An ESPN commercial hints at advertising’s deepfake future

Unable to film new commercials during the coronavirus pandemic, advertising agencies are turning to technologies that can seamlessly alter old footage, sometimes putting viewers in a position of doubting what they are seeing.

During the April 19 episodes of “The Last Dance,” the ESPN documentary series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, State Farm ran a commercial featuring expertly doctored footage of longtime “Sportscenter” anchor Kenny Mayne.

In the ad, a much younger Mayne is seated at the “Sportscenter” desk in 1998. He reports on the Bulls’ sixth championship title — before taking a turn toward the prophetic.

“This is the kind of stuff that ESPN will eventually make a documentary about,” Mayne says. “They’ll call it something like ‘The Last Dance.’ They’ll make it a 10-part series and release it in the year 2020. It’s going to be lit. You don’t even know what that means yet.” As a vintage State Farm logo appears in the background, he adds, “And this clip will be used to promote the documentary in a State Farm commercial.”

The producers made the commercial by layering video of Mayne’s 60-year-old mouth onto footage of his 38year-old face.

“We tried to make the joke clear enough so that we weren’t tricking anyone,” said Carrie Brzezinski-hsu, the head of ESPN Creativeworks, which created the commercial with the ad agencies Optimum Sports and Translation.

Husani Oakley, chief technology officer of the ad firm Deutsch, said digitally altered ads should somehow clue viewers into the fact that what they are seeing is not completely real. “The technology is here, and it’s only going to get better and better, and we have to get used to it,” he added. “We’re exploring ways to have fun with it.”

While the blurring of the real and the fake can be amusing on Zoom or in the promotion of snack foods, it presents thorny ethical issues around consent and disinformation. A recent doctored video appeared to show Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès of Belgium linking the coronavirus pandemic to climate change. Before the 2020 vote, Facebook and Twitter have said they are closely monitoring manipulated videos.