June 20, 2025

AI Can’t Build a Brand, Because It’s Never Had a Broken Heart

by | Brand, Reflections

Some truth can't be coded

Let’s get real.

AI can write a pitch, design a logo, build a website, maybe even spit out a tagline that sounds okay on paper, but let’s be honest, most of it still feels like reading a script written by a committee of polite aliens who studied Earth commercials on YouTube.

Because real branding, it’s not data, it’s not content, it’s not just marketing.

Brand is emotion, brand is psychology, it’s primal, it’s connection.

And that’s why AI can’t replace a human who gets it, not yet.

I’ve spent 30 years working in branding, advertising, and storytelling. No matter how much the tech evolves, one thing hasn’t changed: if a brand doesn’t make someone feel something, it’s already dead.

Tech Has Changed Us, Fast

A recent article in Scientific American explains how our brains have fundamentally rewired themselves in the last two decades, adapting to fractured attention spans and endless streams of digital input. The way we absorb information has literally evolved faster than at any other time in human history, but our emotional receptors, they haven’t changed, they still fire off in the same hands, hearts, and guts we were born with.

You Still Have to Earn It

The core of branding hasn’t changed, people still buy with their gut, they always will.

But now? You have less time to make that emotional impact. And more competition hijacking those same tiny slivers of someone’s attention.

Frequency matters more than ever. Studies show someone needs at least seven touchpoints before they’ll act on a brand (source: HubSpot, “Rule of 7 in Marketing”) . Now that’s all impressions, but the principle holds, show up often, but bring emotional freight each time.

Impulse Marketing Is Killing Trust

Now here’s where it gets messy.

Impulse marketing, it’s everywhere on Instagram and TikTok, fast hooks, dopamine bait, instant checkout. I’ve fallen for it too, I’ll admit it. And yes, it drives conversions, but does it build trust? Does it build brand magnetism?

Hell no.

Impulse sales are like sugar highs; you get the hit, maybe some revenue, but no relationship. No loyalty. No reason for someone to remember you a week later.

If your strategy is built on impulse, you’re not building a brand, you’re running a flash sale with a logo.

Start With Truth

The fastest way to kill a brand is to lie, to be inauthentic, to overpromise and underdeliver. And in a world that’s sharper, more skeptical, more emotionally fluent than ever, people smell bullshit a mile away.

Your brand must know itself, why it exists, and how it shows up. Every touch, from packaging to copy, must be filtered through that lens of truth.

Because the moment you start bullshitting, you become forgettable.

Bold Is Not What You Think

Let me be clear, bold doesn’t mean loud, it doesn’t mean starbursts, or oversized logos in neon.

Bold means clarity, it means cutting to the heart of the emotional truth without fucking around.

It means having the guts to say, “This is what we believe, this is who we serve, this is why it matters.”

Brand is not fluff, it’s not fake, it’s the most human part of business.

You want your audience to care?

Then care first.

Jason Dauphinee

Jason Dauphinee

Jason Dauphinee is the creative force behind Relentless Creativity™—a designer, writer, and existential shit-disturber crafting brutally honest art and emotionally intelligent commentary. He builds brands, breaks rules, and occasionally makes people cry (in a good way).
Jason Dauphinee

Jason Dauphinee

Empathetic inquisitor. Creative lifer. Bold feeler.

Underneath it all, I’m chasing something more human. I want the work to feel. I don’t care about clever unless it’s got heart.

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