Your AI poster is S*#t
A post has been doing the rounds recently claiming that AI has ruined event posters because they all look the same. The examples shown are from completely different parts of the country, yet at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking they were all advertising the same event. The same bright colours, the same wooden signboards, the same flowers, the same bunting and the same polished, slightly over the top AI aesthetic that has become instantly recognisable.
The author goes on to say we’d almost be better off going back to Comic Sans and a marker pen. Whilst I completely understand the frustration, I actually think they’re blaming the wrong thing.
The problem isn’t AI.
The problem is that we’ve become lazy.
Every time a new piece of software comes along, people use it in exactly the same way. Years ago it was WordArt. Then everyone discovered gradients and drop shadows. More recently it was Canva, where every other business seemed to be using the same templates with a different logo dropped on the top. AI is simply the latest tool to be overused, and because it produces something polished in seconds, people rarely push beyond that first result.
As someone who works in marketing every single day, I use AI. I don’t hide that, because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It helps me organise ideas, research topics, explore different angles and occasionally overcome that blank page when you’re staring at a cursor. What it doesn’t do is create a marketing strategy, understand a business or replace years of experience. That’s the bit people seem to forget.
The businesses that are getting the best results aren’t asking AI to do their marketing for them. They’re using it as one small part of the process before adding the things that actually matter. Their own photography. Their own branding. Their own personality. Their own understanding of the customers they’re trying to attract. AI can’t replicate any of that because it doesn’t know your business, your reputation or why people choose you over somebody else.
Ironically, I think AI is doing the opposite of what many people fear. Rather than making creativity less valuable, it’s making it more valuable than ever. If everybody can generate a decent looking poster in thirty seconds, then looking “decent” is no longer enough. The businesses that stand out will be the ones brave enough to stop looking like everybody else.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone say, “Can you just make it look professional?” The truth is, professional isn’t the objective anymore. Memorable is. If someone scrolls past your advert because it looks exactly like the last ten they’ve seen, it doesn’t matter how technically good it is. It has already failed.
Good marketing has never been about producing the prettiest graphic. It’s about giving people a reason to stop, read and remember. That comes from understanding your audience, having something worth saying and presenting it in a way that reflects your business, not whatever style happens to be trending this week.
So no, I don’t think AI is ruining marketing. I think poor marketers are using AI to produce average work at a much faster rate than ever before. There’s a huge difference.
Like every tool before it, AI is only as good as the person using it. Put it in the hands of somebody with experience, creativity and a proper understanding of marketing and it’s incredibly powerful. Put it in the hands of somebody looking for the quickest possible shortcut and you end up with another summer fayre poster that looks exactly like the other hundred on Facebook.
The irony is that whilst everyone else is trying to save time by looking the same, the businesses prepared to put a little more thought into their marketing have never had a better opportunity to stand out. That’s where the real advantage lies. It never was about AI. It was always about the person behind the keyboard.
