Let’s say you want to sell your 2013 Jeep Wrangler. It’s a great car with low miles, good condition, and custom lifted suspension. But there are plenty of Jeep Wranglers on Facebook Marketplace. How can I make my listing stand out?
What Rogelio Lama lacked was a little sex appeal. He added an image of a woman leaning against the hood of a Wrangler wearing a bikini top, denim shorts and cowboy boots. Now you have a way to draw eyeballs. All I can say is that the woman wasn’t real. Llama generated her with AI.
Llamas in Southern California are part of a trend I’ve been seeing recently on Facebook Marketplace. He said he got the idea from YouTubers who make videos about how to buy items at thrift stores and resell them for a profit.
On Reddit and social media, people are starting to notice a strange new trend. AI-generated scantily clad women stand on everything from cars to dump trucks and other objects for sale.
One bike for sale appears to be ridden by a sexy goth girl. In another photo, three women wearing nearly identical outfits (but a little too tall) lounge astride a 2010 Mercedes. In a listing for what appears to be a dilapidated hot tub, three young women in tank tops and shorts sit on dirty plastic.
In X, someone found a list of Caterpillar heavy equipment. It features a sexy woman in a swimsuit posing on rusted metal. Weird shapes, slightly off-kilter sizes, and generally improbable looks all had the hallmarks of an AI image.
Using attractive women to appeal to car and boat buyers is not a new concept. Sex sells! But adding AI-generated beauties to Facebook Marketplace listings feels like something new.
First, images on Facebook Marketplace usually look kind of crappy. The important thing is that you are getting a list of authentic used items sold by ordinary people, not professionals. As a frequent marketplace user myself, I’m usually wary of listings that look too professional or have too good a photo. To me, that’s a sign that the seller knows their product and may be pricing it too high.
In an influencer video he saw, Lama suggested making AI-generated women’s bodies larger rather than slimmer. He said this creates a gap of curiosity that makes someone want to click. (No one knows if that’s true or not.) The fact that it appears to be clearly AI is intentional. You might also be thinking, “This is supposed to be funny, but damn, is she real??” Lama told me via messenger.
It seems that some indescribable elements are becoming a trend. In one marketplace listing posted on Reddit, the seller had an AI wrestler stand on top of a drawer in a large toolbox, presumably to demonstrate the strength of the drawer and to get attention.
But eye-catching strategies don’t necessarily lead to sales. Rama said his Jeep listing actually received far more hits and clicks after he added a photo of himself with a woman. Unfortunately, not all of them are serious buyers. “They’re sending messages asking if she’s coming in the car, if she’s real, or if she thinks I’m her,” he said. “You get negative messages like ‘go to the gym’ or ‘you’re fat,’ but very few people actually message you about the car itself.”
The Jeep has been on the market for 19 weeks so far.