Apparel brand True Classic says Meta's advertising platform replaced one of its best-performing ads with an AI-generated image the company never approved, according to reporting from Business Insider. Bryan Cano, head of marketing at True Classic, said Meta's system swapped an ad featuring a millennial man in a matching fleece set for an AI-generated photo of a smiling grandmother sitting in an armchair. True Classic markets primarily to men between 30 and 45, and the substitute ad ran for several days before customers flagged it to the brand.
Other advertisers described similar problems tied to Meta's Advantage+ and automatic adjustment settings, which the company markets as tools that generate ad creative on a brand's behalf. European footwear brand Kirruna reported an AI-generated image showing a model's leg twisted into an anatomically incorrect position, and e-bike company Lectric said it caught an ad depicting a car flying through clouds before it went live. Rok Hladnik, chief executive of the ad agency Flat Circle, said the automatic settings kept turning back on even after his team switched them off, forcing staff to check campaigns manually several mornings a week.
A Meta spokesperson said advertisers who use its image generation feature can review AI-generated images before an ad runs, though Cano disputed that he had the chance to preview the grandmother image before it went live. Meta said it continues to refine the tools based on advertiser feedback.
Source: Business Insider -- https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-advertising-controversies-flops-coca-cola-mcdonalds-meta-2025-12