and here's a closer look at two of the other images:
i think this is a really good example of how ai image generation slots into existing systems we already understand as insidious, and why you need to be constantly concerned with the source of an image on all platforms.
the person who created the beside ad in 2025 had a good read on the popularity of print magazines among younger adults with a paycheck, and the signifiers that make consumers more likely to see an arts magazine instead of a book of ads. i think of wonderland magazine's design, but the pulled back camera frame, obvious flash, and a sans serif font are common choices used to signal a divorce from legacy magazines.
between them and the "ai creative director" that generated the ringed hands, there's also an understanding of the current appeal of signs of aging after years of fillers, botox, and surgery being pushed at (especially) women hard (i believe the class signifier of naturally aging is a notable factor as our economic crisis kicks into hyperdrive).
and i also see a conscious (if not directly verbalized) acknowledgement of the juxtoposition between tech and age, sex appeal and age, and some conflations happening there.
so what i'm getting at here is this:
the appealing nature of this fake photo was created through conscious choices by people actively tracking trends. current trends born out of a yearning for the physical, for aging human bodies, and a distaste for the normalization of fake appearances were re-routed towards pics of kim kardashian trying to outsmart the phantom troupe computer generated images of a fake person designed to be more sexually appealing than a real 70 year old woman.
more average women are targetted for malicious deep fakes than politicians. ai use is in no small part driven by the desire to reshape women for sex against their will. and this is the only world that teen girls right now have ever known. girls who, if attending a us public school, are by and large no longer being taught to verify sources.
the ai economy may be a bubble, but after it bursts that doesn't erase the techonology to quickly create very passable images of events that never happened. it just means that those with financial interest in misleading you are more likely to have access to it.
be constantly vigilant about how you're choosing to shape your reality, and what you're up against by taking on that task.
