In the era of deepfakes and digital avatars, brands tend to focus all their efforts on closing the image rights agreement and the technical clearance. But a project’s viability does not end with signing a document.
When a campaign crosses the line of public perception and enters the zone of rejection or suspected manipulation, the reputational damage outweighs any contractual win. Legality protects you in court; ethical judgment and social sensitivity protect your most valuable asset: the brand.
The Maradona case
According to what was reported in the Diego Maradona case, the family granted the rights, but that clearly did not spare the campaign from public rejection.
The advertising and legal risk behind AI
- The moral limit: audiences do not forgive the digital manipulation of an idol’s memory, even if there is a contract.
- Brand impact: a campaign that met every legal requirement can still end up damaging the reputation of a company or a person if it crosses an ethical line for the public.
- The consent dilemma: recreating someone’s voice and body to put words in their mouth they never said always generates controversy.
360° AI compliance
For those of us leading the legal strategy of companies and brands, real AI compliance must be comprehensive: an intellectual property audit, a regulatory risk analysis and a reputational impact assessment.
At Synowiec & Asociados we assess the legal, reputational and contractual risks before a brand launches a campaign using artificial intelligence.
Advice on this topic
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