This new BMW ad is real. For real
In its latest BMW Certified Sales Event campaign BMW is tackling AI with a rallying cry for authenticity.
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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 just 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 humor, 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” A.I. 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.
