In the article “Lil Miquela and the virtual influencer hype, explained” by Kaitlyn Tiffany, the journalist takes a critical deep dive into the phenomenon of virtual influencers, spearheaded by the presence of Lil Miquela. Lil Miquela is the most famous of virtual influencers for being the first to take off in popularity across social media. She is rendered as a relatively-attractive forever-19-year old person with signature space buns, flyaway hair, and freckles. Her digitally-sculpted face is superimposed over a real body that utilized live-tracking technology, to give the impression of a moving, living person. Lil Miquela’s movements are largely uncanny as AI, rendering and AR technology has not largely developed to create the seamless virtual influences that Lil Miquela represents. She also assumes a relatable, thinking-and-feeling personality much like the behaviors of actual influencers, where her involvement in showing off her fabricated lifestyle and monetization. Lil Muquels is altogether a rather fascinating example of the potential that online marketing companies appear to envision for the future of their digital presence, although this proves to be rather disappointing and unappealing to the everyday consumer of virtual influencer-related content. The creators of Lil Miquela indicate rather vague intentions for the creation and investment in such content, other than the revealed goal of marketing and selling their abilities to marketing companies. The virtual teen influencer was utilized in a marketing campaign for Calvin Klein, where she was displayed kissing internationally-famous model Bella Hadid. Since the sudden success of Lil Miquela, few but vocal similar influences have spawned in her wake, either gaining a following to advertise various beauty and clothing products for, all with a nebulous creative team whose intents are relatively unknown.
The presence of virtual influencers comes at a very complicated time where debates about diversity and inclusion in the modeling/fashion industry are widespread and heated. Additionally, the amount of money being sunk into the generation of virtual models comes at the cost of current technology’s shortcomings to be completely realistic, and the appeal of influencers like Miquela are due to the flashiness of her nuance and uncanniness. The phenomenon of virtual influencers is best compared to the hype of hoverboards several decades ago: the staple of the future dream, but realistically impossible and impractical.
Lil Miquela
Lil Miquela in an actual song + their campaign.
Lil Miquela "growing up"
Lil Miquela in an ad with Bella Hadid.