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LOS ANGELES () — AI-generated videos depicting Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt as a superhero and his rival Karen Bass as a villain are gaining traction online.
It’s a new trend in political advertising, however, Pratt’s campaign isn’t making the ads. They’re created by his supporters.
“People are going to look to what this campaign has been able to do in terms of getting people energized and mobilized at the grassroots in a different sort of way,” News Washington bureau chief Rick Klein said. “It’s not about donating with your money or even knocking on doors.
“If you’re doing your own video, you’re buying into a campaign in a way that is now more authentic for a lot of voters who came of age in an era where user-generated content is king.”
The dystopian picture of Los Angeles portrayed in the videos depict how Pratt supporters view the city and Democratic politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In one example, Pratt appears as a Batman-like figure arriving to save the day.
“Somebody out there said, ‘Let’s do Spencer Pratt as a hero,’ and maybe fed that into AI,” USC Annenberg School professor Karen North said. “And then AI searched for the best heroes that would resonate with the messages that Spencer Pratt has been portraying… It’s really sort of the perfect storm of things coming together to help amplify the persona that he’s projecting.”
Pratt has shared the videos, which have been viewed millions of times online. It remains to be seen whether these AI ads will just energize supporters of Pratt or expand his base.
“One question is whether a lot of these folks that are engaging with it are voters at all,” Klein said. “The younger voters are the lowest propensity voters in almost every election anywhere in the country.”
“Politics and policies really matter,” North said. “The idea that we would now be making decisions based on which superhero we like the most is a dangerous direction.”
Bass has called the pro-Pratt AI videos a very dangerous trend. Bass is concerned about the violence in the videos and potential ability to provoke someone who is unstable to hurt or attack someone else.
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