Over the weekend, I was sitting on my sofa with my legs stacked up on a pile of pillows while watching Deadloch on Prime for the fourth time. Unfortunately, I’m unable to afford the ad-free plan (because now every streamer has ads), which means that I’m subjected to 90 seconds of adverts during the bliss of my Aussie crime-drama parody. During one of those dreaded commercial breaks, I had to watch one of the most bizarre advertisements I’ve seen on tv—which is impressive considering that we’re in the middle of a very weird presidential election.

The ad was for Qatar Airways, but instead of showing some beautiful destination that can be reached through the luxurious service provided by the carrier…it was an AI fill in the blank? The ad shows a very glamorous adventure of two very attractive people, but there’s a twist: using AI, you can add your own face into the commercial. I’ve only seen the ad in 30 second and 60 second cuts, but you see see the full three minute version below:

In a press release from September about a new ad, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said, “At Qatar Airways, we go beyond simply meeting customer expectations—it’s about anticipating their needs and crafting experiences that resonate on a personal level.” And yes, technically, being able to use AI to enter your face into a commercial with thin, well-dressed people does, in some ways, count as “personal,” it also feels soulless and antithetical to the spirit of travel and adventure.

Qatar Airways is basically offering a way to watch an AI version of yourself globetrot from Cape Town to Tokyo, from photo shoots to dramatic, romantic meetings. But even going through and adding my photo to test the experience didn’t make me want to travel or explore. It made me feel weird and, honestly, a little less curious. I’m all for wonky and off-the-beaten-track travel inspiration, but superimposing my face into journeys I’ll never take felt more akin to what I do when I mindlessly scroll social media, not when I gear up to plan a trip.

I explored not one but four of the 10 scenes available to see if my gut reaction of “Oh, God, no,” was too judgemental and curmudgeonly. But honestly, I wasn’t judgemental enough. After putting my face onto an actress who I easily have 30 pounds on, I did not feel like booking a Qatar flight except maybe to a few choice surgeons in Turkey. (A flight from NYC to Istanbul through Qatar Airways would be about 18 hours, with a layover in Doha.) If you want to experience this yourself, you can head to FlyQatar.com. Just know that there are a lot of terms and conditions to agree to before the AI bot makes your custom video.

Ultimately, the AI video is more of a simulation showcasing a skinnier, more famous, and more wealthy version of me. No one needs to be any of those things to travel, though, and seeing some version of yourself in this way isn’t likely to result in you booking flights. And isn’t that the point of a good airline advertisement? To make you want to go somewhere?

This feels particularly unnecessary considering how often Qatar Airways is named the best airline in the world, including in 2024. For the next Qatar Airways ad, I’d love to nix the AI mindfuck and just see some real, non-generated people having a great time in the airline’s most popular destinations.