Examining Consumer Appraisals of Deepfake Advertising and Disclosure: Show Deepfakes as “Real Life” or Say They’re “Just Fantasy”?

Lucas Whittaker; Rory Mulcahy; Rebekah Russell-Bennett; Kate Letheren; Jan Kietzmann

doi:10.1080/00218499.2025.2498830

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Examining Consumer Appraisals of Deepfake Advertising and Disclosure: Show Deepfakes as “Real Life” or Say They’re “Just Fantasy”?

Journal article

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Examining Consumer Appraisals of Deepfake Advertising and Disclosure: Show Deepfakes as “Real Life” or Say They’re “Just Fantasy”?

Lucas Whittaker, Rory Mulcahy, Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Kate Letheren and Jan Kietzmann

Journal of Advertising Research, Vol.66(1), pp.113-134

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00218499.2025.2498830

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Abstract

deepfakes

advertising

cognitive appraisal

quality

disclosure

Deepfakes are a controversial and emerging AI-facilitated advertising tool warranting empirical exploration. This research explores the phenomenon of deepfake advertising, and how deepfake quality, disclosure presence, and disclosure characteristics are appraised by consumers to influence advertising outcomes. Across three experimental studies utilizing deepfake advertisements, this research reveals that high-quality deepfake advertisements are appraised similarly to their original counterparts. High-quality, disclosed deepfakes trigger an emotion-value appraisal process which explains consumer responses and subsequent advertising outcomes. Disclosure presence and timing influence this process and can enhance or hinder advertising effectiveness.

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Title: Examining Consumer Appraisals of Deepfake Advertising and Disclosure: Show Deepfakes as “Real Life” or Say They’re “Just Fantasy”?
Authors: Lucas Whittaker - Swinburne University of Technology
Rory Mulcahy - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Rebekah Russell-Bennett - University of Canberra
Kate Letheren - Australian Catholic University
Jan Kietzmann - University of Victoria
Publication details: Journal of Advertising Research, Vol.66(1), pp.113-134
Publisher: The Advertising Research Foundation
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1080/00218499.2025.2498830
ISSN: 1740-1909
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991140305302621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Business; Communication