Deepfaking a deepfake: HDFC's campaign won in traction but lost in trust

Ever heard the story of the liar who lived in the village? To briefly put it, everyday the man would lie that a tiger had entered the village and everyday the villagers would go with pitchforks and torches to hunt it. But, would be fooled everyday. One day, when a tiger actually entered the village, the man once again tried to warn the villagers but this time, no one believed him thinking he was lying as usual. The man became the tiger’s prey. ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.’

HDFC Bank recently released a campaign featuring Nora Fatehi. Well, not quite. It was a deepfake video of the actress promoting the brand’s services. The brand marketed the campaign as if it were a real deepfake concern. It had almost everyone fooled and why wouldn’t it? Deepfakes are a real plague to social media. Especially, when AI and its growing capabilities are becoming easily available for the common man to use. Everyone from social media users to CEO’s to Ministers have voiced their concerns, spread caution against the alarming rise in deepfake content and advocated for the responsible use of AI.

“As if the dangers of deepfakes are not enough, we now have fake deepfakes just to garner viral news,” said communications strategy consultant, Karthik Srinivasan.

The video was a fake. A fake of a fake to be precise. It blurred the lines between actual AI threats and publicity stunts. Was it a clever marketing tactic? It’s hard to say really. It grabbed eyeballs, it turned viral, everyone was talking about it. But, at what cost? Brands are meant to make a positive impact on society. However, sometimes in the race to hop onto what seems like a trend, can easily backfire, causing a negative ripple effect.

“This was a really convoluted campaign idea with easily imaginable, terrible consequences,” added Srinivasan.

Yes, people fell for this elaborate prank. But, if there’s an actual deepfake of Nora Fatehi tomorrow, will people believe it? Will they help bring attention to it? Once bitten twice shy. Perhaps, this one did more harm than any good.