Beware the "30-Minute Trick"!
Ai merges with disingenuous pill ads by hijacking the bodies and voices of celebrities
Two of my online irritants have finally merged into something likely illegal, and likely to spark serious lawsuits once the injured parties find out.
I've railed before about click-bait ads that hint they will show you some "7-second (or 10-second) trick (or hack, or ritual, or loophole, or technique)" that nearly always is a come-on for A PILL or powder (sometimes a book), with a "best deal" price if you buy six.
I've also railed before about Ai infusions into text, and more obvious examples where Ai is used to create impossible visual fabrications, such as "American Idol" type fakes where a person is made to turn into, or merge with, some fake animal, while the judges gape in wonder at something they are obviously not watching in real life, in real time, on their show's stage.
Now, the click-bait "trick/hack/ritual/loophole/technique" ads get to be rather obvious after a while, because the language they use, and the clues within, point to the obvious endgame: buy the product (any useful info in the LOOOOONG video is incidental).
And the silly transformation Fakebook reels (often imported from TikTok) are too bizarre to be confused with reality.
BUT, I have now seen, for certain, TWO brazen mergers of these two disingenuous tropes, and maybe a third.
Today, I was watching a Farcebook "reel" (short videos that, once you click on one of a particular type, you are drowned in an endless stream of more of them; I routinely get Seinfeld reels, and, ever since clicking on ONE Dick Van Dyke Show reel, ONE of impressionist Jim Meskimen, and of ONE guy showing how to moonwalk, I NOW get tons of these every day). As is the norm, when the viewed reels are over (or if they are long, they get interrupted mid-sentence) some video ad comes on, often strangely tied to some issue or medical condition you have either mentioned online, or ONCE clicked on some article or link seeking info.
On today's intrusive post-reel video, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, standing behind her lectern, in front of the White House logo, said they had a "leaked" video of Elon Musk warning about the dangers of metformin. — AND HERE'S THE BIG DEAL — Elon is seen talking into some desk mic, like he's doing an interview, and he starts talking about the dangers of Metformin, and says "there's a 30-second kitchen trick" created by this doctor, and he goes on sounding EXACTLY like those duplicitous click-bait ads, word for word! They then show him at some rally behind a podium, saying much the same thing, things he'd NEVER be saying at any rally or at any interview.
Something doesn't make sense! Why is a multi-hundred-billionaire hawking some "30-second trick" supplement, and on Fox News, no less, which is where the intro leads to, with "Sean Hannity" taking over for Leavitt?
Wait… just a day or so back, I was watching another reel, and, when over, it went to some female Fox News anchor (Laura Ingraham, I believe) introducing Bobby Kennedy Jr. who was then sitting behind his desk, and, in his clearly recognizable voice, began to talk, sounding JUST LIKE one of those "7-second ritual" ads, promoting some new scientific breakthrough by some Ivy-League doctor or team (it's ALWAYS some Ivy-League name-drop). It self-terminated before it ended, or before I could click to see where this was heading, as I couldn't believe RFK was hawking a product from his HHS desk. Something in me said it HAD TO BE an Ai deep fake.
And with TWO such "celebrity ads" I have to wonder if Musk and Kennedy are aware their image and voice have been STOLEN to promote a (likely shady) pill or powder?
Which now makes me suspicious of a real long ad disguised as a special documentary PSA I saw a week or so ago, in which beloved weather-anchor Al Roker was "interviewed" by Lester Holt, in an obvious infomercial for some heart supplement. Holt's set-up questions were too pat, the answers soooo much like all those "7-second hack" videos, with so much repetition. And why was Holt sitting at his NBC News desk? Does NBC know that Holt is moonlighting as a pill pushing emcee for a pill pushing spokesman?
In the video, Roker "himself" seemed genuine and sincere, which only makes this more disconcerting and concerning. The seeming verisimilitude has now reached such a high level that it is almost impossible, at first glance, to tell fake from real.
IF ANY PERSON — particularly celebrities in politics, business, or the media — can have their image and voice hijacked by unscrupulous companies to push products (or services, or political positions, or anything) without their knowledge, what recourse do those persons have, and how can the public be aware that this is fraud? One had to look real closely to see the seams, or, in my case, had to be familiar with the typical "7-second loophole" language of these ads, and most persons would not be as familiar, if at all.
