Have you ever seen a cute, foul-mouthed cupcake giving you life advice on Instagram? If you’ve spent any time online in the last few years, you’ve probably run into The Good Advice Cupcake. It’s that adorable, sassy little character that tells you to drink some water and get your life together.
Well, that cupcake is about to get its own TV show on Amazon. You’d think this would be amazing news for the person who created it, right? A dream come true.
Except, it’s not. The original creator, Loryn Brantz, is furious. And the reason why cuts right to the heart of a huge, messy debate happening in tech and art right now. Because not only was she left in the dark, but her beloved character is being brought to life with AI.
So, Who is Loryn Brantz and Her Cupcake?
Let’s back up for a second. Loryn Brantz is a talented artist and author. Years ago, while working for BuzzFeed, she created The Good Advice Cupcake. It was a smash hit. The character was relatable, funny, and a little bit edgy. It blew up on social media, becoming a viral sensation with millions of fans.
This wasn't just some random meme. It was a character Brantz poured her personality and creativity into. She drew it, she wrote its lines, she gave it a voice. For many, she was the cupcake.
But here’s the thing about working for big media companies: often, the company owns what you create. And that’s exactly what happened here. Brantz eventually left BuzzFeed, but the company kept the rights to her creation.
Here's Where Things Get Messy
Fast forward to now. News breaks that Amazon is producing a new series called Hey, Cupcake!, an animated show for kids starring, you guessed it, The Good Advice Cupcake.
The kicker? Brantz found out about it the same way the rest of us did—through the news. No phone call, no email, no heads-up. Imagine pouring your heart into creating something, watching it become a global phenomenon, and then finding out it’s getting a TV show from a total stranger. It’s a gut punch.
BuzzFeed, which still owns the character, licensed it to Amazon for the new series. Legally, they were probably within their rights to do so. The contracts were likely signed long ago. But ethically? That’s a much grayer area. It feels… well, it feels wrong.
This is a story we’ve seen play out time and time again in creative fields. An artist creates something special for a corporation, the corporation reaps the rewards, and the artist gets left behind. But this time, there’s a very 2024 twist.
And Then Came the AI Bombshell
This isn't just any animated show. According to reports, Amazon is using AI to help create it.
Think about that for a second. An artist's hand-drawn character, known for its very human and personal brand of humor, is being animated by an algorithm. It's like someone taking your secret family recipe for cookies, but instead of baking them with care, they feed the recipe to a machine that churns out perfectly uniform, soul-less copies.
For an artist like Brantz, this has to be the ultimate insult. It’s not just that her character is being used without her involvement; it’s that the very process of bringing it to life is replacing human artistry with machine generation. The craft, the nuance, the little imperfections that make art feel alive—all potentially smoothed over by AI.
This move by Amazon and BuzzFeed raises some really uncomfortable questions. Are we entering an era where companies can just take a popular character, feed it into an AI, and mass-produce content without any need for the original creator’s touch?
Why This Story Is Bigger Than Just One Cupcake
It’s easy to dismiss this as just another contract dispute, but I think it’s much more than that. This is a perfect snapshot of the anxieties many artists, writers, and creators are feeling about AI.
The fear isn't just that AI will "steal jobs." It's that it will be used by large corporations to devalue and sideline human creativity altogether. It becomes a tool to scale content production as cheaply as possible, even if it means stripping the art of its original heart and soul.
We're seeing this conversation pop up everywhere:
- Actors are worried about their likenesses being used by AI.
- Writers are concerned about AI models being trained on their books without permission.
- Artists are seeing their styles replicated by image generators in seconds.
The story of The Good Advice Cupcake isn't an isolated incident. It’s a warning shot. It shows us a potential future where the connection between the creator and their creation can be completely severed by a licensing deal and a line of code.
As we move forward, we have to ask ourselves what kind of creative world we want to live in. Do we want content that’s churned out by machines, based on formulas of what’s gone viral before? Or do we want art that comes from a real person, with a real point of view and a story to tell?
I don’t have the answers, but this whole situation with Loryn Brantz and her cupcake is forcing us all to think about it. It’s a reminder that behind every character we love, there’s a human being. And maybe, just maybe, they deserve a call before their creation gets an AI makeover.
