Let’s say you’ve got a 2013 Jeep Wrangler you want to sell. It’s a great car — low mileage, good condition, and a custom-lifted suspension. But there’s a lot of Jeep Wranglers out there on Facebook Marketplace — how do you make your listing stand out?
For Rogelio Llamas, it was a little sex appeal that was missing. He added an image of a woman in a bikini top, denim shorts, and cowboy boots leaning on the hood of his Wrangler. Now there’s a way to draw eyeballs. Just one thing: The woman wasn’t real. Llamas generated her with AI.
Llamas, who’s in Southern California, is part of a trend I’ve seen on Facebook Marketplace lately. He told me he got the idea from a YouTuber who makes videos about how to buy items at thrift stores and resell them for a profit.
On Reddit and social media, people have started to notice a strange new trend: scantily clad AI-generated women propped up against everything from cars to dump trucks to other items for sale.
In one listing for a motorcycle, a hot goth girl appears to be sitting on it. In another, three women in nearly identical outfits (yet slightly too tall) lounge across a 2010 Mercedes. In a listing for what appears to be a dilapidated hot tub, three young women in tank tops and short shorts sit atop the filthy plastic.
On X, someone found a listing for some kind of Caterpillar heavy machinery equipment — featuring a sexy woman in a bathing suit posing on the rusted metal. All had hallmarks of AI images — strange figures, slightly off sizes, and generally improbable looks.
Using attractive women to appeal to car or boat buyers isn’t a new concept by any means. Sex sells! But the addition of AI-generated babes to Facebook Marketplace listings feels new.
For one thing, images on Facebook Marketplace typically look kind of crummy. The whole point is you’re getting a listing of a real used item sold by a normal person, not a professional. As a frequent Marketplace buyer myself, I’m generally wary of any listing that looks too professional or whose photos are too good — to me, that’s a sign the seller knows what they have and may be pricing it too high.
Llamas said that in the influencer video he watched, it suggested using a larger body size for the AI-generated woman rather than a slim one, because it creates a curiosity gap that makes someone want to click. (Who knows if that’s the case?) The fact that it seems obviously AI is intentional. “It’s supposed to be funny, but also be like, damn, is she real??” Llamas told me over Messenger.
The WTF-factor seems to be a trend. In one Marketplace listing someone posted on Reddit, a seller put an AI sumo wrestler standing on the drawers of a large toolbox, presumably to demonstrate the strength of the drawers and also to catch attention.
But the eye-catching tactic doesn’t always translate to a sale. Llamas said that, indeed, he got way more views and clicks on his Jeep listing after adding the photo with the woman. Unfortunately, they’re not all serious buyers. “They are messaging if she comes with the car, if she’s real, or they think I’m her.” He said. “I get negative messages like ‘go to the gym’ or ‘you’re fat,’ very few have actually messaged me for the car itself.”
The Jeep has been on the market for 19 weeks so far.
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