REI blamed – A bike ad from outdoor retailer REI Co-op sparked online backlash after users noticed the pictured bicycle appeared to have two sets of handlebars. REI said the image alteration came from a Meta AI personalization tool and apologized, while Van Rysel North Ame
For a moment, it looked like an ordinary Instagram ad. Then bike shoppers zoomed in—and saw something that didn’t belong.
In an Instagram advertisement from outdoor retailer REI Co-op. users noticed the bike in the image seemed to have a unique feature: two sets of handlebars. The confusion spread quickly online. with a Reddit post over the weekend accusing REI of “using AI slop” and saying. “So much for caring about the environment.” The post drew hundreds of upvotes.
REI later said the image was produced after AI adjustments made through a Meta tool. In a statement to Business Insider. an REI spokesperson said: “Meta auto-enrolled us in an AI personalization tool that produced an inaccurate and inappropriate alteration of a vendor-provided image in some of our ads.” The spokesperson added. “While a two-handled bike might be interesting. it is not something you will find in our assortment.”.
The ad, which promoted a bike from the brand Van Rysel, showed a woman standing in a park beside the oddly shaped bicycle.
Van Rysel North America confirmed that it was the source of the original picture. The company told Business Insider that the original image supplied to REI came from a Van Rysel photo shoot featuring cyclist Amity Rockwell, and said, “Any later alterations were not made by Van Rysel.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
REI said it moved to correct the situation. The company’s spokesperson said REI unenrolled from the Meta tool and apologized for the confusion. saying: “This does not align with our values or how we manage our brand. Product accuracy and our vendor relationships matter. We apologize for the confusion this caused.”.
The episode lands in a growing debate over how generative AI ad tools behave in the real world. Under Meta’s terms for its generative AI ad tools. AI-generated ad outputs may be “inaccurate. incomplete. misleading. offensive. and/or inappropriate. ” and advertisers are responsible for evaluating the outputs before using them.
REI is not the first advertiser to report unexpected results from Meta’s AI advertising features. Business Insider previously reported that several advertisers said Meta’s AI tool had generated bizarre or nonsensical ads. and that some settings—such as “test new creative features” and “automatic adjustments”—had automatically been toggled to “on.” A Meta spokesperson in that earlier reporting said advertisers who use full image generation “have the opportunity to review the generated images before running their ad. ” adding that millions of advertisers had found Meta’s AI ad creative tools valuable and that the tools improved ad performance.
For REI, the backlash was immediate and pointed: one visible detail in a single ad became a public question about accuracy, trust, and what happens when AI personalization goes too far.
REI Meta Instagram generative AI ads AI personalization tool Van Rysel Amity Rockwell advertising backlash product accuracy