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  1. - Top - End - #1
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    Rynjin's Avatar

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    Default What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    I'm completely blanking on the word. It's not a "brand persona", which is something different. I'm talking about stuff like "Hey, this is Taylor at Monster.com, here's some jobs!"

    Like I know damn well you're not a real person. What are you? What are you called?

    It's driving me insane.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    A corporate mascot?
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    A corporate mascot?
    Not quite the same thing I'm talking about. A mascot is pretty explicitly fake (see: Tony the Tiger), or at least a fictionalized version of a real person (see; Wendy).

    This is a business making up a fake person and trying to kind of pass them off as real. "Taylor" from Monster, or "Chloe" from Upward (...yeah I've been sending a lot of apps recently) are not real people, they're just a personification of whatever algorithm the business uses to send out marketing stuff and other emails to people on their list. When AI chatbots pretend to be a person it falls under this too. Oh yeah, I totally believe Matt Fegler or whatever messaged me within .2 seconds of me opening your website.

    I'd imagine it's called a "something" bot, or it HAS to have some specific name, but for the life of me I can't figure out what.

    Edit: Gah. Brain itch successfully scratched. "Smart Chatbots" (whether used as a chatbot or for email marketing) are the tech, and the personas are just that: chatbot personas.

    I needed the exact terminology but "brand persona" and "marketing persona" are other specific terms and I can't use those for this.
    Last edited by Rynjin; 2022-09-28 at 02:55 PM.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    A corporate mascot?
    I think a mascot would be more Chef Excellence, this is closer to a pseudonym. A pseudonym for a machine, but I honestly can't think of a more specific term.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Are you thinking shill?

    It's an individual hired by the company, or a company employee, who pretends to be a customer to entice someone to buy the product they're hawking...
    May you get EXACTLY what you wish for.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by sihnfahl View Post
    Are you thinking shill?

    It's an individual hired by the company, or a company employee, who pretends to be a customer to entice someone to buy the product they're hawking...
    No, that...doesn't fit my description at all. That would require it to both be a real person (these are definitely bots) and for them to be pretending to be a customer (instead, they are pretending to be a real person working for the company that made the bot).

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Fictional spokesperson or fictional spokes-character. Sometimes it's stated as "fictional brand spokesperson" or "fictional brand ambassador."
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    I believe the accurate term is "corpo-humanoid".
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    I believe the accurate term is "corpo-humanoid".
    That sounds deliciously cyberpunk.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    That sounds deliciously cyberpunk.
    Spoiler alert: it was not.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Roland St. Jude View Post
    Fictional spokesperson or fictional spokes-character. Sometimes it's stated as "fictional brand spokesperson" or "fictional brand ambassador."
    Okay this is brilliant...

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    I believe the accurate term is "corpo-humanoid".
    ...But I like this.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    I believe the accurate term is "corpo-humanoid".
    That episode really explores some unexpected places.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Flo from Progressive insurance would be a good example. Real name is Stephanie Courtney.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Would that be something like Barry Scott, as portrayed by Neil Burgess for Cillit Bang?

    Or more like if CSAs for a complaints department all shared a persona instead of using their real names (like 5e changelings)?
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Where does Ronald McDonald fit into this scheme?
    The end of what Son? The story? There is no end. There's just the point where the storytellers stop talking.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    I can't find it right now, but I remember around late 2018-early 2019 there was a specific controversy on LinkedIn about this. Some company admitted to creating a whole entire profile with a fake name, fake picture, everything. She was the "Director of Client Outreach" or something and she had a resume, work history, connections, the whole shebang. I think they even put some fiddly language into the description to fudge the fact that she wasn't actually human? I can't remember the details.

