Disclaimer: This is an independent creative test made with AI, for demonstration only. It isn't an ad for any brand shown or named, and isn't affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by them. All trademarks belong to their owners
GPT Image 2.5 Flare - recreate a viral street sign and swap the joke
Rebuild a viral street sign photo from a screenshot, then reuse the scene with a new slogan
Tested by Nouamane Benbrahim
Ever seen a photo go around that's so simple you wonder why it took off?
This one is a black sign on a British high street that says "Save 100% when you don't buy anything". I came across a screenshot of it and wanted to see how close I could get with AI, then reuse the same scene for my own jokes. None of this is my idea, I just rebuilt it.
Here's my exact process.
1. Write down everything in the photo
I didn't attach the screenshot. Instead I wrote down everything I could see, one layer at a time: the street, the sign, the people walking by, the light and how the photo was taken.
The street was red brick with shops on the left, a big tree in the middle, and an old Victorian building with a curly black lamp post on the right. The people were shoppers in autumn coats, a woman pushing a pram, someone wheeling a maroon suitcase. The light was late-afternoon sun breaking through clouds.
It takes a few extra minutes, but now every part of the photo has its own line in the prompt, so I can change one part later without touching the rest.
2. Spell out the sign line by line
The sign is the whole joke, so it got the most detail. I said where it stands, how tall it is (about twice the height of a person), what it's made of (black paper pasted on a column, a little wrinkled), then the exact words in quotes, one line at a time: "SAVE" / "100%" / "WHEN YOU" / "DON'T BUY" / "ANYTHING".
Splitting the words the way they sit on the real sign is how you get the same stacked look. It spelled everything right on the first try, apostrophe included.
Exact prompt
Create a new photorealistic image of a pedestrianised British high street on a bright, breezy autumn afternoon, with a tall black poster sign standing in the foreground. THE VIBE: An ordinary weekday on a red-brick shopping street, shoppers drifting past storefronts — and right in their path, a blunt, deadpan anti-consumerist message that stops you mid-stride. Witty, quietly subversive guerrilla street art captured as a casual phone snapshot. THE SUBJECT: A tall rectangular freestanding advertising column on the right side of the frame, about twice human height, wrapped in a matte black paper poster with slightly wrinkled, weathered paper and visible paste seams, standing on a darker black base block. On its face, in bold white condensed hand-painted-style capital letters, stacked centred on five lines, the exact text: "SAVE" / "100%" / "WHEN YOU" / "DON'T BUY" / "ANYTHING". Letters slightly imperfect, like a screen-printed or hand-cut stencil, correctly spelled and fully legible. THE FACE: Passers-by are small and distant; natural skin texture, no airbrushing, no plastic or waxy skin. THE SETTING: A wide red-brick herringbone pedestrian street receding into the distance with strong perspective. Left side: a row of two- and three-storey brick and white-rendered shop buildings with generic storefront signage (abstract, no real brand names), awnings, and shop windows. A tall leafy tree in the middle of the street, leaves starting to thin and yellow. Right side: an ornate Victorian red-brick and sandstone building with arched windows, and an ornate black cast-iron street lamp with a curled bracket rising behind the sign. A modern glass tower in the far background. Fallen leaves and a little litter on the bricks. THE CROWD: Ten to fifteen shoppers in autumn coats walking in both directions mid-distance — a woman pushing a pram, two people walking toward camera in dark puffer jackets, a person wheeling a maroon suitcase, people with shopping bags. Unposed, candid, caught mid-stride. THE LIGHT: Late-afternoon autumn sun breaking through broken white cumulus clouds in a blue sky; bright natural daylight from upper left, soft shadows on the bricks, the black sign's matte surface catching only a faint sheen. Unified lighting across sign, people and buildings; the sign casts a real shadow on the pavement. THE KEY DETAILS: The sign is the sharp, dominant hero; its text is the punchline. All shop signage incidental and generic. THE MOOD: Everyday British town-centre realism, natural slightly cool colour grade, mild contrast. THE COMPOSITION: Portrait frame. The black sign occupies the right third, from about one-third down to near the bottom, slightly angled toward camera; the lamp post rises above it to the top edge. The street, tree and crowd fill the left two-thirds, leading lines converging into the distance. Sky in the upper portion. THE CAMERA: Shot on an iPhone at standing eye level, deep focus, everything sharp, NO background blur; casual social-media snapshot.
