The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Guess put AI-generated models in Vogue — and called them 'Vivienne' and 'Anastasia'
Guess's August 2025 Vogue ads featured two AI-generated models created by a London agency. TikTok asked why a brand built on real bombshells went fake.
Guess · Seraphinne Vallora (AI agency)
What happened
In late July 2025, TikTok users discovered that Guess's advertising in the August 2025 issue of Vogue featured two AI-generated models named 'Vivienne' and 'Anastasia.' The models were created by Seraphinne Vallora, a London-based AI marketing agency whose co-founders Valentina Gonzalez and Andreea Petrescu said they aimed to 'co-exist' with the modelling industry.
The backlash focused on the displacement. Guess built its brand on 'bombshell' campaigns featuring real celebrities — Eva Mendes, Drew Barrymore, Claudia Schiffer. Replacing them with AI models in a fashion magazine struck critics as a category error: a beauty brand using faces that do not exist to sell products meant to make real faces look good.
Condé Nast, Vogue's parent, responded that 'an AI model has never appeared editorially in Vogue' — meaning the AI models appeared in advertisements only, not editorial content. Psychologist Dr Nicole Hawkins warned that AI models perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, noting people 'idealise these images that don't actually exist.' The controversy joined a broader 2025 debate about AI in creative industries, from P&G's CGI beauty avatars to Meta's AI chatbot personas.
Why it happened
- The brand's heritage made AI models a contradiction: Guess sold desirability through real celebrity bodies — AI faces that do not exist cannot model clothing meant for skin.
- The placement amplified the error: Vogue is the authority that grants legitimacy to models — buying ad space to insert AI faces in the same magazine was a provocation, not a shortcut.
- 'Co-exist' was the wrong register: the AI agency's framing assumed the controversy was about replacement; the audience's framing was about authenticity — the two arguments never met.
- The beauty-standard charge was structural: AI models are designed to be optimal, which means they represent a face no human can achieve — a standard more damaging than any photograph.
The lesson
A brand built on real bodies cannot sell through faces that do not exist. AI models in a fashion magazine do not save money — they cost the brand's reason for being in the magazine.
Sources
- ABC News — 'Controversy stirs over AI-generated models in new Guess ads', 2025-07-31
- CNN — 'Vogue AI models Guess campaign', 2025-07-31
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