Welcome to Week In Review
From new tools transforming creative work, to campaigns reshaped by automation, we track the biggest shifts at the intersection of AI, media, and marketing.
This week, luxury fashion brand Valentino is criticised for an AI ad campaign, ChatGPT presses pause on its in-platform ads, and vodka brand Svedka plans for AI-generated ‘Fembot’ ad for Super Bowl 2026.
Top Stories of the Week
Valentino Criticised Over AI Handbag Ad
Italian fashion house Valentino was criticised this week for posting a series of AI-generated ads to market one of its luxury handbags. The brand said it would be collaborating with digital artists to produce the ads for its DeVain handbag, however fans quickly criticised one of the ads on Instagram, calling it “sloppy”, “sad”, and “weird”.
Why it matters: AI-generated ads have been growing in prominence. Coca-Cola recently doubled down on using AI for the second year in a row for its iconic Christmas ad, despite audience and industry backlash. The response from Instagram users to the AI ads suggest audience appetite for AI-generated adverts still aren’t entirely positive, and brands risk damaging their reputation using AI – often if audiences realise the ad has been created using the tech, or if the visuals are lacklustre.
ChatGPT Pauses on In-Platform Ads
The Information reported that despite some users spotting code suggesting OpenAI is testing ads and shopping features in the beta version of its Android app, the company’s CEO Sam Altman told staff he was declaring a ‘code red’ to improve the platform before rolling out ads. ChatGPT faced backlash towards the ads – some of which Pro subscribers paying $200 a month could see.
Why it matters: So far, ChatGPT has not integrated ads into its interface or as part of its business model, relying primarily on user subscriptions. It might be unclear exactly when ads will come to the platform, but when they inevitably do, advertisers will be tasked with ranking highly in AI interfaces against competitors.
Svedka to Have GenAI Super Bowl Ad
The vodka brand Svedka said it will produce a GenAI ad for its National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl 2026 advertising slot. The US drinks brand will bring back its old ‘Fembot’ mascot in its first commercial for the sports event, after 10 years of the robot mascot being in retirement, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Why it matters: Svedka was acquired by Sazerac, which also owns the likes of Southern Comfort and Bourbon. The company said it plans to work with Silverside, the GenAI production studio that worked on the past two Coca-Cola Christmas ads, to produce the Fembot commercial. The move from Svedka signals that despite AI-generated ads stirring some controversy from the ad industry and consumers, there is still an appetite from advertisers to tap into AI for cost savings and creating surreal animated visuals.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Estée Lauder Launches AI-Powered Digital Experience
Fragrance and beauty companies the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and Jo Malone announced the launch of the Jo Malone Scent Advisor, an AI-powered digital feature which guides customers through purchasing a fragrance. The experience uses AI to sort through customer insights to deliver personalised recommendations. The advisor is built upon Google Gemini and Google Cloud Vertex AI.
Havas Acquires Unnest to Boost AI Capabilities
Havas acquired Unnest, a French data consulting firm which helps businesses deploy data platforms like Google Cloud. The acquisition aligns with the agency’s push toward data-driven marketing and strengthening AI marketing automation tools.
Langham Hospitality Launches AI Agents
Langham Hospitality Group has launched three AI agents to improve guest experience and help staff. The agents include an Experience Agent, a Knowledge Agent, and an Insight Agent. The Experience Agent can respond in over 50 languages and the agents will allow guest to make enquiries through WhatsApp, WeChat, and Instagram.
Publicis Creates AI Film For 100th Anniversary
Publicis Groupe released a film generated by AI to celebrate its upcoming 100-year anniversary. The film, titled “A Lion Never Gives Up,” showcases the company’s history, and was created using its own AI tools.
Omnicom Finalises Merger with IPG
Omnicom finalised a merger deal with IPG, positioning the merged company as the largest existing ad agency. The company will possess advanced AI capabilities “far unmatchable unless you’re one of the big six tech companies,” Omnicom CEO John Wren said in an interview with Business Insider.
