Ever since Spencer Pratt joined the race for Mayor of LA we've been seeing so many ads, both from his team and his fans. Generated with AI and without AI.
I do know that if you need perfection and accuracy, AI will also take time, but when fans are slapping together a LEGO-fan video it can do the job in a pinch. The main point here is speed. All the billboards and ads borrow heavily from pop culture, which makes perfect sense when you are running for Mayor of the city that creates pop culture! Or created, rather - the fact that Hollywood has fled Hollywood is part of the problem the Spencer Pratt is promising to fix. The fan ads promote his message in simple catchy songs, get the drug zombies and tent cities off the streets!
After the debate with current Mayor Karen Bass, and Nithya Raman on NBCLA Spencer Pratt made such an impact that the establishment clearly wanted to take him down a notch. TMZ, had a little interview with Spencer Pratt about where he actually lives. This was seemingly an attempted "gotcha", as Spencer has had to relocate due to his house burning down. Spencer has responded with this ad, swiftly put together with a bit of drone footage and creativity. You see, when he decided to run for Mayor he made sure to check that he was still registered as living at the plot of land that he owns and is registered to vote at in the Palisades, his actual home, temporary living arrangements due to fires be damned.
The response here is, as the kids say, absolute cinema! But what it really shows us is what has been lacking from advertising in general for quite some time - unbridled creativity. Green lights. Chutzpah. A gung-ho let's go attitude. A client who is not afraid to pull the trigger, respond in the way that works in the different medias used. Instagram and wildposters have him parodying the LA film "Falling down" with "Falling up", while broadsheet billboards in various neighborhoods reinforce his message of cleaning up LA.
Meanwhile fans are still making videos with catchy songs and AI generated videos that go viral for Pratt, because there is still tons of talent in the creative fields who don't mind flexing their skills for a cause. This was created by Dillon Eckes (aka @dilloneckes / DXFILMS.
Another big fan is the man who runs the Latinos por Pratt accounts on social media. He kicked off the AI generated music videos by creating a very catchy song nicknaming Mayor Bass "Basura", which of course is garbage in Spanish, so here they cheerfully sing that Spencer is taking out the trash and Spencer has quite happily adopted the moniker for Bass. I love that Spencer's wife Heidi Montag makes an appearance in the video, dancing in her pink hotpants.
Another AI video touches on something familiar that few people speak of, the culture of not daring to step out of line. There is an official "right" and wrong in in what you can think and vote for in LA and it was evident during the debate as Nithya Raman repeatedly labeled Pratt a "MAGA Republican", as if it was some sort of cross or garlic necklace to defend herself against a vampire with. There is simply nothing worse than being torched by the MAGA label in LA, well maybe having your house burned down. I'm very familiar with this, having lived in LA for over a decade, people were even extremely concerned when I left to move to Nashville, as if I was about to go to war. Like many California refugees, I've now moved along to a bigger city again - LA does really spoil you with a lot of great food, culture, neighborhoods and beaches all at once, that is impossible to replicate anywhere else.
So while this is all AI "slop", there are insights here that aren't sloppy at all, they're very real. While regular advertising moves toward safer and more boring every day, where each big brand seems to be designed by committee, the things that really make a splash are the things that upset people. Because the creators and ad buyers are so out of touch with the target market, where everything has been conceived in ivory towers by advertising yes men who all have to whisper with hushed tones if they think different, just like these yoga ladies.
It's refreshing to see some wild and wacky that appears to resonate with people who will be filling in the ballots, it's clear that Spencer is generating tons of free press which is worth a lot. Just like Saatchi's famous "Labour isn't working", Spencer appears to have pinpointed exactly what he need to point out, Karen Bass isn't working - so vote different.
Edit to note: back in 2022 Bass wasn't a popular choice either. Someone went around and put her sign up in homeless encampments all over district 11 in quite the punk guerrilla advertising move.
