I can’t believe this Olympic athlete’s cheese photos aren’t AI

Brand and athlete partnerships are nothing new. From Michael Jordan and Nike to, er, Gary Lineker and Walkers, we’ve seen countless sports celebrities rake in the dough by agreeing to be photographed looking like they really like some product or other. But just when you think you’ve seen it all, here comes an Olympic gymnast embracing a giant parmesan.

Social media users have discovered that Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa is an ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano (which proudly calls itself “The only parmesan”), and some of the imagery that has emerged from the partnership is… quite something. There are several ways that brands can make the most of the Olympics, and having a gymnast do the splits atop multiple wheels of cheese is certainly one of them.

Honestly, if you told me these images were AI generated, I’d believe you. ‘Olympic gymnast hugs giant piece of parmesan’ has ‘drunk text prompt’ written all over it. What makes the photos all the more uncanny is that the execution is exactly what we’d expect from a celebrity/brand partnership – replace that enormous cheese with a can of Coca-Cola, and the whole thing would look entirely normal. But it isn’t Coke. It’s parmesan. 

The photos were taken by action and sports photographer Gabriele Seghizzi. Of the photoshoot, Seghizzi says, “I have been commissioned to take shots of the new Parmigiano Reggiano ambassador, Giorgia Villa, with some of their products. The goal was to produce three types of contents. First we had to shot some portraits, posed and contextualized with some of the tools that the athlete uses daily in her discipline. The second type were shots in which some of the products brought by Parmigiano Reggiano were inserted and attempts were made to reproduce pre and post sport consumption opportunities. While the third and last kind of shots were real action photos, as if I had to document a typical workout of her.”

So there we have it, it isn’t just sportswear brands that are keen to align themselves with top athletes – dairy companies are at it too. And hey, if Villa ever decides to move out of bed with Big Parma, perhaps we’ll get a classy farewell photoshoot à la Nike and Tiger Woods. We can but hope.