Real beats realistic
AI video tools can now take one photo and make a person talk on camera in a way that’s hard to tell from a real phone video. A lot of what gets made this way is ads where a “customer” who doesn’t exist tells you how great a product is.
For a local roofer, plumber, or restaurant, that’s a trap. The whole business runs on being the real people who show up. A made-up customer saying “they fixed my roof in a day” is a fake testimonial, and the FTC’s rule on reviews and testimonials covers AI-generated ones that pretend to come from someone who doesn’t exist. If a neighbor figures it out, it costs more than the ad ever earned.
There’s still a lot worth learning from how careful AI ad makers work:
- The script wins, not the format. Polish can’t save a weak message. Get the words right before you open any tool.
- Storyboard it. Each line of the script in one column, what’s on screen in the other. Rough notes are fine.
- Keep it simple. The ads that work tend to just say the message clearly. They don’t need the fastest, flashiest edits.
- Real details are what make video believable. Careful AI makers start from a real phone photo because a real phone picks up the grain, skin texture, and little imperfections our brains use to decide whether to trust a face. You already have that for free. It’s your crew on an actual job.
What we can do this week
- Shoot one real 30-second clip on a phone: the owner or a tech saying one clear thing customers need to know.
- Write the script first. Three lines: the problem, what you do, what to do next. Let AI help tighten the wording.
- Ask a real customer if they’d say one sentence on camera. A shaky real one beats a perfect fake one.
- If you use an AI presenter or voice, say so. Never present it as a customer, and never copy a real person’s face or voice without their permission.
- Use AI where it helps honestly: captions, a cleaner script, a simple animation of how a job works, a translated version for customers who speak another language.
Anybody can buy “realistic” now. Real is the part you can’t fake for long.