    But yeah. Companies absolutely do this all the time on their website chat functions. I find it so annoying - not least because you have the much better opportunity to make the chatbot your mascot or a cool AI-sounding name! Who cares if the bot's pretending to be Janet Smith or whatever when you COULD be talking to UltimatePlungerBot9000 or Plungy the Talking Plunger? I know which one I'm more likely to engage with - the tongue-in-cheek one.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ionathus View Post
    I can't find it right now, but I remember around late 2018-early 2019 there was a specific controversy on LinkedIn about this. Some company admitted to creating a whole entire profile with a fake name, fake picture, everything. She was the "Director of Client Outreach" or something and she had a resume, work history, connections, the whole shebang. I think they even put some fiddly language into the description to fudge the fact that she wasn't actually human? I can't remember the details.
    Yes! This! Maybe it's too new to have a specific catch-all term? There are some specific ones (see: "smart chatbot"), but seems to be no big overarching one.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ionathus View Post
    But yeah. Companies absolutely do this all the time on their website chat functions. I find it so annoying - not least because you have the much better opportunity to make the chatbot your mascot or a cool AI-sounding name! Who cares if the bot's pretending to be Janet Smith or whatever when you COULD be talking to UltimatePlungerBot9000 or Plungy the Talking Plunger? I know which one I'm more likely to engage with - the tongue-in-cheek one.
    Right?

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Why not "influencers".

    I refuse to believe influencers are real people and not soulless droids.

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by snowblizz View Post
    Why not "influencers".

    I refuse to believe influencers are real people and not soulless droids.
    Because influencers are freelance.
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ionathus View Post
    But yeah. Companies absolutely do this all the time on their website chat functions. I find it so annoying - not least because you have the much better opportunity to make the chatbot your mascot or a cool AI-sounding name! Who cares if the bot's pretending to be Janet Smith or whatever when you COULD be talking to UltimatePlungerBot9000 or Plungy the Talking Plunger? I know which one I'm more likely to engage with - the tongue-in-cheek one.
    Someone involved in the marketing of these chatbots must have decided that people wouldn't be able to take a non-human personality seriously - maybe they wouldn't trust the answers it gave, maybe even to the point of not bothering to ask their questions. I mean, people are entirely capable of interacting seriously with fictional and non-human characters, some of the time. I wonder if the Clippy factor makes people think of non-human personas as more likely to be shill-like and unhelpful, while a human-named bot might fool some people about its capabilities for long enough?

    After all, you only learn that the chatbots aren't human after you've seen a few or read about them, and that's if you're tech-savvy. At this point, plenty of users probably still believe they're actually (stereotypical) stupid unhelpful script-reading human employees. That might not be a better image for a company to project, though...
    Last edited by theangelJean; 2022-10-06 at 05:26 PM. Reason: Bots, not AI

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    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by halfeye View Post
    Where does Ronald McDonald fit into this scheme?
    I think he is a perfect example. I mean he's a clown and the franchise he represents is a joke. Hits the nail right on the head does it not?

  22. - Top - End - #22
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by BisectedBrioche View Post
    Would that be something like Barry Scott, as portrayed by Neil Burgess for Cillit Bang?

    ...

  23. - Top - End - #23
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    As a programmer I would refer to these names in the general sense as brand aliases, but would in practice distinguish between different kinds both based on generation method and target use.
    Target use would replace the "brand" part generation method would be prefixed with new words.
    The closest I get to clear and consise:
    Quote Originally Posted by Justanotherhero View Post
    Interesting read! Thanks for the post!

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    Default Re: What's it called when a brand makes up a fake person for direct advertising?

    Quote Originally Posted by tomandtish View Post
    Flo from Progressive insurance would be a good example. Real name is Stephanie Courtney.
    I thought I could find the answer by seeing if a similar term was used with different characters.

    Flo is described an "advertising character".

    Lily Adams (played by Milana Vayntraub) is an "AT&T spokeswoman", while Jan ( played by Laurel Coppock) is described as a "Toyota spokesperson".

    Jake from State Farm (Kevin Miles) is an "actual persona" but also described as "the visible face of the company".

    So I guess there's no universal term.
    Last edited by Scarlet Knight; 2022-10-31 at 06:18 AM.
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