HSBC Partners with Mistral for ‘Hyper-Personalised Campaigns’
HSBC has struck a multi-year strategic partnership with French startup Mistral AI to speed up adoption of GenAI across the bank, with marketing as one of the earliest and most visible use cases. A key goal is to help client-facing and marketing staff create and launch hyper-personalised campaigns at scale.
Media
Google Discover Tests False, AI-Generated Headlines
Google has been displaying misleading AI-generated headlines on its Discover feed, the company’s news platform. These headlines, assumed to be tested to get more clicks – “clickbait” – differ from the original headlines publishers had created. Google disclosed when headlines had been “Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.”
Record Label Demands Royalties from AI Duplicate Song
FAMM, the record label representing music artist Jorja Smith, requested royalties from an AI company after one of Smith’s songs was replicated using AI. The label alleged the song, “I Run,” by the group Haven, featured Smith’s vocals by using AI music platform Suno AI. The AI startup has previously faced lawsuits from major music publishers like Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, over accusations that the AI was unlawfully trained on copyrighted content.
OpenAI Loses in Copyright Case
A US judge ruled that OpenAI must disclose ChatGPT system logs, following a copyright lawsuit from The New York Times and other publishers. Publishers requested for these logs to be disclosed to demonstrate that some ChatGPT users had been using the chatbot to bypass paywalls on published content.
AWS and Wētā FX to Launch AI VFX Tools
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and New Zealand visual effects company Wētā FX have announced they will develop AI visual effects tools. The tools, which will be used by visual effects artists, aim to give artists more control over their work rather than relying on prompting or AI chatbots.
UK TV and Film Could Strike Over AI Scanning
The TV and film actors union Equity will hold a vote on if members are prepared to reject being digitally scanned in order to give them AI protections. The groups are also negotiating over protecting performers from digital replicas and synthetic performers generated by AI.
Tech
Google Expands Gemini 3 AI Mode Internationally
Google announced it is adding Gemini 3 to AI Mode, its AI search feature, to around 120 countries. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can access more complex reasoning capabilities in the search tool, leveraged by Gemini 3. AI Mode will also now be integrated with Nano Banana Pro, Google’s image generation model, for subscribers – improving search results with infographic visualisations and other features.
AWS Unveils New AI Agent Builder Tools
Amazon Web Services (AWS) released new automation, memory, and orchestration features for its AI Agent Builder, a platform to create agentic AI applications. The new features allow developers to deploy more reliable and domain-specific agents.
Alibaba Announces AI Glasses Quark
Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced the launch of its new AI glasses Quark in China, signalling the company’s first venture into wearable AI tech. Alibaba said the glasses will be powered by the company’s own LLM Qwen and will be deeply integrated with shopping apps like Alipay and Taobao, its price starting at 1899 yuan ($268.25).
AI Drove Cyber Monday Sales, Adobe Shares
AI traffic to US retail sites increased 670 percent on Cyber Monday, Adobe shared. AI traffic so far from 1 November to 1 December rose 760 percent, with more people using AI products like chatbots for product recommendations and shopping assistance.
Google Launches ‘Try it On’ Feature
Google has rolled out its AI-powered ‘Virtual Apparel Try On’ feature in the UK, which lets users virtually try on outfits before purchasing them. The tool is powered by Google’s custom AI model for fashion, and lets users virtually try on tops, bottoms, dresses, jackets and shoes – all through uploading an image of themselves.
Start-Up of the Week
AI image generation platform Black Forest Labs announced a $300m Series B round at a $3.25bn valuation. The round was led by AMP and Salesforce Ventures, with notable participation from NVIDIA, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst. Last week, the startup released FLUX.2, its second generation image model that can generate and edit realistic images.
Number of the Week
That’s how many UK parents are already using AI tools such as ChatGPT to generate gift ideas, according to new research from Generation Media. AI now ranks as the fourth most common source of gift inspiration for parents, behind linear TV, YouTube and social media. UK parents are also far more enthusiastic adopters than US parents, being 80 percent more likely to use AI in their Christmas planning.
