AI scandal surrounding Oktoberfest poster
A comment by Verena Gründel on the controversy surrounding the Oktoberfest poster, the nonsensical distinction between “real” and “generated” art, and why the motif ultimately wins out, and rightly so.
Why chasing AI pixels is bad for creativity
Scandal! The Oktoberfest poster 2026 was (perhaps) designed using AI.
Yes, Munich, the tech start-up capital, is in the midst of an AI crisis.
The city of Munich recently unveiled the new Oktoberfest motif for the 2026 season – and there is speculation that the artist may have created the design using AI.
Here is the background: Every year, the city holds a design competition to find the new Oktoberfest motif. The citizens and a jury jointly select the winner. The winning motif is printed on posters and, for example, on the official Oktoberfest beer mug—a collector’s item and tourist souvenir.
The drama: This year several graphic designers have been claiming that the winning design somehow looks AI-generated. This would be against the rules: as the use of AI is expressly prohibited in this competition.
The city has now checked the motif down to the last pixel – and has come to the conclusion that everything is AI-clean.
But the discussions continue. The suspicion: Munich simply wants to avoid embarrassment and protect both the artist and the city. Maybe.
I find something else embarrassing: how backward-looking the city appears in this debate. It’s 2026 and AI is everywhere. Every graphics program is based in part on AI. Where does “unauthorized” AI even begin?
The idea that creativity can be divided into “with AI” and “without AI” is simply unrealistic in a world full of intelligent tools.
Above all, AI is a tool. No more, no less. Photoshop was once considered “unfair,” too. Today, no one cares about that anymore.
Creativity is not defined by whether someone uses a brush, a graphics tablet, or an algorithm. But by idea, composition, and expression.
Besides, AI or not, the poster resonates. It came in second out of around 130 in the public vote. It is the jury’s favorite. The artist and graphic designer Florian Huber even took third place in the Oktoberfest poster competition in 2021. Isn’t that reason enough?
Or to put it another way: wouldn’t it be particularly artistically valuable to choose an Oktoberfest motif in 2026 that was designed with AI AND celebrated by the people?
