Can’t Get Cast? TikTok Is Using Superintelligence Video Apps to Walk the Victoria’s Secret Runway, Dogs Included

LOS ANGELES — Almost nobody gets cast in the Victoria’s Secret show. Nobody’s dog does. So TikTok found a workaround: upload one photo, and an AI video template sends you (or the dog) down a glossy runway in giant feathered wings, waving, strutting and blowing a kiss at the end. It runs 10 to 13 seconds, vertical, ready for the feed (MakeViral; Starrd; Media.io).

How fast it moved

The timeline below comes from MakeViral, one of the template sellers, so treat it as the vendor’s account:

• Oct. 13: TikTok posts start showing a “Victoria’s Secret AI filter” made from one selfie.
• Oct. 17: the hashtag #vsecretai starts for AI runway posts. A creator, @fluffie_the_pom, posts an AI Pomeranian in pink crystal wings trotting down the runway with a slice of pizza; MakeViral counts 20,600 views by Oct. 20.
• Oct. 18: the real show streams live from Los Angeles.
• Oct. 19: three AI video sites add a ready-made runway template. By Oct. 20, MakeViral counts 42 videos under #vsecretai.

The price of a fake angel walk: about $7.50 in credits at Starrd, and 56 to 126 credits at MakeViral.

Not Victoria’s Secret, and they say so

The sellers are careful about the brand. MakeViral says it “is not linked to Victoria’s Secret.” Media.io calls its version “a fan-inspired effect, not an official Victoria’s Secret product.”

They’re careful about faces, too. The rules printed on their own pages:

• “Use your own photo, or one of a friend who said yes. Never a celebrity or a stranger.” (MakeViral)
• “TikTok, Instagram and YouTube all require AI-generated content to be disclosed.” (Starrd)
• “Use a clear photo you have permission to edit.” (Media.io)

What Victoria’s Secret actually did

We found no report that Victoria’s Secret used AI-generated models or imagery in the show. Its push this year was people: an episodic series, Angels Among Us, that crowned 21-year-old Solange Omon as its newest Angel (MediaPost), plus ticket drops and a post-show TikTok Live (Adweek) and a bet on creators (Glossy).

Our take

The pet version is the best version. The rest comes with a rule we already keep at Nightlife Report: we don’t make AI images of real people, and we label anything AI-altered. If you make an angel walk, make it of yourself or someone who said yes, and keep the AI label on. The real runway still belongs to the people who walked it, from Culver City to the models we interview in West Hollywood. Our standards: Modeling isn’t toxic. Gatekeeping is.

More from our Victoria’s Secret week: the Fantasy Bra backlash and the stock bump and the TikTok hashtags still climbing.

Discuss this on the forum

AI angel walk: harmless fun, or the start of a fake-runway problem? Discuss this on the forum.

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