Sign of the Times
A few weeks ago, the Ohio State Fair had a poster contest. Grand prize was $1,000. It was won by someone submitting the most banal, directly-copied AI slop imaginable:
You don’t need to take my word for it. The officials came out and posted the following:
When the poster contest was originally formed in 2024, the use of AI was permitted if explained as a part of the application process. However, we recognize that the use of AI has changed greatly over the last few years in ways we didn’t anticipate, and will be reevaluating the rules and processes for 2027, which will include prohibiting the use of AI. We are committed to celebrating Ohio artists, with a number of other competitions that don’t permit AI, including the fine arts exhibition, creative arts competitions, mural contest, and plein air painting.
To be fair to the artist prompt engineer, there weren’t any rules against it. Which is honestly surprising, considering Colorado had this same exact issue back in 2022 during their State Fair art contest. Also, who in the Boomer fuck was judging this contest in the first place? You can use the original link to see 2nd-5th place, any of which I would argue are objectively better than what was selected.
Of course, I’m kind of assuming the others weren’t just AI themselves. Second place has me suspicious.
Anyway, add it to the pile.
Posted on August 8, 2026, in Commentary and tagged Add It On the Pile, AI, Art, Blaugust, Contest. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
In An Age 
Shoot me now or shoot me later, but I kind of like it.
Kitschy and sloppy, sure, but the Ohio State Fair is exactly where such schlock is called for. Nostalgie de la boue and all that.
The runners up are far too elegant. That one cow looks Parisian.
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For introducing me to the phrase “Nostalgie de la boue,” I’ll allow it.
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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised this won, given the amount of slop I’ve seen lately, but it still shocks me when people don’t read the room and realize that an AI-generated winning poster is going to generate backlash.
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Clearly it won over fans of the butter cow.
It has a certain repulsive charm to it… I am not as down on these signs and banners as some, it is more the sameness of them that makes them skippable… but it should have been disqualified for the line “Celebrating Ohio & America’s 250th Birthday!” as it could be read as both having the same birthday. Ohio, not 250 years old yet. That is 27 years off.
Second place seemed a superior visual design to me.
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Hmm. The winning AI poster is bland but in a recognizable, nostalgic way. The other four are, without exception, hideous. If those are the best five, it doesn’t say much for the rest. I’d definitely say the AI winner is the least bad of the bunch.
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It’s Ohio, but even for Ohio, all 5 are garbage. Like trying to be bad garbage. The AI prompt must have been “give me a state fair image but make it look bad”.
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