This recent quote from tech analyst Shelly Palmer cuts to the heart of marketing’s existential crisis when it comes to our human role in the emerging AI World:
The debate over AI and its role in creative industries often centers on one question: Can AI ever be as creative as humans? While it’s tempting to philosophize about inspiration and ingenuity, this line of inquiry misses a crucial point for anyone tasked with making practical decisions about content creation: If the audience can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-generated content—or if they don’t care—then, for all practical purposes, there is no difference.
The solution to this is obvious — MAKE. THEM. CARE.
There are many ways to do that (outlined in my book Audacious). And last week, I wrote that our marketing content needs to approach the level of art, displaying our unique story and interpretation of the human experience.
But in a discussion last week with the brilliant and ever-so-human Joseph Jaffe, another key principle of this new business reality struck. me: Strategic Imperfection. Sometimes, the most humble human content outshines AI’s polished results. Let’s look at this extremely important lesson.
The Jaffe surprise
Joseph hosts a YouTube show called Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous. He was inspired to create something uplifting and fun in the dark Covid days and never stopped. I’ve never seen a person put more care and craft into video interviews, so please check it out (here is my episode!).
For each show, Joseph digs out obscure “fun facts” about his guests. These tidbits are often embarrassing and always weird to get a rise out of the guest. For me, he discovered that as a young man, I had danced with JonBenét Ramsey’s mother. This is true, and if you make it to the end of this post, I’ll spill the story.
Back to Joseph. He turned to AI to create an image of me dancing with Patricia Ramsey to poke fun at me. As a reference, this is what these two people actually look like:
Here are the AI-generated results of the two of us dancing from MidJourney, ChatGPT, and Grok:
As you can see, none of these images really hit the mark. Joseph became exasperated. He had spent too much time trying to coax AI prompts into something polished and perfect, and out of frustration, just whipped together a crude cut-and-paste image:
This final result looks like something from a grade school art class, yet it is awesome, and a great example of strategic imperfection. It’s funny and foolish and captures the spirit of Joe’s show. It made me laugh out loud.
This is not just a one-off observation about humanity and creativity. The rawness and playfulness of imperfect humans is a significant content trend that can help you cut through the pandemic of dull that is marketing today.
The science of strategic imperfection
This phenomenon of exposing human flaws has deep psychological roots. The Pratfall Effect, discovered by psychologist Elliot Aronson in 1966, demonstrated something counterintuitive: people who are perceived as highly competent become more likable when they make (and admit) a minor mistake. Think about that for a second. The perfection we’ve been chasing might actually be pushing our audiences away.
Research by Baba Shiv at Stanford further suggests that imperfections create cognitive “hooks” in our brains. When we encounter a flaw in otherwise polished content, it creates a moment of surprise that enhances memory and engagement. Our brains, wired to detect patterns and anomalies, pay special attention to these inconsistencies.
In Audacious, I profile the king of viral video, Michael Krivicka, who explained that his key to success was out-of-focus shots, poor audio, and camera dust. It makes his videos look REAL … and he never uses AI.
The trend across media
A fascinating article in The New York Times explained that after years of seeking perfection, developers realized that gamers often prefer low-fidelity graphics. It’s not about the Hollywood experience. It’s about hanging out with friends over a simple and fun game.
Developers are now deliberately stepping away from the hyper-polished visuals that dominated titles for years. Studios like Ninja Theory have embraced imperfect motion capture and raw voice acting to create more emotionally resonant experiences in games like “Hellblade.” The intentional shakiness of the camera, the imperfect lighting – these elements create a sense of presence that polish efforts often fail to deliver.
In social media, the rise of “casual posting” and “photo dumps” represents a similar shift. Even celebrities and influencers are posting unedited, unfiltered content that would have been considered unprofessional just a few years ago. The most successful TikTok creators understand that a slightly messy room in the background or an unscripted laugh creates more connection than a perfectly staged setting.
In podcasting, the shows topping the charts often maintain conversational tangents, verbal stumbles, and authentic reactions rather than editing for perfect flow. These “mistakes” signal authenticity to listeners, making the content feel like a genuine conversation rather than a performance. All of my Marketing Companion podcast episodes are done in one take with no editing.
If you want to see a great example of the lo-fi digital aesthetic, check out this website from musician Mabe Fratti. It’s lo-fi, interactive, and WILD.
Strategic imperfection
This trend toward strategic imperfection isn’t just aesthetic – it’s a rational business response to deeper cultural shifts:
1. Trust Erosion: In an era of deepfakes and AI-generated content, audiences are developing a healthy skepticism toward anything that looks too perfect. Visible imperfections signal human creation.
2. Digital Fatigue: After years of curated feeds and polished content, audiences crave the refreshing authenticity of unfiltered humanity.
3. Connection Hunger: Post-pandemic, people are seeking genuine human connection, even through digital media. Imperfection creates intimacy.
Here’s the critical distinction for marketers: strategic imperfection is not the same as poor quality. The most successful practitioners of this approach maintain high standards while selectively allowing human elements to show through.
Apple’s recent “Shot on iPhone” campaigns perfectly illustrate this balance. The photos and videos showcase impressive technical capability while maintaining the slightly imperfect framing and timing of real human photography. They’re professionally imperfect – and that’s the sweet spot.
Proof of Human
In a world where AI can generate seemingly perfect content with ease, human imperfection becomes a powerful differentiator. The subtle flaws in human-created content may soon be the most reliable indicator that a real person was behind it. “Proof of Human” is a significant trend for all of us going forward.
As marketing professionals, our job isn’t to achieve perfection – it’s to create connection. And sometimes, the quickest path to that connection is through the strategic embrace of our wonderfully human imperfections.
The brands that understand this paradox – that flaws can be features rather than bugs – will cut through the noise and build the authentic connections that drive lasting engagement.
Because in the end, we don’t connect with perfection. We connect with humanity. And humanity, by its very nature, is gloriously imperfect.
The rest of the story
Since you’ve made it this far, I’ll reward you with the dancing story.
Patsy Ramsey was JonBenét Ramsey’s mother and a key player in one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history.
But when I knew her, she was Patsy Paugh, a Miss America contestant from my home state of West Virginia.
My mother was involved in community theater and performed in a show with Patsy. She became a family friend and would visit our home. I scored major cool points when I brought Miss West Virginia to speak at my high school.
Somehow my mom dragged me into a community theater Christmas show and I danced with Patsy while we sang “Let It Snow.” I am not a great singer and a terrible dancer, but it was OK because nobody was looking at me anyway.
Once Patsy graduated from college, we lost touch with her and never saw her again. Her life was full of tragedy and pain, but to the teenage me, she was a beautiful, shining star.
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