Can race, guilt, and empathy get you to pay $40 for this $9 belt buckle on TikTok?
No paywall: https://archive.is/nxp3m (or use noscript)
They’re doing a/b tests on the headline.
Sometimes the article is “AI avatars in digital blackface want to sell you this belt buckle”, sometimes is “AI grifters are creating fake Black people to sell Shein junk”
There is a huge difference between fiction-based advertising (Old Spice is a great example of this one :D) and fraudulent advertising, though.
“I am a pirate and this product keeps me smelling fresh (it’s a deodorant and it works as advertised)” - fictional character, accurate product representation
“I am a struggling marginalised business owner selling artisanal products (that are actually from Shien, and I’m either a paid actor or AI)” - fake person, fraudulent product representation
don’t tell me that Crews flexing his pecs is fiction D: