Angela Merkel in advertising? How the startup Tibber plays with deepfake elements
The Norwegian electricity startup Tibber worked for the first time in Germany in a TV commercial with deepfake elements. What is satirically exaggerated and clearly recognizable in advertising could become technologically difficult.
The Norwegian electricity startup Tibber is positioning itself as a smart electricity provider that helps customers save electricity and at the same time make a contribution to the energy transition. For electricity from renewable sources, customers only pay the current daily purchase price – and a basic fee of EUR 3.99 per month. The concept of billing customers variably has been common in other countries for years, but especially at peak times in winter it can be more expensive than an electricity provider with a fixed calculation.
The company, which is committed to using only green electricity as little as possible, has now started a TV and social media campaign that is causing quite a stir. This is probably the first time in Germany that deepfake technology is being used – and that with a prominent testimonial, which of course does not advertise Tibber itself. Angela Merkel explains in the spot: “Sustainable energy is good. Saving electricity is good too ”- and supposedly advertises the energy transition and more transparency in the electricity market.
The spot with the claim “Switch on Rebel” starts at the best possible time: “The judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court on the federal government’s climate plans has made it clear that the current political plans are insufficient. The topic of the energy transition must therefore move to the top of the national agenda in the election year – in our opinion, to the top, which is why we have chosen Angela Merkel as the protagonist, ”explains Andreas Friedrich, company spokesman for the Norwegian startup. “Deepfake technology enables us to make Merkel, the most prominent representative of current climate policy, the spokesperson for our product. So that everyone understands the wink, it was very important to us that the commercial was clearly recognizable as a “fake”. “And Marion Nöldgen, Germany boss of Tibber, added:” It was clear to us that we were not only technological with our product range want to break new ground, but also in the form and content of our advertising. “
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TV stations were unsure about the legal situation
The Berlin agency is behind the spot and the campaign Try No Agencywho works for various customers from the e-commerce and startup environment and has already worked with N26, Scalable Capital, Hello Fresh, McMakler and Strato, among others. “We used deepfake for the first time in advertising communication in Germany and we are pleased that Tibbers, who want to revolutionize the electricity market, are so courageous and innovative with regard to their advertising,” explains Stefan Nagel, one of the founders and managing directors of Try No agency. “Deepfake technology makes it possible to convey a complex topic such as the energy transition in an eye-catching manner.”
In international advertising, there have already been individual campaigns that have worked with deepfake elements. Ultimately, however, at least with this satirical approach, it is probably clear to every viewer that the real person is not speaking and acting. Nevertheless, both the Prosieben-Sat1-Gruppe and RTL had extensive legal checks as to whether such advertising should be broadcast at all, also with regard to personal rights. The spot has been on television since Friday evening. In addition, there is a campaign extension in the direction of social media (Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok) and memes and reaction GIFs. So when Angela Merkel does the moonwalk at Tiktok, it shows to some extent the associated technical possibilities.
Deepface Lab as an open source tool for production
Incidentally, everyone has these technical options – because the deepfake spot was created using the Open source-Software Deepface Lab created. For this purpose, the gestures and facial expressions were recreated with the help of the actress and Merkel impersonator Antonia von Romatowski, who also gave “Merkel” the voice. With this authentic film material as a basis (which is already close to the original), the tool was then trained on the basis of artificial intelligence from film material with Angela Merkel. The face is analyzed and extracted and merged with the help of tens of thousands of images as a mask. “Accordingly, you can only imitate facial expressions and facial expressions that were created in the original material by Angela Merkel,” explains Naomi Abe, Head of Production at Try No Agency. The final face in the spot is therefore completely computer-calculated. From a technical point of view, Angela Merkel’s existing raw material cannot be seen.
Abe is not sure whether we will see more advertising with deepfake elements in the future: “That certainly depends on how this spot is received. One thing is clear: you need a lot of source material for such a format, which you naturally tend to have with celebrities. But theoretically you could also take the source material from other people. So you could put any face on any other body. A lot is technically possible here. “
Deepfake: Exciting as satire, dangerous when manipulating opinions
Far from pretending to be false, all of this also brings a lot of creative possibilities with which advertising could play in the future. Deepfake, as becomes clear here, can be used to deceive viewers and for unfair manipulation of opinions, but this does not have to be the case, especially in the context of marketing and advertising. However, it also makes it clear that, in the next few years, rules will have to be created for both traditional television and online video content that will prevent people from being duped by targeted opinion-making.
