McDonald’s Mexico is under the spotlight after having jumped recklessly on an AI art trend that made everyone speak. Last week, everyone used AI to make memes of Ghibli -Studio style from well -known images – with the boundaries between good and bad taste in many cases (I look at you, the one that made one of the twin towers). Since the founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, hates the AI generation of art, everything was on trembling field from the start. Add to that the number of people who got involved and the types of images that have been published and you have a perfect storm.
The Mexican branch of McDonald’s created its own memes of Ghibli-Studio style and shared them on social networks, which are not as shocking as the others in content were always a bad decision. Using the Ghibli studio signature style to advertise without authorization is not a good look for a global giant of fast food. All trends should not be jumped – maybe the social media team should have used the best digital art software to make something more renowned.
The message on Facebook from McDonald’s, which shows a family and individuals enjoying McDonald’s food (see above) brought together hundreds of derogatory comments calling the chain to steal the intellectual property of the Ghibli studio and to use AI to create art. “What happened McDonald’s? Isn’t that enough to pay a real artist?” requests a user. “Incredible, is one thing a person who uses it but a company of several billion dollars?” reflects another.
“I hope you will be continued,” said a comment, leading to a debate below to find out if you can continue someone to base AI work on your artistic style. It may be one of the most important debates for the moment, because many works by artists are imitated via AI art generators – and if you are protected depends on the country in which you are. In the EU / United Kingdom, copyright protects art but not style. If an artist can prove that an AI model has been formed on his works of art, copyright could go into play.
However, this Facebook publication is bad for a huge business. Surprisingly, after being published a few days ago, the message is still live on Facebook. This is even after huge quantities of advertising surrounding the trend of the Ghibli studio and the extremely negative response.
Japan and McDonald’s Ghibli studio collaborated in the past, with the Kiki’s delivery theme of the delivery service last year, so see McDonald’s in this style is not unprecedented. However, without any permission and the use of AI, it is difficult to see how a positive relationship could be forged between the Mexican branch of McDonald’s and Studio Ghibli.
Elsewhere in the news, Duolingo has published a very different social media campaign which went very well.