Aerie’s Attack on AI
The “100% Aerie Real” Life.
BY Samantha Petrelli ★ April 12th, 2026
Design by: Maia Simmons
It seems as if AI has taken over our lives, writing emails, completing assignments, and treating it as Google, but it has started to dominate the media. Aerie, American Eagle’s women’s clothing line known for their leggings, activewear, bras, and swimsuits, takes a firm stand against AI in its latest ad with Pamela Anderson.
Aerie has had a commitment to being “real” since October 2025. It pledges to use actual humans, not AI-generated, as models, and to never filter or retouch them. Authenticity has become a staple of the brand. So, they created the “100% Aerie Real” campaign. On March 26th, Aerie released its latest ad against AI, featuring Anderson.
The ad opens in on an AI search tab, as Anderon feeds the bot several prompts to try to generate the ‘perfect’ model. Yet, it never feels genuine or human-like. She keeps telling the AI commands to make it more life-like. However, it never works, proving how AI could never be real, could never feel human. Of course, this is still done with human actresses, voiceover, and editing—no AI used at all.
By the end of the film, it cuts to the models on set in Aerie clothing, authentic and having fun, as Anderson says, “You can’t prompt this.” This iconic statement comes directly from AI. Aerie blatantly declares how AI could never produce something so genuine and honest as they can themselves. It’s refreshing to see unfiltered and unedited models in the day and age of AI, Facetune, and other filters like the Beauty Filter on TikTok.
Aerie has received massive public support for this ad. Many are drawn to the idea of “keeping it real” marketing, not just using the raw and natural faces and bodies of the model, but employing real human effort into the campaign. It would be easy to use AI to generate an ad, but instead, Aerie’s team had human editors working together to produce all the moving parts of the video.
It’s inspiring to see major clothing brands using their platform to advocate for issues that they feel passionate about, especially so assertively and straightforwardly. Not only is AI a problem in creating false realities and replacing jobs, but it also harms the environment. Aerie’s campaign is invigorating, uplifting, and motivating, and it is sure to increase their sales as their image is what the people want to see.
Edited by: Ava Ascenzo