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I was looking at a recent issue of “Our State” Magazine (June 2025) and saw an advertisement for Campbell University. There was a pretty student smiling at me. I thought, “That girl has a really pretty smile,” and then I went on to browse the rest of the magazine. But I picked up this magazine again, and thumbed through the pages passing her image again. Still had that pretty smile.

I think it was about the third time of seeing this ad that the thought came to me. “She does have a really pretty smile,” I wonder if she really is a student at Campbell University or not. So I took a picture of her and then did a Google Image Search. Sure enough this exact same image came up for several other businesses on the Internet, and I even found a different photo, from the same photo shoot for this commercial actress. One other warning flag happened when I ran the image past my AI (Gemini) and it described the image as of “an attractive young woman with a pretty smile and her hand in her hair.” I then realized you don’t get the perfect picture without planning, and this “come hither” look had to be planned.

I’m not sure there is anything wrong with using a commercial actress in an advertisement understanding that your audience is going to imagine that the person they see is somehow directly connected to your business or institution in a positive way, but maybe.