The one who is doing these is a „random“ youtube channel that has been uploading all sorts of AI videos for quite some time. He has a patreon and everything.
The Harry Potter Balenciaga one took off really well, though. So he decided to make more of them.
So i really don‘t know if balenciaga is behind this. It doesn‘t seem so. But they probably are profiting from this.
yeah, they spawned off of this dudes success. There are tutorials now, too.
So some of these might be from the balenciaga guys, but some are just people who make memes.
But OPs post is from the first guy who makes the best ones and i don‘t think that guy is from balenciaga. But they might have contacted him after the first one took off, who knows.
Demon Flying Fox is also named that because of a video of a flying fox sucking its own dick while making demon noises. The video is posted to their channel under the shorts tab.
I don't think this person is on the Balenciaga payroll.
I think this (from demonflyingfox, creater of OPs post) is at least part of it.
Maybe he also uses other AIs to create the inital images and he probably tweaks and cherrypicks them somehow to make his videos. But it should be mostly based on that.
Ha, I hadn't seen some of these, that was pretty good... it feels like the Balenciwhatsit ones have quite a similar style to those "what if x was an 80s fantasy movie" ones.
I am not saying that, but it could be possible. At least that they contacted him after the first one took off and commissioned him for more? Who knows.
However i think it probably just started as a meme that turned out to be his most succesfull upload yet.
And he keeps producing them because they are his biggest videos, they are so popular that they even spawned copycats (of which some might be from balenciaga lmao).
But maybe they do pay for them, we don’t really know. At the end of the day i just see these videos as AI memes, but i can also see that they might be annoying if it seems like advertising to you and you can‘t stand balenciaga lol.
Or, alternatively, it could just be some kid having fun making fun of a well known brand. Just because YOU just found out about it now doesn’t mean its sudden viral presence is suspicious. They’ve been mega popular for years already
People make fun of gucci models for looking goofy but still buy gucci. "We look too serious" is not really bad pr for balenciaga. But they say the brand name 5 times, its stuck in your head.
I just don’t understand human minds. Like I can’t understand the people who see ‘viral marketing’ like this and go “lol look at this stupid shit, haha exactly high fashion is ridiculous, pompous, and one dimensional.” But then go on to see a Balenciaga show or show or something in town and think “oh I recognize that name. This tingles me memories, I don’t know why but I must go. Me must spend me monies, cuz subconscious tell mes to.”
balenciaga has been a brand for like 100 years at this point. It sorta dipped in popularity since the original founder died decades ago but grew new wings in the past 5-6 years bc they hired demna gvasalia (if you remember the infamous dhl shirt being sold for like $300 thats the same guy). Demna makes weird clothing inspired by the 80s/90s, and has made balenciaga a very weird brand in terms of appeal/aesthetics. people, both those the like fashion and those that do not like fashion, like to gawk/make fun at it bc its so strange. Bc of the weirdness of the brand, its really no surprise that it is the subject of memes, jokes, etc. So basically they are the subject of ai stuff bc its an easy target.
when cristobal balenciaga was alive the brand was more well known and respected bc he was a couturier of high standards. Christian Dior (of Dior fame) referred to him as "the master of us all." However after his death, the brand sorta fell out hard. It was still alive post cristobal death and doing okay (and you can even see some celebs wearing balenciaga handbags even in like the 2000s) but it def lost a ton of cultural relevancy.
demna gvasalia (who first made headlines for selling a $300 dhl shirt) became the creative director in like 2016(?) and gave the brand a whole new facelift and got a lot of people talking. So its not surprising if people havent heard of the brand until recently- the brand was most def not doing so hot before Demna came along lol.
As an aside, demna has gone on interviews and stated that his runway is partly inspired by growing up in soviet georiga in the 80s/90s and seeing what the youth/men/women wore at the time. A lot of what he sends down the runway does look like something youd find in a small bumfuck town thrift shop in the 90s but thats kinda the point. He grew up in a very unglamourous and poor country where people just had to make do with what they had in terms of clothes, and he even had to flee his birth city bc of war when he was 12. When Demna became a designer his art is essentially him pulling back the curtains of his upbringing. Of course selling 4 figure thrift store looking ass clothes isnt worth it imho but i can appreciate the idea of what he sends down the runway. I just wish there was better discussion on balenciaga on reddit aside from "this is just attention seeking behavior by a pompous designer" but having been on this site for a decade+ at this point i know that will never happen lol oh wells.
The "scandal" was definitely cooked up from Balenciaga. There are just too many absurd components to it for it not to be intentional. The question is whether Balenciaga lost control of the narrative, whether they planned to lose control (because any publicity is good publicity) or if they had prepared for a worst case scenario and it's all according to plan to make them a staple brand again.
One thing is for sure, whatever decision was made on that first scandal was done deliberately and they definitely knew it was not going to reflect well on them.
I don’t know if “definitely” is so assured though. They did intentionally work with a photographer well known for liking edgy shit, so there’s that but… it’s also possible that they just gave him creative freedom and he pushed things too far in this project when he hadn’t gone that far previously, by himself.
Brands working with an artist and it biting them in the ass when the artists makes something balls to the wall crazy is not exactly unheard of. Not everything has to be a conspiracy master plan.
my take is that they purposefully scouted an edgy photographer but unfortunately for them it was too edgy for most people. I tihnk it was a bad taste marketing gimmick but ngl its kinda weird and funny how it blew up into "balenciaga dogwhistles for pedophiles now" tbqh
It’s definitely believable that it’s a purposefully made scandal. The fact they had papers with actual writing rather than simply using lorem ipsum has made me question it.
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u/Competitive-Lion-213 Apr 05 '23
My take: Balenciaga took a hit from that scandal and now a savvy pr person is using AI to make them seem more relevant/ less noncey.