Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Wilson Takes a Stand Against Robots in Desigual’s Autumn 2026 Campaign
Instead of turning to AI to capture its latest brand campaign, Spanish clothing brand Desigual has turned decidedly against it.
Starring Vivian Wilson – the estranged eldest daughter of Elon Musk – the campaign, ProdCo’s newly signed trio PSG – sees the model and social media personality take a stand against robotics and artificial intelligence by attempting to teach a DESI 84 robot to perform tricks it has not been trained to do. Proving the robot’s limitations, the spot speaks to the campaign’s title, ‘Born to Disobey’.
The spot marks PSG’s first project as a newly formed trio. Speaking with LBB, they joke, “In a world where everyone worries about AI taking human jobs, we did the exact opposite: we actually stole a job from a robot by hiring a human actor to play it.”
PSG say that they were “instantly hooked” by the campaign when it was initially outlined to them, where phrases like “Vivian Wilson” and “mistreating a robot” immediately captured their attention. “We then got on a call with the campaign's creative team, Alex Sanhueza and Esther Escudero, and connected right away,” they explain. “We had the exact same references and shared the same creative vision for the film. We knew it needed to be done! We couldn't pass up this amazing opportunity.”
The film opens with Vivian relaxing, wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Born to Disobey’. Eagle-eyed viewers might spot that she’s reading ‘R.U.R.’ (‘Rossum's Universal Robots’), which in itself is a “hidden Easter egg”, say the directors, as they explain that the 1920s sci-fi play by Czech writer Karel Čapek is “literally where the word 'robot' was coined and introduced to the world for the very first time”.
As the film continues, Vivian places the robot into a number of situations that it hasn’t been trained for. It's used as a golf tee, walked like a dog on a lead, and fails at mowing the lawn, all as Vivian tries to teach it to say ‘Desigual’, leading the robot to eventually malfunction and hit its head against the wall, before it is pulled away, immobile, by the model.
The directing collective shared somewhat of an unspoken understanding with Vivian, which shaped the way her character was brought to life on screen. “We actually didn't need many words, we both knew what needed to be done. It felt like we were on a shared mission,” they say.
“I could see in her eyes the genuine intensity and skepticism she felt toward everything that the robot represented, both emotionally and politically,” they continue. “We didn't explicitly talk about it, but the understanding was mutual. On set, the main goal was to make her feel comfortable so we could maximise our tight schedule. She was amazing to work with, super fun and a total natural.”
The robot, performed by a human actor, was “naturally” inspired by the Tesla robot. “We needed something that felt grounded and believable,” PSG explains. “To achieve that, we took a hybrid approach: on set, the robot was played by a movement director who spent days studying YouTube videos of the Tesla bot to master its distinct, mechanical posture.”
The in-person physicality of the robot on set gave Vivian weight and energy to react to, helping amplify her performance. In post production, PSG worked closely with their in-house VFX studio, The Post Office, “to translate his physical performance into a fully rendered 3D model”.
The campaign’s ‘Born to Disobey’ tagline and Desigual’s broader brand ethos and ‘no es lo mismo’ (‘it's not the same’) was instrumental in steering the overall look and feel of the production, and also encouraged the directors to experiment with their own creativity. “We love the direction Desigual is taking right now and how much effort they're putting into strong, ambitious campaigns,” they say. “They give you genuine creative room to play and disobey a little bit, which offers the freedom to push boundaries and land in that perfect spot.”
Throughout the process, the primary focus was on performance, and capturing Vivian's energy within the tight time frame that they had with her, PSG explains, “We were working with a lean crew and a modest budget, but that was never a limitation for us and our cinematographer, Pau Castejón.
“We knew the core concept was strong enough that we didn't need a lot of fancy toys or camera tricks. Instead, we kept things raw and intentional: just a beautiful set of vintage lenses and a focused approach.”
They say that the entire creative process was open and fluid, taking a freestyle approach bound not by storyboarded scenarios but by the time they had on set. Marking the directing trio’s first collaboration with ProdCo, whose roster they officially joined earlier this week, the trio say that the campaign was an “incredible experience.
“Getting to do a project where you can tackle bold, political ideas in a genuinely artistic way. I think that really sums up what ProdCo is all about,” they continue. “It's a space that encourages you to make work that looks amazing, but also actually has something to say.”
