BMW Pokes Fun at AI with Very 'Real' Campaign

In its latest BMW Certified Sales Event campaign, BMW is tackling AI with a rallying cry for authenticity.

Celebrities awkwardly eating spaghetti. Famous politicians giving a speech - as a baby. Strange 'animals' you’ve never seen before.

In 2025, our content feeds have become an AI-generated, algorithm-fuelled hall of mirrors. Consumers are left squinting for something they can confidently know is real. Authenticity is rare - much like the wild west of searching for a pre-owned luxury vehicle.

This relatable cultural tension is exactly what lies at the heart of 'Real, For Real,' a new fully integrated 360-campaign created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners and BMW for the BMW Certified program.

A trio of comedic TV spots opens with bizarre-yet-believable, AI-generated moments - a pigeon landing a kickflip in SoHo, a majestic mountain somehow shaped like a human thumbs up, and a wedding that goes full insect apocalypse. All things you may have seen… or something close. A shocking, mesmerising, almost real scene. Then it pivots to the core message: “In a world where it’s hard to tell what’s genuine, it’s good to know a BMW Certified vehicle is real. For real.”

“Authenticity is the new disruption,” said Albi Pagenstert, head of brand marketing for BMW of North America. “At a time when everyone’s using AI to simulate something that looks and feels real, being genuine actually stands out. The campaign reflects a growing belief that in this modern era, staying true to yourself isn’t just a relief for customers - it creates an edge for brands like BMW.

Designed as a direct cultural response to the proliferation of bizarre but juuuust barely believable synthetic content, the campaign contrasts uncanny AI visuals with the unmistakable sign of something authentic: a beautiful BMW Certified vehicle - confronting the moment with humour, self-awareness, and the simple truth that some things are, thankfully, still genuine.

Unlike other work, Real, For Real doesn’t just use 'cutting-edge' AI - it subverts it with surreal visuals, uncanny audio, and a dose of relatable, tongue-in-cheek humour.

“We used AI to prove a point,” says Rich Silverstein, co-founder, GS&P. “There’s something powerful about showing how fake the world’s gotten - then contrasting that with something you can actually trust.”

Directed by Win Bates of Tool, the campaign extends across social media, where everything from an AI-generated sloth in an astronaut suit, to a dog-walking drone, serve as scroll-stopping setups to land the same message. And a radio spot takes things even further into the world of audio: with a self-aware, AI-generated song that sings and muses - melodically - that who’s 'singing' isn’t even human at all. And through all this work, the truth is clear: unlike the synthetic strangeness of the modern world, a Certified BMW is truly tested, inspected, and backed by a warranty and most importantly, the real deal in a sea of things you can’t really trust. Real, For Real is about more than selling a vehicle - it offers a genuine relief from all the noise and misleading information everywhere else these days