A recent report by NewsGuard has highlighted a surge in fake endorsements on Facebook, featuring AI-created voices of celebrities such as Taylor Swift. These counterfeit endorsements are promoting products such as cookware from French-Belgian company Le Creuset.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, claimed to have taken down these scam ads on January 9, 2024. However, NewsGuard's review of Meta’s public ad library found approximately 160 celebrity deepfake ads for Le Creuset still active on Meta platforms as of January 21, 2024.

This trend poses a significant threat to the $21 billion influencer industry, as AI is increasingly used to create realistic deepfake ads of celebrities endorsing various products. One such fake Le Creuset ad mimics the voices of top celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez, and country singer Lainey Wilson. Neither the celebrities nor Le Creuset had any involvement in the marketing scheme, and the celebrity voices were AI-generated.

An example of these ads features an AI-generated voice resembling Taylor Swift saying, “Hey y’all, it’s Taylor Swift here. Due to a packaging error, we can’t sell 3000 Le Creuset cookware sets. So I’m giving them away to my loyal fans for free. If you’re seeing this ad, you can get a free Le Creuset cookware set today.”

The rise of such deepfake ads underscores the need for more robust verification and monitoring systems within the influencer marketing industry. As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, the potential for misuse grows, posing significant challenges for social media platforms, brands, and influencers alike. The impact of these fake endorsements on consumer trust and the authenticity of influencer marketing is yet to be fully understood. However, it's clear that the industry needs to adapt to this emerging threat to maintain its credibility and effectiveness.