AI-generated personas are flooding TikTok Shop to promote a specific line of Super Mario resin lamps using fabricated emotional narratives. These accounts use photorealistic video technology to portray fake entrepreneurs facing online bullying to drive impulse purchases.
One prominent account, @cody.hayess, amassed over 3.3 million views by featuring an AI avatar responding to a comment mocking his age. The video depicts the digital persona painstakingly crafting a lamp featuring Mario and Yoshi.
Similar accounts use different AI avatars to tell variations of the same story. Some depict couples responding to critics, while others show a Black man with a disability having his products smashed by a stranger.
Exploiting real creators
While the presenters are synthetic, the product design appears to be stolen from a real creator. The lamps are replicas of work originally produced by the artist AmazingTrungX, who has been active for two years.
AmazingTrungX confirmed the plagiarism in a recent response to a commenter. "I am the original creator of this lamp," the artist wrote. "Since then, many people have used AI to generate fake videos and photos to sell their products."
The artist added that manufacturers are now mass-producing copies of the original design alongside the AI-driven marketing blitz.
Despite visual errors like gibberish text on background props, the tactic remains effective. Comment sections on these videos are frequently filled with users defending the fake creators or pledging to buy the lamps immediately.
