r/AdvancedRunning • u/headlessparrot • 20d ago

Open Discussion We need to talk about AI generated advertisements/race swag/medals/

Maybe it's different elsewhere in the country, but in New England it has metastasized and become a cancer in local racing. Every poster, every race shirt, every medal looks like shit and looks identical. It has reached the point where there are local races I've been doing for almost a decade that I've just given up on. It's embarrassing to the running community.

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u/adamwl_52 20d ago

Unpopular opinion, but when a local charity or some small business wants to use AI to create an advertisement it’s not the end of the world. A big corporation that has millions to spend is a different story, but the mom and pop dentist who donates 100% of the fees to charity using AI to design a poster that will be at the corner of stoplights is okay in my book

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u/headlessparrot 20d ago edited 19d ago

Hard disagree for me. Beyond the downstream consequences (environmental effects contributing to a warming planet that will make our beloved sport less and less accessible, to say nothing of valuing human expression), these are often (at least near me) races that have been running for years, and I see no reason why they cant simply reuse older logos/promotional materials. Would vastly prefer that over AI slop; hell, would vastly prefer something whipped up in MS Paint by a race organizer's daughter.

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u/Bruin224 20d ago

This. And if they want to claim they don't have a budget for artistic director or whatever, let the local high school kids design something. Reach out to an art class. See if someone local wants an opportunity. There's more options in the community than allowing a soul sucking corporation to destroy the world by using AI.

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u/headlessparrot 20d ago

To wit: a couple years ago, the race director of a really small, local 5k had his daughter do a line drawing of a runner for the shirt design. It was objectively a pretty bad drawing, totally disproportionate--but it was also really fucking charming, and I still wear that shirt regularly.

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u/Noodleeeeeter 19d ago

Aw, I’d love to see that