AI-generated concert posters are becoming increasingly similar, marketer says

Posters created with artificial intelligence (AI) are appearing more and more often in advertising for events, both on social media and on the streets. But not all artists whose faces appear on such posters are happy about it, and some are now asking organizers not to use this tool.

Singer Mikk Saar was among the first to include such a condition in his rider. He says that over the past year, many event organizers have replaced designers with a simple AI prompt, resulting in distorted faces, unnatural text and errors. He states that if a poster is entirely AI-made and looks distorted, he will not post it on his own social media, meaning the organizer would lose out as well.

The advertising agency Kala Ruudus says a similar shift toward more moderate AI use is visible beyond just artists reluctant to see their images on concert posters. The agency's creative director says they even created a separate sub-brand offering only manually made advertising, having noticed demand for it on the market. He compares this to how younger generations now prefer plain wristwatches over smartphones, Apple Watches and other modern devices — calling it a kind of resistance to broader societal trends.

Beyond distortions and errors, AI-generated posters increasingly share a uniform look. The more brands turn to the same tool, the more their ads start to resemble one another. Globally, about 78% of brands already use artificial intelligence to create advertising posters.

The head of the Estonian marketers' association explains that telling an AI what you need typically produces an ad that looks like all the other ads made the same way. She notes that advertising agencies still play an important role, since they employ people who know what source material to feed the AI — meaning artificial intelligence is unlikely to fully replace such specialists.