The new campaign features an AI customer clone ‘to keep prices low’. But what is the real cost? 

Everywhere I look at the moment, I see her. She lurks on The NZ Herald homepage, her digital grin jarring with the horror-filled headlines about Destiny Church protestors and missing women abroad. I open Instagram stories and she’s there too, beaming in a onesie against a green screen. Go and get some fresh air and she’s plastered all over the bright orange local dairy. There is simply no escaping the clutches of Liz, Skinny’s new AI-cloned representative. 

Earlier this month, the 65-year-old from Kerikeri became the world’s first AI-generated customer-turned-ambassador. Plucked from hundreds of auditions, she spent 11 weeks being captured from head to toe – including full body scans and speaking “for three minutes straight over and over” – to be replicated using AI technology. “I love all my little AI-clones, I call them the ‘Skinnys’ and I am going to love seeing them pop up all over the place,” Liz told Stuff. 

The ad begins with a 1970s-style newsdesk. “Breaking news, Skinny mobile has found a new way to keep prices low,” says Liz. “That’s right,” adds another Liz. “They’ve digitally cloned their happiest customer to make really cost effective ads.” Cut to the outside of the studio, where hundreds upon thousands of Lizzes are dancing while wearing orange velour jumpsuits. Above them looms a row of statues of giant hands, the fingers wrapped tightly around a smartphone. 

My generous reading of the crowd scene is that it is simply a bit of digital fun, kind of like “Elf Yourself” or the time Deep Roy played 165 different Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton’s harrowing Willy Wonka remake. My cynical interpretation, what with all the orange jumpsuits and terrifying giant phone overlords, is that Liz is warning us. Could this be our future AI prison, where the only form of creative expression left is grapevining in unison with our clones? 

It’s supposed to be a celebration, and yet something about this campaign feels unendingly bleak. Liz got paid a talent fee and won mobile credit for life, but that seems like a woefully inadequate reimbursement for handing over your entire likeness to a telecommunications company to flog phone plans for two years. And what about all the other talent, both in front of and behind the camera, who would otherwise bring something like this to life? 

Even though it is hard to gauge how “AI” this ad actually is (social media footage shows Liz wearing a wig, which my dog could probably do with AI), many out there are similarly perturbed. “I’m a 3D artist so it’s literally impossible not to hate big companies who use AI for creative reasons,” someone wrote on Instagram. “Taking work away from copywriters, artists, graphic designers, film crews, editors, and most important the Queen herself, Liz!” said another. 

More specifically, won’t someone think of the fragile comedian-advertising ecosystem here? For years, talented local comics have filled their coffers while lending their voices and faces to big campaigns like this. Where would Rhys Darby be without 2Degrees, David Correos without his Vodafone 4G morph suit? I’m only half joking here, but when every other week we lose a comedian to the UK or Australia, cloning people for two year ad campaigns hardly sweetens the outlook. 

None of this is Liz’s fault, of course. She seems like a genuinely sweet lady who had a whale of a time throughout the process. “I looked really good. It was really exciting and a bit zany,” she told NZ Herald. “Anything that puts New Zealand on the map positively is worth it.” Even with 68% of New Zealanders concerned about the potential malicious use of AI and the lack of regulation, she’s comfortable with her decision: “to me, it is just a tool. That’s my take on it.”

Honestly, what makes me feel the most hollow are the grim AI aesthetics that are slowly poisoning the world. On Instagram I am met with AI baby versions of The Sopranos instead of my real friends, glassy-eyed in gold chains and polo shirts. I head to Facebook to check something in my local community page, only to find a former Real Housewife of Auckland utterly bereft at the world’s fakest AI video of a ripped firefighter gently nuzzling a charred wolf pup. 

This is my own fault, but things have gotten far worse since I searched “skinny AI ad” to check something the other day. My For You page is now literally dripping with AI goop, including zombies made of pizza and horrible toothpaste Momo-people. The term “skinny” has also yielded a rich vein of weight loss and Ozempic content which my brain could really do without, including a skeletal AI cat called Mr Whiskers going to the gym to get shredded. 

Returning to the world of the Skinny ad, we go from the grapevine prison yard back to the bright orange studio where anchor Liz reflects. “Wow, what a heartwarming story about a telco that will do anything to keep prices low and customers happy.” The camera zooms out to reveal the ad playing on a television screen in someone’s cosy lounge, all cross-stich on the wall, fringed lamps and vintage toys. “Wow, we are so happy,” Liz tells the camera from her couch.

Whether it’s the real Liz or not, we can’t be sure. 

Liv Sisson reviews a milestone gig for an ascendant New Zealand act.

On Saturday night, Fazerdaze headlined Auckland’s Powerstation for the very first time. “This is my favourite venue in the whole world,” Amelia Murray (aka Fazerdaze) told the crowd. Playing it clearly meant a lot to her. 

During the set Murray took time to thank the people who made it possible. There were so many she needed a list and joked that this sounded like a 21st speech. On RNZ she said it felt like her wedding day. The show felt like a milestone for Fazerdaze – a singular moment that friends, family and fans had gathered to witness. It was a one-off, a gig the band had been dreaming of and working on for a long time. In August they’re off to tour the US with The Pixies – this was their only NZ show for the foreseeable future.

