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“The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard, published in 1957, explained how in a consumerist culture advertisers use behavioral psychology and brand “personalities” to stealthily steer customers into purchasing the advertised brands. “What was needed was strategies that would make Americans in large numbers into voracious, wasteful, compulsive consumers,” Mr. Packard wrote. “At one of the largest advertising agencies in America psychologists on the staff are probing sample humans in an attempt to find how to identify, and beam messages to, people of high anxiety, body consciousness, hostility, passiveness, and so on.”

“The Hidden Persuaders” identified eight “compelling needs” we all have that advertisers claim their products would fulfill – “Emotional Security, Reassurance of worth, Ego gratification, Creative outlets, Love objects, Sense of power, Roots, Immortality.” The book is a classic exposé of the behavioral manipulative techniques that advertisers use to induce us to buy the products they promote.

Celebrity product endorsements, which have long been a part of our popular culture, are one means advertisers use as a “hidden persuader.”

Think, for example, of Wheaties, marketed by General Mills as the “Breakfast of Champions,” which for decades has proudly displayed star athletes on the front of its cereal boxes. Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton, basketball great Mike Jordan, and tennis star Chris Evert are just a few of the celebrity athletes whom General Mills has used in the branding of its breakfast cereal. The message to consumers is that they too can be champions like the featured athletes if they eat the cereal sponsored by these athletes.

Needless to say, these celebrities are real human beings who have demonstrated the athletic abilities and grit of champions that General Mills wants consumers to associate with its cereal brand.

Real human beings still endorse product brands in today’s consumerist culture. The current Wheaties Champion featured on its cereal box, for example, is the young tennis star Coco Gauff, who reportedly also earns about $4 million annually from her endorsement deals, including with New Balance.

However, because of social media content that is amplified by artificial intelligence, a new breed of endorsers has emerged who look, talk, and act like real humans but are not real humans. These “virtual influencers” are equipped with fake idealized “personas,” which are used to pitch branded products to their followers. The message is that by using the endorsed products the followers can emulate the perfect “lives” of these manufactured digital characters.

One of the most popular examples of a such a virtual influencer on social media platforms is Lil Miquela, a young “woman” created in 2016. Computer-generated imagery furnished her with physically perfect features.

Lil Miquela is a phenomenally successful virtual influencer with over two million followers on Instagram and over three million followers on TikTok. This artificial celebrity was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People on the Internet in 2018 and has collaborated with such fashion brands as Givenchy, Calvin Klein, and Chanel. She also espouses progressive causes.

A whole narrative has been spun about Lil Miquela’s lifestyle and values. This narrative is aimed at luring the brand’s target young demographic to identify with her and thereby be more susceptible to purchasing the products she associates herself with.

Since Lil Miquela came on the scene in 2016, virtual influencers on social media sites, created with sophisticated AI technology, have proliferated. Even the iconic Barbie has been turned into a virtual influencer with 3.5 million followers. The digital Barbie persona has collaborated with such brands as Aldo Shoes, Olipop, and Smart Sweets. She has also posted her support on Instagram for Black Lives Matter.

A doll turned into an AI-created virtual influencer is not only promoting products but also pontificating on socio-political issues!

Noonoouri is a virtual influencer who has collaborated with such top luxury brands as Lacoste, Dior, and Versace. She has even entered into a recording contract with Warner Music. That is all well and good except, as a Forbes article explains, “what makes it a first for Warner is the fact that Noonoouri doesn’t exist – she’s a metaverse avatar – and her voice is created by artificial intelligence.” The article notes that “virtual celebrities and influencers are being increasingly accepted – perhaps by younger generations in particular – as an everyday part of the digital landscape. Research is finding that these characters, on average, help brands achieve higher engagement rates versus campaigns where human influencers are used.”

Today’s consumerist culture is being significantly transformed by artificial intelligence-created personas that have crossed over the line from human reality to a virtual online fantasy world. Virtual influencers act, look, and sound like real human beings with idealized “life” stories to garner trust. But they are no more than a blend of highly sophisticated algorithms and the vast amounts of data that the algorithms process and utilize to create them.

This cultural phenomenon is impacting most profoundly Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) and Generation Alpha (born after 2010). A survey conducted in 2022 found, for example, that among consumers in the United States “75 percent of respondents aged between 18 and 24 said they followed at least one virtual influencer.”

It does not seem to matter to these young people “whether someone’s real or not,” explained Ridhima Ahuja Kahn, Vice President of business development and partnership at Web3 company Dapper Labs, as quoted on the Built In online community website. “What’s more important is which personality really resonates with them the most.”

We are talking about generations of young people, including the thought and political leaders of tomorrow, who are willfully oblivious to the distinction between real lived human experience and the fictional narrative of a “perfect” made-up virtual influencer. They are allowing themselves to be manipulated by artificial intelligence creations, lured into trusting virtual influencers for guidance on how to live more complete lives by slavishly following these digital characters’ recommendations and emulating them. Too often, these young targets of such brand advertising fall prey to an imitation syndrome that leads them to over-consumption.

The consumerist culture is nothing new in America. Advertisers and brand marketers have developed ever more sophisticated techniques to manipulate consumers’ sense of self-worth and create a longing for something that consumers perceive is missing from their lives. Celebrity endorsements and online messaging from human influencers are tools that advertisers and brand marketers have used to persuade consumers that the way to satisfy their longings is to purchase the promoted product brands.

What is different about today’s consumerist culture, however, is that young people in particular are relying for advice concerning how they should live their lives and what they should purchase on virtual influencers, not on living human beings. Technology is substituting phony interactions with fabricated AI creations for genuine human-to-human interactions. Our society is sliding down a slippery slope.