Volkswagen Brazil: When Artificial Intelligence Is Used to Resurrect an Artist to Sell Cars

Description

Volkswagen Brazil: When Artificial Intelligence Is Used to Resurrect an Artist to Sell Cars: Abstract

This case deals with the controversy surrounding a commercial produced by Volkswagen Brazil in July 2023 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its arrival in Brazil. For this ad, AI tools such as deepfake were used to create a video depicting a duet sung by Elis Regina, one of the country’s most beloved singers, who died in 1982, and her daughter Maria Rita, who was just four years old when her mother died. While many viewers loved the video, others were angered by Volkswagen’s use of Regina’s image in this way. The singer’s left-wing political views and support for workers’ rights were well known, and Volkswagen Brazil had admitted its support for the 1964–1985 military dictatorship. Critics believed that Regina would never have agreed to participate in such an ad.

Teaching objectives

• Expose students to a controversial and relatively new situation (the use of artificial intelligence to « bring to life » a deceased artist) and get them to think about how they might intervene as managers.
• Get students to identify the points of view and positions that coexist in this type of situation and to consider the multiplicity of them.

Additional information

Also available in French.

Teachers’ notes are available for university teachers only. Please contact the HEC Montréal Case Centre.