But Lovell cautioned brands against manufacturing connections to events that did not involve them.
“If your brand wasn’t part of the moment, don’t try to rewrite history with A.I.,” she said. “Consumers are increasingly savvy now. We can spot when a brand is manufacturing relevance instead of earning it.”
Marielle Conlon, 39, the founder of Ocean Road Antiques in Pennsylvania, found her own way to join the wedding excitement. On Friday, she posted an A.I.-generated reel showing her colorful, bamboo-lacquered furnishings being transported into Madison Square Garden by truck, as if she were one of the vendors working with Swift and Kelce’s production team.
“Because I, like other small businesses, don’t have a large advertising budget, I try to be creative with my marketing,” Conlon wrote in a text message. The tongue-in-cheek post, which garnered more than 10,000 views and 1,500 shares, sparked a mix of reactions: Some viewers believed it, and others appreciated the joke, though some questioned its authenticity.
“The goal wasn’t to deceive anyone,” Conlon said, adding that the post had been “poking fun at the internet’s obsession with celebrity weddings and the increasingly surreal nature of A.I.-generated content.”
Legal experts say that kind of obvious exaggeration is closer to a harmless marketing tactic than false advertising.
“If the image or statement merely conveys excitement or aspiration, it is more likely puffery, which is an exaggerated or boastful statement of opinion that no reasonable person would rely upon as a factual representation,” Andrew B. Jacobs, a partner and lawyer at Winston Taylor LLP, a global law firm based in New York City, wrote in a text message.
And despite the attention, Conlon said the reel’s virality hadn’t translated into sales.
“This wasn’t some wildly profitable marketing stunt,” she said.
