Buzzfeed's AI Ads Take a Dark Turn

Hey there,

I remember a time when Buzzfeed regularly published some of the best stories on the internet. Those stories are still hosted on Buzzfeed’s site, but my story today shows how the publication’s previously published excellent journalism can clash with its current content factory status. In this case, AI-powered ads that attempt to match objects in images on Buzzfeed with relevant products are appearing in stories about suicide, Gaza, and other inappropriate subjects.

In 2016, back when it still had a robust newsroom staffed with journalists, Buzzfeed published a feature article about empty nose syndrome, a rare condition that makes people feel like they are suffocating despite having a clear airway. The article opens with the heart-wrenching of Brett Helling, who suffered from empty nose syndrome and eventually died by suicide because of his condition. The article includes a photograph of Helling and his toddler nephew smiling at the camera. 

Finding the story in 2024, a 404 Media reader saw that the photograph of Helling and his nephew now included a button that said “Shop This Image,” which invited him to buy dark beanies like the one Helling is wearing in the photograph. “BUY NOW” buttons under Helling’s photograph invited Buzzfeed readers to buy a “Katy Pom Pom Beanie” for $29.99 from Forever New or a similar black beanie for $59.99 from The Iconic. 

This new type of ad unit is provided by Trendii, a company that uses AI to identify objects in images, match them with products for sale from participating retailers, and link readers to those products in the hope of generating sales. It’s common for websites to make money via affiliate links, where sites link to online retailers when they write about specific products, which rewards them with revenue when readers click or buy products they found via those links. Trendii, which takes a cut of that revenue as well, offers retailers and publishers like Buzzfeed a similar arrangement, but monetizes images instead of links in the text of the article. 

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This seems inoffensive and even synergistic on a celebrity news site like dmarge.com, where articles about what movie stars like Ryan Gosling are wearing feature images with the Shop This Image button that links to black Allbirds t-shirts. However, user comments on Buzzfeed over the last year indicate that the Shop This Image button has appeared over images of gruesome crimes, graphic medical conditions, and obliterated neighborhoods and displaced people in Gaza. 

“I've gotta say the ‘Shop This Image’ ad feature really feels gross when reading articles like this,” one commenter wrote on a Buzzfeed article titled “17 Creepy, Disturbing, And Terrifying Things I Learned About This Month That I Really, Really, Really, Really Cannot Keep To Myself.” “This man is killing his neighbors by slowly poisoning them with opioids, this is where you can get his outfit. This woman had both her arms and legs amputated from a dog lick, find out how you too can rock this look.” The commenter is referring to two real incidents and images in the article, one about a man in Florida who was poisoning his neighbors, and the other about a woman who lost her hands and legs to an infection from a dog. 

A comment on a Buzzfeed story about how different celebrities were talking about Palestine indicates that the “Shop This Image” button appeared on an image of Palestinian children surrounded by bombed out buildings in Gaza.

When reached for comment, Buzzfeed said that the Shop This Image ads come from Buzzfeed Australia, which was licensed to Val Morgan Digital Group in 2023 (it is common for US publication to license their brands to other business entities in Australia that operate independently), and that the ads are no longer running on the empty nose syndrome story “for obvious reasons.” Buzzfeed also said that the ads should be geofenced so that only readers in Australia should see them. The 404 Media who initially tipped us about the ads is located in Australia, and we were not able to view them on Buzzfeed’s site from the U.S..

Val Morgan Digital did not respond to a request for comment.

Trendii acknowledged my request for comment but did not provide one in time for publication. 

It’s not clear how Buzzfeed and Trendii are deciding what images to implement the Shop This Image button on, and the button does not appear for all users. For example, a roundup of book reviews from 2021 appears to include the button on images of book covers featuring human figures only. 

The Shop This Image button also appeared in a listicle published on Buzzfeed last month titled “I've Read A Lot Of ‘Dark Facts’ In My Day, But I Can Wholeheartedly Say These 17 Are Some Of The Most F*cked-Up I've Come Across.” The first item on the list about syphilis includes a medical illustration showing its most severe symptoms, including "grotesque tumor-like growths." Buzzfeed readers have to click on the image, which is initially blurred out and shows a warning that it is graphic, before they can see it. The same image included a Shop This Image button which suggested users buy MAC’s Locked Kiss lipstick for $63.25, as well as other lipsticks which appear to match the shade of the lips in the illustration. 

The same article also includes an item about the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, alongside an image of all the astronauts who died on board. That image suggested readers buy a blue puffer jacket or hoodie that matches the shade of the astronauts’ blue uniforms. 

Two other sets of images in the article about The Great Molasses Flood, where 21 people died, and a 1937 gas line explosion that killed almost 300 people in a Texas school, suggest that readers buy black and white items of clothing, seemingly because they’re attached to black and white archival photographs. 

Trendii, which is based in Australia, says it offers “AI powered contextual advertising that instantly matches products to image and video content.” 

On its website, Trendii says its “AI instantly identifies products in image and video content, across various categories, including - clothing, accessories, footwear, furniture, and home decor. It detects different colours, styles, patterns, and categories, matching brand’s [sic] products to the most relevant and inspiring content. This intelligent matching capability empowers seamless contextual discovery, propelling audiences from exploration to purchase.”

However, as you can tell from the examples above, Trendii is not linking readers to the actual products that are in the images, if the images are showing products at all. It is just matching the objects that are in the image as best it can to products from retailers that choose to promote their products with Trendii. When the Shop This Image button appears on a photograph in a story about Kanye West, readers are not being offered what he’s actually wearing in the photograph, but a pair of Tommy John shorts that sort of look like what he’s wearing in the photograph. 

According to Trendii’s site, the company also offers the Shop This Image button on Vogue, Marie Claire, GQ, Elle. and Popsugar. Its CEO Aaron Wolf recently said in a podcast interview that he imagines that in the future a Shop This Image-type feature will be part of all media we consume.

“I think the way the world looks over the next three to five years is essentially every television becomes a marketplace,” Wolf said. “We’re all connected to all the brands, it’s all instantaneous and automatic everywhere. All the shows are basically storefronts, shopping malls, whatever you want to call it, and everyone is able to buy whatever they see, wherever they see it.”