Why HDFC Bank planted a deepfake video of Nora Fatehi and asked her to call it out
The stunt marketing campaign, conceptualised by FCB Kinnect, started with Nora Fatehi calling out 'Lulumelon' for creating a deepfake video of hers for promotional purposes. It wasn't until today that HDFC Bank unveiled that she was a part of its 'End Of Scam Sale' brand campaign with Vigil Aunty
In recent times many celebrities including Rashmika Mandanna, Sachin Tendulkar, Taylor Swift, etc. have fallen prey to deepfake videos not just in India but across the globe.
Most recently, it was Nora Fatehi who took to her official Instagram handle to post about how a brand, called ‘Lulumelon’, created a deepfake video of hers for promotional purposes and made headlines.
Some days back, Fatehi had openly called out the brand for using a deepfake video of hers and shared the company’s post with an added line- “Shocked! THIS IS NOT ME.”
It wasn’t until today that HDFC Bank accepted that it was its creative AOR, FCB Kinnect, which executed a stunt marketing campaign in collaboration with Vigil Aunty and Fatehi and created a fictitious brand to add gravitas to its ‘What the Fraud’ series.
Furthermore, the agency also helped the brand establish multiple social media handles and diverse website domains such as lulumelon.in and lulumelon.sk to make the not-so-real campaign look seemingly real.
But that being said, if any of the curious shoppers or netizens land on the 'Lulumelon' websites, Fatehi herself steps in to clarify that the deepfake video wasn’t true and was only a part of HDFC’s What The Fraud (WTF) episode.
For what its worth, as much coverage and buzz it generated in the media sphere, the recent stunt marketing campaign for HDFC Bank is a classic case of leveraging the optimism bias of the audiences who believe nothing bad could happen to them, until they finally get a reality check.
Kartikeya Tiwari, National Creative Director, FCB Kinnect, said, “Discounts are a big part of the Indian psychology, which makes it so easy for AI to give an illusion of something genuine just by throwing a couple of mind-blowing offers around. We had a lot of fun getting our creative and media teams to think like that of a scamster.”
Jahid Ahmed, Senior Vice-President and Head of Digital Acquisition, Website, social media and Content Marketing, HDFC Bank, added, “Many people fall victim to scams because of a false sense of security, believing it could never happen to them. We used deep fakes since they have been rampant in our society of late, with celebrities like Rashmika Mandanna, Sachin Tendulkar, and Alia Bhatt, among others also falling victim to it.”
In November of last year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued advisories to social media firms concerning 'deep fakes'. They reminded these platforms of their legal obligations under the IT Act 2000 and IT Rules 2021, stipulating that they must remove such content from their platforms within 24 hours.
Ravi Santhanam, Group Head, CMO, Head-Direct to Consumer Business, HDFC Bank, said, “With 'people' at the core of our values, we believe in taking initiatives that educate and equip people for their safety. We have gone to great lengths with Vigil Aunty to spread awareness about financial fraud entertainingly, and with 'End of Scam Sale', we wanted to challenge people's optimism bias and show them how susceptible they are to fraud.”
Mayank Jain, Scientist-E/Director to Govt. of India, Digital Economy Division, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said, “I am happy to see this initiative of HDFC Bank. In my opinion, this will help in disseminating the awareness of public awareness about Deepfakes, rising negative use cases of AI (Artificial Intelligence) apart from curbing the Cyber Financial frauds.”
Naveen Jakhar, I.T.S, Assistant Director General (AI & DIU), Artificial Intelligence and Digital Intelligence Unit, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, added, “I have seen the video and information conveyed through the conversation of Nora Fatehi and Vigil Aunty is so meaningful to the citizens wherein they can easily corelate it to the new age crimes like deep fake, fake videos, fake audios which might be misused in carrying out cyber-crimes and financial frauds also. Sincerely appreciate the efforts of HDFC Bank in thinking out of the box for keeping the citizens informed and aware on the subject matter.”
Credits
Client: HDFC Bank
Agency: FCB Kinnect
Creative: Kartikeya Tiwari, National Creative Director; Savio Banerjee, Group Creative Director; Viral Gangar, Creative Director and Dishant Shah, Sr. Creative Executive
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