Authenticity Is In: Why Consumers Want Story, Not Software
Luxury brands are approaching this holiday season with a renewed focus on craft, warmth, and authenticity—serving as a powerful counter to the growing cultural fatigue around AI-generated content. Instead of leaning into hyper-efficient automation, brands are embracing slower, tactile storytelling. A standout example is Strathberry’s 2025 holiday film, a stop-motion production created with more than 2,282 individually retouched frames and a hand-built miniature of the brand’s Edinburgh townhouse. The set featured over 400 hand-cut bricks, custom-felted textures, and tiny replicas of the brand’s iconic bags—an intentionally laborious process designed to evoke emotion and human touch in a moment when AI ads often fall flat.
This shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. Major campaigns this year that leaned heavily on generative AI—like Coca-Cola’s “Holidays Are Coming” spot—were met with criticism for uncanny, game-like visuals. Meanwhile brands such as Aerie, Polaroid, and Heineken saw significant engagement by explicitly rejecting AI or doubling down on “analogue authenticity.” Creative studios echo the sentiment: AI can help scale small tasks, but when it comes to large campaigns, audiences crave artistry and authorship. As one studio leader put it, consumers can feel when something’s been made by people—and they instinctively know when something’s off because it wasn’t.
The move toward handcrafted storytelling parallels a broader cultural longing for tactility. Strategists say luxury shoppers are tired of frictionless everything and are seeking work that feels slow, original, and irreproducible. Brands like Loewe and Hermès have long used stop motion to elevate products as tiny works of art, but the trend is accelerating across the industry as consumers gravitate toward stories with texture, imperfection, and soul. Even in retail, video-led formats that feature real stylists and in-house talent—not influencers or AI avatars—are proving more effective, boosting conversion and lowering returns because shoppers can see how products truly look and move.
For the professional beauty industry, this shift carries a crucial lesson: in an era where AI can produce endless content, what stands out is what feels undeniably human. Whether it’s a behind-the-scenes view of product formulation, an artist demonstrating technique, or emotionally driven holiday campaigns, consumers are gravitating toward authenticity, craftsmanship, and stories that showcase care. Beauty brands that highlight the “made by people” elements—ritual, artistry, sensory experience—can differentiate themselves in a crowded digital landscape and build deeper trust at a time when buyers are craving connection more than automation.
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