Aerie doubles down on its no-AI pledge in its latest campaign

As AI continues to be the biggest buzzword in marketing, apparel brand Aerie made waves last fall when it publicly committed to not using the technology in any of its campaign images.

Stacey McCormick, CMO of Aerie, told us that deciding to not use any AI-generated people or bodies in its campaigns was a natural next step in evolving its 2014 “Aerie Real” pledge, in which the brand committed to not retouching images of its models. That initial pledge led to a boost in sales for the brand, and so far, McCormick said the commitment to not use AI is also resonating with customers. When the brand shared the updated pledge on Instagram last October, it quickly became its most popular post with more than 40,000 likes. In Q4 2025, McCormick said Aerie saw a “big jump” in brand awareness in the double-digits and the brand’s earnings report shows that Aerie sales were up 23% over Q4 2024.

“As we grow the brand and we get in front of more people, we really want to make sure that not only does our customer base who knows us know it,” McCormick said. “But we want to make sure people who are joining us understand that what you see is what you get.”

In its latest campaign, Aerie cast actor Pamela Anderson, who has become known for her decision to go mostly makeup-free, as the face of the brand. In the hero spot, Anderson asks an AI tool to generate “unique” and “natural” images of models with little success.

We spoke with McCormick about the continued commitment to showing real people, what went into making its latest campaign, and where the industry is headed on generative AI use.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

In the time since you announced Aerie won’t use generative AI, there have been multiple brands that have gotten backlash for using it in campaign imagery. As you’ve watched that happen, have you felt even better about your decision to make this pledge?

As a brand, we’re built off of trust and authenticity. “Real” is the core of everything we do. Table stakes, right? Period. But I think to myself as I follow and I watch everything else play out, what is table stakes for those other brands? Is it shock and awe? Are they looking to gain notoriety and to get people talking? Is authenticity at the core of what their brand stands for, or is it cultural zeitgeist?...We study the customer’s perception and know that over 70% of people who we’ve spoken with expect transparency when experiencing or consuming an AI piece. We know that authenticity is the most important thing when deciding whether or not to shop with our brand…Other brands are using AI, and we’ll see how it all plays out. It could come down to legislation around transparency and disclosure…But yeah, we feel good about it.

Aerie’s pledge is around not using generative AI to create people or bodies, but how much do you also think about the products being advertised and making sure people see real clothes?

All the time. It’s all I think about. As a consumer, I’m clicking on an item, and I’m thinking to myself, “Is that AI? Is that really what I’m going to get when I open my mail?” And if I have to question that, I won’t convert. I won’t buy it…My daughter was prom dress shopping online, and she asked me, “Is this an AI model?” and I said, “Why would you ask? What makes you think that?” and she said, “Well, it’s the same model, 10 different dresses with the same pose.” I said, “Probably, is that a problem?” and she said, “Well, I don’t know how that’s going to fit on me because it’s not fitting on a human. I don’t even know if the dress I’m looking at is real.” So it was interesting to get that POV from a 17-year-old. At the end of the day, it’s like, “Will people convert still? Will there be trust?” We want to take the guesswork out of it, so what you see when you look at [Aerie] is a garment on a real person.

Have you heard from any other marketers or brands that have been inspired by your pledge?

We love to think about influencing people in the industry to stand up for real content and continue to protect the craft of it and the creation of it. We hope to see more people follow that and hold that value there. That’s what we’re interested to see play out over the next few years, but it’s all moving so fast…We hear things. Do we see them act on it? It depends. I think there is something to be said about shifting your internal culture operationally to adopt this policy. You have to walk the walk. It cannot just be a campaign. You have to literally change your operational standards and create boundaries around what kind of AI is acceptable [and] what kind of AI is not acceptable. For us, what is not acceptable is any alteration of a body or a person; anything that replicates a body or a person is absolutely not [acceptable], but AI for planning or other types of things that don’t alter or change or create or generate humans or people or products is more acceptable.

Tell me about how you took your pledge and incorporated it into this campaign.

We knew we had to evolve retouching, because it’s no longer a term that our community is dealing with. They’re dealing with generative AI and creating content from nothing…So we doubled down on “100% Aerie Real” and got fun talent like Pamela [Anderson] to join us on our mission and take it even further with our campaign photo shoots, making sure we put “shot by real people” and “real people made this” [on everything].

How did Pamela Anderson come to be involved?

With this campaign, we’re looking to amplify our message to more people and do it through storytelling…[Pamela] has become such a cultural influence on reclaiming one’s narrative and standing up for what’s real. We know she resonates with our [Gen Z] audience…and people love her standing up for “no-makeup” beauty as her way of saying, “This is my real self. This is my authentic self.” When we connected with her, she loved the campaign and the brand, so we had a lot of fun putting it together and working with her on the piece…We also did some fun behind-the-scenes with Pamela. She’s very much an advocate for the work we’re doing and knows that this will resonate with people to think twice about the beauty standards and putting real content out there.

How else are you getting this campaign message out beyond the spot?

It’ll be on Pamela’s socials and on our socials. There are a bunch of behind-the-scenes pieces that are fun of Pamela doing things while we were together, like baking bread and coming to the set. If you know anything about her, she loves gardening, and she kind of went nuts with the flowers on the set. We had fun playing with what Pamela brings to the story, which is that authentic, personal story. Those will roll out…and then we’ll start to push the campaign through our streaming channels, but the majority of the campaign will be through paid media and paid social. That’s where our audiences tend to be.

How are you hoping to see this campaign resonate with your audience?

We want it to amplify the brand message and build awareness, getting trust and consideration more on the forefront and getting our “100% Aerie Real” message out to more people. When we look at our whole ecosystem, we have such a strong customer base, and we have such a great social UGC base and creator network, but there are so many people who don’t know about the brand or don’t know about Aerie Real. So really, I think it’s important that they understand what it means and how important it is to us and the impact we know it makes on self-esteem and mental health…We hope that this message resonates and transcends and people understand what we stand for.

Beyond this campaign, how are you hoping to continue getting the message out about Aerie’s pledge?

Our socials are everything to us…That’s where we spend the majority of our time. We also have a really incredible store base. We’re opening about 40 stores a year at least…so between the IRL connections we can make there and with the events and community work we do, we get the message out that way too. So really building community within our socials, and then taking out into our stores…We know that with our creators and influencers, our store is like their hub. They create content in the fitting rooms, they work with our associates, and we’ve almost created a camaraderie between the associates and the creators that come in…So we continue to look at that and hold it very close and make sure that our associates are trained and understand all facets of what we do.

Do you hope to see more disclosures around the use of generative AI on social media and beyond?

Transparency and building trust and authenticity from a customer lens is the most important thing to us, making sure that whoever consumes our content knows if they’re consuming something that is real or not. It’s up to other brands what they want to put out there, and we completely respect that, but in an industry where everything is generated, realness becomes special. Realness becomes rare, and it becomes unique. And we think there’s a lot of value in that…As [AI] continues to pick up traction, we’ll remain steadfast and keep our model the same and hopefully stand out in the crowd.