Pamela Anderson Joins Aerie in Calling Out AI Fakery in Ads

AI can do a lot of things, but it can’t manufacture realness. That’s the message from Pamela Anderson and Aerie as the latter doubles down on its commitment to authenticity in marketing.

The clothing brand owned by American Eagle Outfitters has partnered with the actress and model in the next chapter of its “100% Aerie Real” campaign. The collaboration builds on the brand’s Oct. 2025 pledge to never use AI to create images of people or bodies in its campaigns, which itself followed Aerie’s 2014 promise to not retouch people and bodies in its advertising.

With Anderson, Aerie aims to bring that message to a broader audience and rally other brands behind its AI stance.

“Our goal is to put that message out there and challenge the industry to think about what AI means to your consumer,” Aerie chief marketing officer Stacey McCormick told ADWEEK. 

The new ad contrasts a cold, AI-generated world with the warmth and humanity of an Aerie photo shoot. In the background, Anderson’s voice is heard prompting an AI system to populate models on screen. 

As she urges AI to bring more authenticity and feeling to the experience and gets nothing back, the artificial scene dissolves and the models come alive in a real, energetic environment.

Anderson, known for her role in the 1990s series Baywatch, has since embraced a more stripped-back look, making her a natural choice for Aerie. She is “a cultural force who has spent decades reclaiming and showing up as her authentic self. She stands for everything we stand for and stand up to,” McCormick said. “We’re getting the word across that you can’t prompt realness.”

The campaign, created by Shadow Creative Marketing & Communications and directed by Gemma Warren, will run across paid, owned, and earned social channels, including placements on Youtube, Amazon Prime, Video, Netflix, Hulu and Disney, HBO, NBCU, Roku, and Samsung.

Striking a chord

Aerie’s October pledge resonated with consumers craving transparency, McCormick said, pointing to a positive reaction from many followers on social media.

It paid off for the brand, too, which previously “was not top of mind for a lot of consumers,” she said. The launch of “100% Aerie Real” led to a double-digit increase in brand awareness from October through the end of 2025 and is “continuing to grow,” she added.

“We look at a moment like this to increase the visibility of our brand. We have great momentum behind us,” McCormick said.

In October, Aerie also promised to use real creators behind the scenes of its campaigns. Since then, the company “had to do a lot within our own house to establish those ground rules,” McCormick explained.

She said Aerie is not against using AI tools to support work such as logistics, planning, and scaling content, but it draws the line at using “AI for bodies, faces, or any lived-in experiences. That will be made by real people.”

In stores, Aerie is also trying to put human connection at the forefront, McCormick said. The brand opens an average of 40 to 50 stores per year, treating them more as community and event spaces. “We love the idea of creating community,” she added.

Aerie is also working toward that goal through the Aerie Real Foundation, which aims to build confidence in women and girls.

A brand movement

Aerie is the latest brand to take a stand against AI as anxiety around the tech grows. This year alone, advertisers including Equinox and Almond Breeze have directly called out AI slop and tech gimmicks in their marketing campaigns in an effort to frame themselves as genuine antidotes to AI-generated inauthenticity.

McCormick said she hopes that movement continues and more brands carefully consider their use of AI.

“We’re not resisting AI in the world, but we are redefining value in an AI world,” she said. “In this industry where everything can be generated, real becomes rare and unique, and that becomes powerful and different.”