🖼️ SPIRITED AWAY (BY AI)

What do the White House, the distracted boyfriend meme and Zomato have in common? They’ve all been ‘Ghibli-fied’.

Over the past week, images recreating the aesthetic of Studio Ghibli have flooded social media, most created using the latest update to OpenAI’s GPT-4o. The update significantly improved the tool’s ability to generate images… and more controversially, to produce work in recognisable artistic styles. After Grant Slatton posted a family photo next to a Studio Ghibli anime, the trend took off (Slattons original post has been viewed more than 50 million times).

We’ve seen AI-generated images go viral before (remember 2023’s Pope in the puffer?), but this is the first time an AI-created image trend so directly leans into a specific visual identity. That raises the question: As technology continues to blur the lines between creation and automation, how does it redefine the essence of culture itself?

💡 OUR TAKE

The biggest winner here might be OpenAI. On Monday, Sam Altman revealed that ChatGPT had “added one million users in the last hour”, citing “biblical demand” for the updated image generation service. The same day, the company raised US$40 B and nearly doubled its valuation to US$300 B, up from US$157 B in October. Not a bad start to the week… 👀

Beyond OpenAI’s success, this trend also highlights the enduring appeal of Studio Ghibli. The studio’s hand-drawn animation is beloved not just for its aesthetics but for the emotions it evokes—its soft palettes, careful brushstrokes, and atmospheric storytelling transport viewers to a another world. Psychology Today even noted that Ghibli’s art activates the brain’s default mode network, a state linked to introspection and calm. The AI-generated versions tap into that same visual comfort, offering users a digital ‘safe space’ to insert themselves into. Nostalgia meets main-character energy.

But here’s the paradox. On one hand, ‘Ghibli-fying’ an image lowers the barrier to participation – anyone can see themselves in the world they love. On the other hand, it raises questions about what happens when AI-generated art removes friction from the creative process.

Compare this to last year’s ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’ trend, which involved framing shots with precision, color-correcting, and curating scenes to fit a particular aesthetic. AI-generated art removes the trial and error, the decision-making, the creative struggle.And if effort is no longer part of the equation, how does that reshape our understanding of culture?

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype cycle of every AI-driven trend. But instead of just chasing viral moments, brands should ask themselves: Are we truly shaping culture, or simply reflecting what consumers already want? There was a time when brands took bold creative risks, shaping narratives rather than reacting to them—not because they were chasing engagement, but because they were driven by vision. Cultural relevance wasn’t a metric to optimize; it was the natural outcome of compelling storytelling and originality.

We are already seeing similar patterns in the media. Consider the number of sequels, prequels and (live-action) remakes Hollywood studios have churned out over the last decade. Audiences aren’t rejecting originality—they’re just being given fewer chances to encounter it. The same thing is happening with AI-generated art: the result might look like Studio Ghibli, but it lacks the depth and human imperfection that make the style resonate in the first place.

To borrow from Kyle Chayka: “In our present moment, I worry much less for artists, who are driven to create things, than for audiences, who may be content to settle for so many pale imitations.” Perhaps the biggest irony lies in the fact that Miyazaki himself once described an AI animation demo as “an insult to life itself”.

Now seems like a good time to mention copyright issues. In what could be a landmark case, The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for training ChatGPT on its articles without permission. OpenAI has added a refusal mechanism that triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist’ while permitting ‘broader studio styles’. This creates a gray area: you can’t request art ‘in the style of Miyazaki’, but ‘Studio Ghibli style’ gets a hall pass.

As the debates about originality and ethics continue to play out, there’s a bigger lesson here for marketers. AI-powered tools aren’t just reshaping how consumers interact with creative content—they’re changing expectations around self-insertion, personalization, and effort.

The real challenge isn’t just AI’s ability to recreate beloved styles – it’s how we, as creatives and consumers, choose to engage with these new tools. AI can bring people closer to the stories they love, but will it inspire new ones?

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

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