campaign starring Pamela Anderson under a pledge the brand is calling 100% Arri Real, which is a commitment to never use AI generated bodies or people in its marketing.

According to Marketing Dive, Arri first formalized its 100% Arri Real pledge in October 2025, committing to never use AI generated bodies or people in its marketing.

The latest campaign centers on a film starring Pamela Anderson in which she is shown prompting an AI to generate female models and growing increasingly dissatisfied with the artificial results until real women appear on a live Aerie set.

Chris, this is also the A and M put you on the spot question of the week, so get ready.

I get it.

You don't get it this week.

I get it.

No.

Thanks, producer Ella A and M, happy.

To pass it over there.

While the public debate around AI generated content today focuses on keeping it real, can the same brands making stances today hold firm over time against the temptations of lower production costs by using AI?

What do you got, Chris?

Oh.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

Wow.

Can of worms on this one.

Wait, wait, wait till the social media comments start to fly on this one.

Oh, man.

Laura, my thoughts on this have swung back and forth so, so many times, and I think we talked about this on the show, like, you know, six, seven months ago, too.

But, you know, I think.

I think you.

I think, like, I would give, you know, Arie, who has a better chance of others, and I'll talk about that more in a second of why.

But, like, I give them even a 5 and 10 shot, like a 50, 50 shot of being able to hold this over the long term.

You know, I like it for them right now because they've got a.

They're.

They're doing it from a high perch.

I mean, their comp was 24 in the quarter, which is just absolutely insane.

They get first.

First mover on this type of positioning.

And using Pamela Anderson is also very smart, given, you know, how she's kind of had a resurgence too.

But is it applicable to everyone?

I don't think so.

And the other part, which I'm curious to get your take on too, is like, where does this actually begin and end?

You know?

You know, you could say you're not using models, but, you know, like, but.

And.

And you're supposed to get some big prize out of that.

But, like, are you using it in your video editing?

Are you using it in copywriting?

Are you using your background imagery for your website?

So there's just so many shades of gray here, where I actually start to question the real authenticity of it too.

If everyone starts to follow suit.

You know, I think there is something about models being different than copywriting and video editing tools and productivity tools versus the actual models themselves.

But are you still going to be able to hold on to this mantra when you're not on as high of a perch and everyone's congealing that way and the AI generated content gets better and better and hooks us better and better?

I don't know.

I don't know.

But what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I think.

I mean, it's, it's wild.

You said aries comp is 24.

I mean, the rest of American Eagle, they, they still make.

They make up like 40 of American Eagle.

Right.

Rest of American eagle is like 2% comp.

It's like.

That's right.

That is rough.

I mean, they're, they're holding this ship afloat pretty much.

So they obviously have a lot of power.

You know, I think there's again, sort of two parts to it.

AI overall, I agree.

Well, I guess I'll start with talking about Aerie.

I think this is much stronger as just branding rather than a moat.

And maybe you mean the moat is branding.

But you know, Arie already has this positive body image thing.

To your point, Pamela Anderson has been doing this whole no makeup thing, so it's like very on brand for her.

It is interesting if you think about the, the consumer base of Aerie versus people who know who Pamela Anderson is.

But that's for like a celebrity analysis podcast, I guess.

But still, the, the brands lineup, you know, you can make it the argument that maybe brand trust becomes even more important when consumers might think everything is fake.

And that gets to the other, the other side of things, which is, I just agree with the idea that AI is just such a slippery slope.

And I think the real, the real issue is that we just don't know how big its impact is going to be.

And this is true across like every part of life.

You know, I know you talked about it a few weeks ago in the context of, you know, Jack Dorsey, you know, laying off so many people because they're going to use AI and it's sort of like, well, where does AI come in there in the workflow?

Where are you eliminating people?

So we don't know there.

We don't know how much content it's going to impact.

Like you said, is it just the backgrounds?

Is it the people?

You know, I, I hope it doesn't permeate everything in our lives and, and things reach an equilibrium.

But you know, needless to say, I do think a lot of consumers are already really skeptical of everything they see.

So it might be AI.

And so then you're saying anti retouching and AI generated bodies.

And you know, Adobe Photoshop has AI features.

Like they, Everybody uses Photoshop, everything's retouched.

Right.

You know, I think you, I'm like wondering what's the word that we're going to use in place of greenwashing?

You know, is like, is it going to be like AI washing or, you know, once other brands copy this because inevitably to your point, they're the first mover.

But like other brands are going to copy this.

That was going to be my question.

So do you.

Yeah.

This is the first domino to fall.

You think other specialty apparel brands will come out and say similar types of things?

That's my first question for you that I have.

Yeah, I mean, that's a good point.

I, I guess you wonder what other brands really have a lot of ground to stand on.

I could see like Patagonia saying something about their use of AI, but not in the, they don't care about their models being retouched or something, but like they're going to make some kind of AI statement, you know, so then it just becomes all these different things.

And then like, to your point, it's like you're going to tell me that really, like, nobody at XYZ brand will just, I'm, you know, Patagonia obviously is a great brand.

Nobody's using Chat gbt, you know, to help with their work.

And it's like, that would be strange, honestly.

So I have to imagine others are going to do it, but I don't know that actually anybody else is in quite the position for their models.

I mean, Victoria's Secret's trying to get back with it.

Right.

And they, maybe they'll do it.

Yeah, they probably would do it.

Yeah, I think, Yeah, I think I, I think you'll, I, my hunch is you'll actually see a lot of people go this direction on the model side.

Yeah, but my, but my other question for you is because this is, this is like current, like current retailers and we talk about the future too, in terms of upstart retailers and how they'll approach things.

I think upstart retailers are probably less inclined to, you know, lever into models because they're expensive.

So my other question for you is, as all these know, digitally native brands start up and try to get, you know, Cachet in the marketplace.

I personally, I'm curious if you have the same experience when I'm scrolling, when I'm doom scrolling on, you know, Instagram and Facebook at night, the AI catches me in a different way than the other stuff.

Is that true for you too?

It is.

I think the quality is still not there where if you look at it for one more beat, you're like, ooh, this is weird.

Like, I can tell this is weird.

I'm probably going, is this AI or not?

You know, like that.

Exactly.

I think we're already at like, is this AI?

And you know, there was a time like five years ago where we were talking all about like, the virtual avatar is going to take over.

Oh, it's cheaper for, you know, you don't have to model on people and all this kind of stuff.

I think there's still a lot of room for that.

If you're a fashion designer, of course, you don't have to produce every single garment and stuff like that.

But like I said, the quality right now, I feel pretty quickly, you can see that said, I mean, I think everyone's gotten got by something, you know, in the news or whatever, so it's on its way.

But yeah, you wonder if the newer brands are gonna dip their toe in it and they could really get burned, though.

I almost wonder if the risk is actually higher for a newer brand because if you are instantly known as the brand that used all AI models.

Is that good?

Yeah.

Or you just hold to it, you know, you just.

Yeah, right.

Like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna do the anti branding.

Right.

It's kind of like true, like, you know, that whole thing too.

So we'll probably real people.

Yeah.

Hey, we just are who we are, you know, we make good stuff, good clothes that you want to buy.

I don't know.

We'll see.

It's a dark time.

I don't know.

It's a dark time.

Yes, yes.

12 Sides of the apocalypse is upon.