Viral AI portraits of GOP in drag—creative director explains the ‘RuPublicans’
The advertising copywriter who co-created the series on how they’re balancing comedy and activism.
ShanonG
The GOP is getting an AI makeover.
RuPublicans, an Instagram account that’s barely two weeks old, has rocketed to over 160,000 followers thanks to its remarkable AI-generated portraits of Republican leaders in drag. The brainchild of an advertising creative director and his husband, the project has featured a dozen subjects so far—from Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz to Rudy Giuliani and Clarence Thomas.
The goal? To parody Republican efforts to push through anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide. And to have some fun doing so.
Stephen and Craig—who asked that their last names not be published, due to concerns for their safety—came up with the idea a few weeks ago after watching all the news about how “dangerous” drag is. Craig had the initial idea; Stephen, who works in advertising as a creative director, came up with the name RuPublicans.
They were off to the races.
“We laughed out loud at the thought, did a quick Google search and saw no one had done this yet,” Stephen told Ad Age. “Drag artists have brought us joy, laughter, helped heal old wounds and given us the permission to love ourselves. The GOP’s anti-drag rhetoric and actions made us want to do something.”
The Midjourney-generated portraits, he added, are “just as over the top and ridiculous as the false narratives around drag.”
The couple knew immediately what kind of images they wanted: “ultra-real, gorgeous, high-fashion photos,” Stephen said. The tricky part has been getting the faces right, particularly for lesser-known figures. “The more famous the politician, the better the facial output is. The lesser known homophobes, like [Tennessee Gov.] Bill Lee, are harder to get.”
Along with the images, they’ve come up with names for each character, and they include full captions as well. Josh Hawley is “Miss Hawl-About-Me,” Matt Gaetz is “Ms. GoldenGaetz Showers,” Clarence Thomas is “Empress of Embarrassment, Claretta Corrupta” and so on.
Stephen, a copywriter by trade, handles most of the names and copy. “We’re thoughtful about the names and captions. We don’t want to spew hate or venom. There’s enough of that,” he said.
Sometimes, sticking with the AI theme, they will turn to OpenAI’s GPT-4 for suggestions. “GPT-4 is monumentally better than its predecessor at writing,” Stephen said. “It’s like having a team of writers in the palm of your hand. It’s not always good, but that’s where our creative direction comes in. It serves as a starting point.”
The whole project, of course, wouldn’t exist without AI—a good reminder that it can be great for creativity, even amid all the hand-wringing about it in the industry lately.
“AI has this amazing ability to unlock a kind of magic we never thought possible. It gives us superpowers,” said Stephen. “We were able to take a simple idea from our heads and bring it to life in a matter of hours—not months. We shared it with the world and created something that goes beyond even our wildest dreams.”
He acknowledges there may be risks, but adds: “We’re at the beginning of something really exciting. It’s like we’re at the dawn of a new era, where people and technology come together to change how we see and interact with the world. We’re so glad to be a part of it.”
Stephen said Rudy Garland and Claretta Corrupta are his favorite queens at the moment. And while none of the politicians featured have come after Stephen and Craig yet, Stephen joked: “We’re hoping someone will. We’d love to go on Tucker [Carlson].”
Along with the 12 subjects to far, you can expect many more.
“We get thousands of suggestions of who we should feature and have a running list,” Stephen said. “For some reason, AI doesn’t want to put MTG [Marjorie Taylor Greene] in boy drag. But we’re working on it.”