3. Make it look like someone's phone pic
The original looks like somebody snapped it walking past, and that's a big part of why it feels real. So I ended the prompt with an iPhone at standing eye level, everything in focus and no blurry background.
4. Swap the joke and the city
Now the fun part. I kept the exact same prompt structure and changed three things: the city, the words and one detail in the crowd.
I moved it to a sidewalk in a New York shopping district and wrote my own line in the same style: "FREE" / "SHIPPING ON" / "EVERYTHING" / "YOU DON'T" / "ORDER". Then I added a courier wheeling a stack of boxes right past the sign, because the joke lands harder when something in the scene plays along.
Exact prompt
Create a new photorealistic image of a busy New York City downtown sidewalk on a crisp, sunny autumn afternoon, with a tall black poster sign standing in the foreground. THE VIBE: An ordinary weekday in a SoHo-style shopping district, New Yorkers striding past boutique storefronts — and planted right on the sidewalk, a blunt, deadpan anti-consumerist message that turns the language of online shopping against itself. Witty, quietly subversive guerrilla street art captured as a casual phone snapshot. THE SUBJECT: A tall rectangular freestanding advertising column on the right side of the frame, about twice human height, wrapped in a matte black paper poster with slightly wrinkled, weathered paper and visible paste seams, standing on a darker black base block on the concrete sidewalk. On its face, in bold white condensed hand-painted-style capital letters, stacked centred on five lines, the exact text: "FREE" / "SHIPPING ON" / "EVERYTHING" / "YOU DON'T" / "ORDER". Letters slightly imperfect, like a screen-printed or hand-cut stencil, correctly spelled and fully legible. THE FACE: Passers-by are small and mid-distance; natural skin texture, no airbrushing, no plastic or waxy skin. THE SETTING: A wide grey concrete sidewalk beside a cobblestone side street, receding into the distance with strong perspective. Left side: a row of five-storey cast-iron loft buildings painted cream, dark green and rust red, black zig-zag fire escapes on the facades, ground-floor boutique windows with generic abstract signage (no real brand names), a few planters. A thin street tree with yellowing leaves along the curb. Right side behind the sign: a black metal subway-style railing and a tall green NYC-style street lamp. A yellow taxi and a delivery van parked at the curb in the mid-distance. Fallen leaves, a cardboard box flattened by a door, slight grime on the pavement. THE CROWD: Ten to fifteen pedestrians in autumn layers walking in both directions — a man in a trench coat on his phone, a woman carrying a large shopping bag, a courier with stacked cardboard parcels on a hand truck, a couple with coffee cups. Unposed, candid, caught mid-stride. THE LIGHT: Low late-afternoon autumn sun raking down the street from the left, warm on the upper building facades, long soft shadows across the sidewalk, blue sky with a few white clouds. Unified lighting across sign, people and buildings; the sign casts a real shadow on the pavement, its matte black surface catching only a faint sheen. THE KEY DETAILS: The sign is the sharp, dominant hero; its text is the punchline, echoed by the courier and parcels nearby. All shop signage incidental and generic. THE MOOD: Everyday American city realism, natural colour grade, mild contrast. THE COMPOSITION: Portrait frame. The black sign occupies the right third, from about one-third down to near the bottom, slightly angled toward camera; the street lamp rises behind it toward the top edge. The sidewalk, buildings and crowd fill the left two-thirds, leading lines converging into the distance. Sky in the upper portion. THE CAMERA: Shot on an iPhone at standing eye level, deep focus, everything sharp, NO background blur; casual social-media snapshot.
And listen, it's not perfect. The model threw in a "Subway" sign by the railing and some faint lettering on a delivery van. Nothing branded, but I'd clean those up before posting it anywhere big.
Why it works
The original photo really only has five parts: a place, a sign, the words, the crowd and the light. Because each one had its own line in my prompt, I could swap the words and the city and keep everything else the way it was. The New York version came out in one try.
Your turn: find a photo you love and, before you prompt anything, write down what's in it one layer at a time.
And if you'd rather not write all that out yourself, Emero turns a rough description like that into the full prompt and remembers how you like your scenes, at cost.
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