The National Trust has paused its advertising on TikTok after concerns were raised over its use of artificial intelligence generated marketing on the platform.

Concerns were raised by digital marketing executive Charlotte Anstee on LinkedIn after seeing the advertising amid concerns over the environmental impact of using the technology.

She asked: “How does the National Trust go from climate change activism outside the Labour Party conference to running AI ads on TikTok a week later?"

She added: “Not only does this go against their ethics, as AI has a detrimental effect on the environment, but as a marketer, it's not in line with the brand colours and tone of voice; it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of their content.

“Of course, this has only generated negative comments from their core audience.”

Anstee said that audiences are getting “more and more savvy as to what AI looks like, and if you are a values-led brand like this, it's never worth cutting corners”.

In response the National Trust thanked Anstee for flagging the issue and said: “This was an automated feature from TikTok ads which produced AI generated adverts in error.

“We've now paused all our TikTok ads while we investigate how this happened. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.”

In March academics at the University of East Anglia warned that charities using “the high-tech shortcut” of artificial intelligence imagery risk breaking their “bond of trust” with the public.

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