Responding to the recent wave of AI-generated art mimicking Studio Ghibli’s whimsical aesthetic, a trend often referred to as “Ghiblification,” Greenpeace’s latest campaign taps into the trend. With the tagline ‘No filter can hide the truth,’ the visuals deliver a sobering counterpoint, hoping to remind people that environmental devastation cannot be romanticized.
But there’s an unsettling contradiction at the heart of this campaign, both ethically and environmentally.
According to a 2024 article in The Guardian, there’s an “ugly truth” behind AI platforms like ChatGPT, which can now create images. Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics at UCL and director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, points out that “large language models such as ChatGPT are some of the most energy-guzzling technologies of all.” Research suggests that training GPT-3 at Microsoft’s data centers may have required up to 700,000 liters of water for cooling alone.
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From a cultural standpoint, there’s also tension. Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki has long been critical of AI in animation. Known for his meticulous hand-drawn work and humanistic storytelling, Miyazaki expressed his discomfort with the technology in the 2016 documentary called ‘Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki’. In it, developers showed him an AI-generated animation of a zombie character, boasting that it could create “grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine.”
Miyazaki responded with a personal story: “Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” he said. “It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted… I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
Greenpeace has a long history of provocative, image-driven campaigns dating back to the 1970s. A spokesperson for Greenpeace Greece told The Drum the organization sought to “tap into this trend to reach a wide audience” and to “highlight the stark contrast between the idealized, comforting aesthetic of Studio Ghibli and the harsh realities of the climate crisis.”
They added: “We recognize that generative AI tools offer opportunities for leaps forward in areas like renewable energy and healthcare, but also many threats. The growing energy demands required to power these tools could exacerbate the climate crisis if met by burning fossil fuels.”
Greenpeace acknowledged the internal contradiction, adding that it is “using some of these tools cautiously under specific circumstances”, all while “continuing to campaign for the phase-out of fossil fuels in our energy systems.”
On LinkedIn, people from within the advertising community were quick to spot the apparent miss from the organization, too. System1’s Andrew Tindall pointed out that it was a “massive miss” from Greenpeace.
He wrote: “Brilliant example of jumping on a trend, forgetting your brand strategy, and replacing consistency with a shot at going viral. Framing AI as good or bad isn’t helpful. OpenAI’s new image functions and booming LLM have brilliant applications, especially for challenger brands,”
“But we can all agree the viral Studio Ghibli posts are cringeworthy at best. Blatant IP issues and the fact that they all get so much traction show that marketers love shiny new things. Greenpeace saw the trend, decided to disregard generative AI’s energy and water issues, and took a shot at a clever viral post. Ironically, helping fuel the crisis.”
When asked about their overall stance on AI, the Greenpeace spokesperson concluded: “For this reason and other ethical concerns, our general policy is not to use generative AI to create images for external use. In this case, we made a conscious exception to use this digital trend to spark debate and raise awareness.”
