The Drum: Anatomy of a deepfake: how Salvador Dalí was brought back to life

Burger King’s Super Bowl spot featuring Andy Warhol eating a Whopper led many viewers to question whether what they were witnessing was real. Warhol, after all, has been dead for nearly 32 years, so how was he available to shoot a commercial?

In transpired that the Warhol in the film was ‘real’ – Burger King had repurposed Danish filmmaker Jørgen Let’s 1982 study of the Factory don. Yet in the same week another artist really was being brought back to life using the same deepfake technology that placed Steve Buscemi’s face onto Jennifer Lawrence in a rather disturbing viral video.

Dalí Lives, the latest project from the the Dalí Museum in Florida, is being marketed as an ‘avant-garde experience’ designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the surrealist’s death. Goodby Silverstein & Partners were brought on board to commemorate the occasion; the San Franciscan agency decided resurrection was the route to go down.