Don’t be the Joker. Stop killing your digital marketing with AI slop

AI slop. I hate it. But what is it, exactly? 

I saw a good example today, taking a glance at one of our competitors, who should have known better. 

A marketing agency, run by people who, at least according to their LinkedIn profiles, look like they should know a thing or two about digital marketing. I guess they don’t.

Their whole website was pretty darn bad, but the blog was where the AI slop really got super-sloppy. The last 30 or so blog posts all had variations on the same headline, using this formula: 

Best [SERVICE] agency for [INDUSTRY] in [GEOGRAPHIC AREA]. 

Then you come to the actual content in the posts. 

All of the text has the same format: stacks of disconnected paragraphs with a questions and answer format, clearly written for and by AI. It’s generic, off-brand, soulless – and most importantly, boring content.

To be honest, I hope this agency keeps it up. Less competition for us.

This agency isn’t alone. There are legions of companies and even heads of marketing who should know better.

They think it’s enough if this dense collection of fast-generated AI content will work if it brings in enough traffic. But if your readers abandon the content after 3 seconds, what was the point?

Look, I get it: fight fire with fire, right? That’s the strategy? AI search is causing many companies to see their web traffic drop by 50 percent or more. So… use AI, which is fast and seemingly free, to churn out the content that will bring your audience (and hopefully, paying customers) back to your website?

Sadly, nope. The new Internet hates AI slop. And again, so do the humans. 

Holy company-killing problem, Batman! 

If you’re using AI slop to power up your digital marketing, the joke is on you

This reminds me of one of my favorite Superman stories from my childhood, if you’ll indulge a quick aside.

The Joker decides to take a vacation from Gotham City, probably because he’s tired of getting his ass kicked by Batman. 

So he goes to Metropolis (as one does). He promptly kidnaps Superman’s girlfriend, Lois Lane (as one does). Then he ties her up and throws her into a coffin hidden away in a secret location. 

He challenges Superman to meet him on top of the Daily Planet building, where he reveals his plan: “Go use your super-powers to rob some banks to come up with $100 million or your girlfriend dies.”

Superman weirdly doesn’t seem too worried about it. He flies away. In mere moments, he’s back, looking pretty pleased with himself. He tells the Joker that Lois is safe and sound.

“But how did you find her?” the Joker gasps, his terrible smile turning upside down. “In a giant city of 20 million people? I put her into a lead-filled coffin so you couldn’t see inside!”

“That’s how I found her!” Superman explains. “Almost everyone knows about my X-ray vision, but a lot of people don’t really get how it works. I just looked around Metropolis at super-speed for a coffin-shaped gray blob that I couldn’t see through. It stood out like a beacon. Two seconds later, I’m pulling Lois to safety. Now your plan is foiled, Joker!” 

Now, what’s this classic Superman story got to do with digital marketing in 2026?

AI slop is like a beacon that tells AI search engineers (and human searchers) to look away from you

Imagine the Internet as Metropolis. 

Instead of just one coffin-sided gray blob, Superman sees that half of the city is filled with blank blobs of grayed-out slop not worth checking out. The gray blobs keep getting bigger. 

But there are spots that do stand out. They’re bright, glowing balls of light you can see from miles away.

That’s what it’s like for your company or product to be mentioned in an AI search at the top of a search engine. You want to be the bright lights, not the gray blobs.

How do I know that quality content combined with earned media coverage gets results, where the AI slop just generates churn?

Because we follow the same GEO-friendly PR & digital marketing playbook we execute for our PR and brand marketing clients.

And I’m happy to say our own PR agency is 3 out of 5 of our leads in the last 48 hours came from AI searches where we actually showed up.

Stop churning out AI slop. Learn the proven, working strategies for using marketing content and media coverage. Get the 2026 PR Playbook: Less Automation, More Results