Fazerdaze opened with ‘Bigger’ the top streamed song from Soft Power – her second album which was released in November and is now shortlisted for the Taite Music Prize. In a recent interview, Murray said it’s a love song about the tension between her ambitious job and personal life – “I’ve felt really challenged doing this job, by touring, the time it takes to write music… and how it can pull me away from the people I love the most.” The song paints a picture of being “caught between this life and [a] dream”. It seemed like this show was a rare moment where the two were intersecting for Fazerdaze.

‘So Easy’ came next and it did in fact, feel easy – the band seemed relaxed but fizzed which I think is exactly what you want for and from your favourite artists. In addition to Murray, the band is made up of  guitarist Dave Rowlands, bassist Kathleen Tomacruz and drummer Oliver O’Loughlin. When Murray introduced them one by one, the mutual admiration was easy to see. “I’m the most unreliable person in the band actually,” she observed, praising everyone’s commitment and musicianship. 

It feels basic to say that this dream-pop darling’s set was dream-like, but it was. And there were other dream-pop darlings in the crowd, namely members of There’s A Tuesday who I feel must’ve been inspired by Fazerdaze from the start. The visuals by Erica Sklenars were textural, whimsical and disorienting at times ranging from city edges to soft petals – lilies, orchids, moths, butterflies and bits of Auckland all featured. The lighting design created a unique environment for each song and reminded me of the dream snippets that stay with me as I wake up – dappled light, flashes of colour, more feeling than form.

The band welcomed Voom’s Buzz Moller to the stage for ‘Break!’ – a song from Fazerdaze’s 2022 EP of the same name. “Buzz always helps me finish my songs,” Murray said. The song tells the story, in a way, of where her first album Morningside led – to huge success but also burnout. Morningside came out in 2017 when Murray was living and working in Auckland. It put her on the map in a big way but also saw her personal life and mental health fall apart. In the five years that followed Murray largely disappeared from the music scene and left Auckland for a quieter life in Christchurch. In 2022, she re-emerged with Break! And thicker hair. 

Legendary bass player Cass Mitchell, another surprise guest, joined the crew for ‘Purple’. Something went wrong with her sound though. Once the song wrapped Murray didn’t shy away from addressing it, “Could you hear Cass’s bass?” she asked, “Just wondering if that’s the universe being like no double bass on stage?!” The crowd chuckled, everyone took it in stride. 

“This is our first time playing this next one,” Murray said while turning to her band, “Good luck team!” They didn’t need it though, ‘Distorted Dreams’ was lovely – melancholic, echoey, synthy. With just 53 unique words in the lyrics, the song captured another aspect of Fazerdaze’s dreamlike quality. Her songs feel effortless and lightly written. Like the dream threads you’re left with once you wake. There’s only a bit there but you know there’s a tonne underneath, that so much went into the final form. Murray spoke to this directly: the Soft Power album, she said between songs, was extremely hard to make and required everything from her.

From there the show pared down to its peak moment. First with ‘Sleeper’ played just by Murray and guitarist Dave Rowlands in front of a luminous rotating moon graphic which glinted off of Murray’s sparkly white outfit. “I love your dress,” someone shouted afterwards. Murray ran with this, and told us that Rose Hope from Crushes had dressed her, that all artists need a Rose. 

Murray was then suddenly the only one left on stage for ‘City Glitter’. It was tender, a little forlorn and very beautiful. At the end of the song Murray cut it cleanly with her looping pedal, creating a moment of stillness and silence. “I wrote that song about this city… it was my goodbye to this city… I came to so many shows here alone when I was struggling.. this just feels so full-circle to me,” Murray said after, getting emotional and even a little teary. 

The full band returned to the stage for the final section. They played ‘Soft Power’ from the latest album with Shannon Fowler (aka Tom Lark). Murray explained they’d met in Christchurch, her new home city. She shouted out his support and that of another Tom, too. Fazerdaze sound engineer, Tom Lynch, Murray said, had also played a major role in the creation of the new album and even lent her heaps of gear to get it done. Murray plugged her merch after, but mostly the exclusive signed posters – all the proceeds were going to MusicHelps, a charity she had leaned on when she was struggling.

The group closed with a tour through the Fazerdaze eras with hits from their early, middle and most recent work – ‘Lucky Girl’, ‘Thick of the Honey’ and ‘Cherry Pie’ respectively. The four band members jammed together across the trio of songs, bringing that end-of-show energy which saw the crowd respond in kind – we were dancing hard to ‘Lucky Girl’, singing along to ‘Thick of the Honey’ and then reverent once more for ‘Cherry Pie’.

‘Cherry Pie’ was the perfect ending –  bittersweet, reflective, lush. Vibrant red strobes undercut by brat green flashes really made this song pop on stage and reminded us once more that this show was a dream the band had brought to life specifically for this place and this night. 

“My mind is changing, forever is fading, so we search for something else,” Fazerdaze sang. The show felt like a documentation of that search Murray has undertaken – from success, to burnout, from Auckland to Christchurch, from mainstream management to her own way of working. While parts of that search have been painful, it seems to have led somewhere beautiful and somewhere right for Fazerdaze.