The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
An AI-made Merdeka billboard gave Kuala Lumpur's twin towers a third tower
An AI-made billboard for Malaysia's Merdeka month showed the Petronas Twin Towers with an extra, third tower. The agency pulled the billboard and apologized.
Wow Media · 2024-08-09
What happened
In early August 2024, a digital billboard in Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur, commissioned by Brickfields police headquarters for Merdeka month, used an AI-generated skyline image of the city. The image showed the Petronas Twin Towers as three towers instead of two.
Malaysians quickly spotted the extra tower and shared it widely on social media, mocking the error given how instantly recognisable the twin towers are as a national landmark.
Agency Wow Media Sdn Bhd, which produced the billboard, confirmed it was taken down immediately once flagged and apologized: 'We sincerely apologise for the confusion caused and will review all procedures to ensure such errors do not happen again.'
Why it happened
- Generative AI doesn't know a landmark is exactly two towers — it produces something statistically skyline-shaped, and nobody checked the output against the real thing before it went up.
- The billboard misrendered the one landmark no local viewer could fail to recognize — an AI slip in a generic background might pass unnoticed; this one couldn't.
- Speed was the whole appeal of using AI generation for a quick seasonal billboard — the same shortcut removed the review step that would have caught a three-towered skyline.
The lesson
An AI-generated Merdeka billboard gave Kuala Lumpur's twin towers a third tower. Malaysians noticed immediately, and the agency pulled it and apologized.
Aftermath
Wow Media took the billboard down and said it would review its content-checking procedures before running further AI-generated creative.
Sources
- A case of one too many: Ad agency says sorry over AI gaff showing Petronas Twin Towers with extra tower in Merdeka billboard — Malay Mail
- 'There are 3 KLCC towers' — M'sians bash PDRM Brickfields' AI-generated billboard poster for Merdeka Day — World of Buzz
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