Citation :

Mainank Yeluri, "Seeing Class Through Code: How AI-Based Visual Marketing Reproduces Social Hierarchies in Global and Indian Marketing Strategies," International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 72-79, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V13I4P108

Abstract

AI-generated visuals are growing more common in advertising, as they are used to cut costs and time. However, the results of these visuals are not the same across audiences, and realism may be unevenly distributed between luxury and mass-market brands. Existing research mostly examines AI visuals through individual variables (trust, creativity) and in Western contexts, rarely comparing the AI visuals across different brand classes, especially in India. The objective of this study was to examine how AI aesthetics shape perception and whether those perceptions are class-coded across luxury and mass brands. This study used qualitative-dominant mixed methods. It takes the form of a comparative digital case study of three ads (Coca-Cola, Valentino, Tata Gluco+), with a human-made Apple ad used in interviews as a human-made reference point, supported by 3 semi-structured interviews, a 32-respondent survey of urban participants 15–25, and secondary data from public and industry commentary. The study found that a brand’s class shaped how its visuals were judged, rather than them being judged on their own. It also found that there was a shared visual grammar for detecting the presence of AI; however, detection did not lead to disengagement alone, but execution and brand positioning were more significant. This study shifts the question from whether AI harms perception to under what conditions it does.

Keywords

AI-Generated Visuals, Brand Perception, Class-Coding, Luxury And Mass-Market Brands, Visual Marketing.

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