Sure, silly pill ads aren't going to do more than sucker some gullible folks into over-spending for some questionable product; heck, for over 100 years numerous celebrities were PAID handsomely to endorse products and such, because many will buy something JUST BECAUSE some famous person says nice things about it.
But what if the same "30-minute technique" were used to put words in someone's mouth, like, say a politician, that they would never say? Will we ever be able to believe ANYTHING we see or hear anymore when the means exist to bamboozle us with a level of technical proficiency never before possible?
The old adage, "Believe Nothing You Hear, and Only One Half That You See" will have to be amended to "Believe Nothing."
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/23/half-see/
I saw the fake "Musk" ad again today after a reel about the future as seen from the past. It wasn't a news anchor, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, standing behind her lectern, in front of the White House logo, saying they had a "leaked" video of Musk warning about the dangers of metformin. When "Musk" started what sounded like a typical online ad, including mentioning a "30-second kitchen trick" and "30-second tea trick" I knew it was fake.
I can't seem to save the intro, but I saved the link it went to, which has an Ai "Sean Hannity" (under a non-linkable "FOX NEWS logo, making it seem like this was a NEWS piece) introduce an Ai "Musk" at a "MAHA conference" (there's no such thing), who then introduces this British-accented (actually, she's Australian, it seems) female "doctor" (not an MD, it seems) I've seen in many similar online ads (turns out, she too, is not really part of this, but also was hijacked by the scammers). And after the buildup, and following the standard ad template to the letter, it's all about selling pills. (And "the next nine minutes" turns into more than a half hour!)
https://skadiguava.top/hDwxEmTt if you want to see the "Hannity/Musk" deep fake.
All I could do was report this fake misrepresentation to Fecesbook, as a "fake celebrity impersonation" but, having reported frauds to FB in the past (like counterfeit US postage stamps that the USPS has declared as counterfeit) I know Farcebook will do NOTHING to stop such frauds, which they claim "does not violate our Community Standards" because they will do nothing to stop any flow of income to them, even if fraudulent.
I saw a new ad today, on Fecesbook, that I knew was of the same ilk, because it started with "ABC World News Tonight with David Muir" (clearly a deep fake heist of Muir) "reporting on" a "30-second ritual"! That was all I needed to hear to know it was FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!!!
Then the chyron blurts out "BREAKING NEWS/ VIRAL RITUAL STUNS EXPERTS" "Dubbed the Third-Eye Awakening" and "THIRD EYE HACK CHANGES ALL"! And, fortunately for us all, ABC News has obtained a "copy" of the "documentary" which "you must watch" before it's taken down "again."
Of course, the "brief" documentary "banned in 65 countries" is almost an hour long!
It follows EVERY trope that EVERY other such deep fake AD for PILLS (not revealed as such until near the end) utilizes, which you can, of course, buy in lots of 1, 3, or 6 --"for the best price!"-- with a mixture of real facts, made-up BS backstory, a narrator who "chooses not to reveal his face for fear of retribution by those powers who would silence him," and much mumbo jumbo that combines known facts (and some esoteric reveals) about the pineal gland and some blather about ancient Egyptian tombs and secret texts found there that detailed a secret formula to decalcify and activate the powers hidden in that mid-brain organ. (Turns out I take most of the ingredients in their formula, because I know of their value).
But what irks me is that this is so much like every other similar ad that uses deceptive deep fake intros to hook you into believing it's more than just an ad for pills, which it invariably turns out to be, complete with every other trope that must have been group-tested and proven to work to sucker the gullible into buying whatever they're selling.
Here's the URL the Farcebook link leads to. I don't expect you to waste an hour watching it all, though it does have some interesting material about the pineal gland that more persons should know about, particularly how it is negatively impacted by fluoride and other toxins, and, yes, studies have shown that certain mushrooms and other natural remedies, like chlorella and amla, CAN reverse such damage and improve pineal function. BUT, as this ad is so full of deception and hokum, I would strongly advise NOT dealing with such unscrupulous characters:
https://ancientmindelixir.com/news6j-c1/