Super Mario has become the face of TikTok Shop AI slop

AI TikTok accounts sharing sob stories to sell a product has become a cottage industry on the platform

Few things sell a product as well as a good sob story, and unfortunately, AI-savvy TikTok merchants are taking advantage of that. The platform is rife with users who shill products from TikTok's built-in shop, and now that anyone can feed a script to an AI, the video platform has become inundated with fake people selling real products. One such item that has spawned an entire AI cottage industry is a Super Mario lamp.

It's easy to understand why a video game fan might want the lamp. It shows an evocative Super Mario scene, with our favorite plumber happily riding a green Yoshi as a Boo chases after them. The ethereal starry blue background is reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy.

The product is real. The people selling it usually aren't. There are dozens of TikTok accounts dedicated to selling this lamp, and most of them feature completely different people telling variations of a similar story. The format pushes the narrative of an underdog entrepreneur who is getting bullied over their art. One of the most effective formats has the AI person 'responding' to a mean comment revolving around the AI seller's supposed age. For example, one upload with over 3.3 million views by the account @cody.hayess highlights a message that reads, "You're a 32-year-old man making Mario lamps for kids in your bedroom ... let that sink in." The video then cuts to "Cody" painstakingly coloring the Mario figurines and placing them in the resin, which he shaves down to a perfect sheen.

It's proven to be an effective marketing tactic, because all the top comments on that video either defend Cody or promise to buy the lamp ASAP. "Are children supposed to be the ones making Mario lamps for children?" reads one comment with over 44,000 favorites. "Your work is great btw."

What these commenters don't know is that Cody is one of many AI vendors hawking a similar story. There's the one where a couple sadly recounts a comment from someone urging them to get a real job. There's another one where a Black man with a disability tries selling Mario lamps at a market, only to have a random person come up to him and smash one of his creations.

Though the narratives are convincing, none of these people are real. Small details, like gibberish words on newspaper clippings and inconsistent clothing give them away — but most people are too busy getting swept away by the idea of a struggling business to notice. Another big tell is that the accounts feature a variety of fake AI people, all vying for attention with iterations on the same concept. Hilariously, few viewers clock that AI impostors like Cody actually look like Mario characters themselves.

What makes this phenomenon especially troubling, though, is that all of these AI accounts appear to be ripping off the work of a real artist: AmazingTrungX. The creator has maintained a social media presence for two years now — predating the prevalence of photorealistic AI video technology. AmazingTrungX's YouTube videos occasionally get thousands of views, but the artist's TikTok account is comparatively inactive next to the AI accounts copying their designs. Ironically, AmazingTrungX also uses AI tools to make their YouTube videos, judging by the narration.

In response to a commenter who was flabbergasted to have discovered the true artist behind the popular lamps, AmazingTrungX writes, "That's right. I am the original creator of this lamp. Since then, many people have used AI to generate fake videos and photos to sell their products. On top of that, many manufacturers are now mass-producing copies of my design."

With time, the public may catch on to the Super Mario resin lamp AI trickery. What will be harder, however, is having the capacity to doubt every single heartfelt TikTok business video. Super Mario might be the face of AI TikTok Shop slop right now, but this marketing tactic is slithering its way through every industry imaginable.