AI Generated Ads, the Stock Outperforming Nvidia, and Paul Mescal's Exposed Midriff

News for those interested in business, fashion, products, luxury, and swag...

GM everyone! I had so much fun at the Feed Me party last night, thanks so much to

Emily Sundberg

for organizing such a nice evening. Friend of Who Do You Know?,

Nikole Lubov Naloy

was shooting the event if you couldn’t make it there will be tons of excellent photos online soon showing how much we were all having.

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In Today’s Newsletter—

• Are AI Generated Influencer Ads Illegal?

• Brain Dead x Brooks Brothers

• The Best Stock of the Year Isn’t Nvidia

• Nue’s New Packaging

• Menswear is Womenswear

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NEWS

• TikTok is Launching AI Generated Avatars… Are They Illegal? The social media company launched their Symphony AI Creative Suite last month and they are now adding a new feature: AI generated content creators. Essentially, brands can plug in their script, and generate a realistic AI video of a person advertising their product, and they offer creators from a number of nationalities and locations. Brands are racing to cut costs and add more ad creatives to their digital campaigns, but could this new tool land them in legal trouble? Since last year, we’ve seen a number of brands create deepfake videos of generic content creators, or even use celebrities like Joe Rogan (whose thousands of hours of podcast video make it incredibly easy for an AI model to generate new material) to promote their products online. Last year, a testosterone booster generated a video of Rogan endorsing their product landing them in legal troubles…

“I’m getting sent these things where I’m doing ads for products that I have never used, never talked about.” The podcaster also added, “And you know these companies. We tried to chase one of them down. I think it was one of them testosterone booster or something like that. But when you do go down this rabbit hole legally, stick a lawyer on it, they’re like Jesus Christ.” — Joe Rogan

Trump is even keen to this new phenomena, telling Logan Paul in a recent interview that he was shocked to see a realistic video of him endorsing a product, so shocked he had to ask his staff if he actually recorded the video and just forgot (which would make sense considering the amount of garbage he sells)

This practice is obviously incredibly unethical. Those celebrities didn’t endorse those brands, and are using AI to fool consumers. But the line between cheap, easy content and ethical marketing practices becomes even blurrier with tools like TikTok’s Symphony Studio. Rob Freund, a lawyer on X, claimed that a brand generating a video of an AI creator endorsing a product is a clear violation of FTC guidelines.

I did some digging and found the FTC guidelines say—

In addition, the Endorsement Guides let endorsers know that they shouldn’t talk about their experience with a product if they haven’t tried it, or make claims about a product that would require proof they don’t have.

So a brand wanting to generate an AI video of a person endorsing their product is in clear violation of this, as the AI creator obviously could not have tried the product… they aren’t a real person! But with the increasing availability of these tools, and more brands rushing to use them for their paid and organic content, it will be interesting to see if the FTC can step up to catch these deceptive practices and file lawsuits and penalties.

To get around this, a brand could hypothetically caption the video as AI generated content, but presumably the ‘testimony’ would lose some of its appeal… but in a world of rapidly advancing AI content, and a populace lacking media literacy (just look at how AI content has taken over Facebook) things are about to get really messy.

• The best performing stock of the last year isn’t Nvidia. It’s Abercrombie & Fitch. After several years flailing inside malls across America, the brand has reinvented itself, finding mass success amongst Gen Z consumers. In 2017, they hired retail veteran Fran Horowitz to right the ship, and since then the brand has made a number of pivotal changes including:

  • New, less branded merchandise

  • Duping other popular brands styles (Aime Leon Dore comes to mind)

  • More inclusive, accessible campaigns

abercrombie

A post shared by @abercrombie

And now the brand is hot, boasting soaring sales of over $1B last quarter, and a stock price thats risen an astronomical +412% in the past year. The brand has measurably improved their brand equity amongst younger consumers, who run to the brand to find moderately priced styles they can’t afford from more luxury fashion houses. While the brand is not for me at all, I find their rise to be really impressive. It shows that struggling mallcore brands do indeed have a chance at a second life.

On the way home from the Feed Me party, I ran into Brendon Babenzien, founder of Noah NY and the current creative director at J. Crew. After chatting for a bit, it dawned on me how good the current product is at J. Crew, but the lack of cultural relevance it seems to have with Gen Z consumers. I love J. Crew and hope they can see the same upward trajectory as A&F.

• Brain Dead is collaborating with Brooks Brothers. In an Instagram post from Kyle Ng, the founder of Brain Dead, he revealed an upcoming collaboration with classic menswear brand Brooks Brothers. This would be the first streetwear collab the brand has had since Supreme in 2014. I am stoked to see how this collaboration shakes out, as Brain Dead often boasts a very adventurous design ethos that will juxtapose against Brooks Brothers classic suiting.

  farmtactics

  

  A post shared by @farmtactics

• Nue has redesigned their bottle. The pre and pro biotic supplement brand, Nue, has a new packaging design, and I think it looks quite nice! The larger logo, minimal copy, and green accent cap are all great additions.

• Paul Mescal proves menswear trends largely stems from womenswear. The actor sat front row at Gucci’s spring 2025 menswear show, wearing boxers, loafers and button up with an exposed midriff.

  

  Everything he has on stems from a womenswear trend: the exposed stomach, the long socks with loafers, and wearing just boxers as a bottom.

  

Jump in the comments and let’s talk! Have a great day everyone!

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Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.

Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio