REI gets roasted for a nonsensical Instagram ad featuring a bike with 2 sets of handlebars -- and blames a Meta AI tool

[cbabe]

https://www.businessinsider.com/rei-backlash-ai-ad-instagram-blamed-meta-ai-tool-2026-6?op=1

REI gets roasted for a nonsensical Instagram ad featuring a bike with 2 sets of handlebars — and blames a Meta AI tool

Kelsey Vlamis
Jun 24, 2026, 12:13 PM PT

A recent Instagram ad from outdoor retailer REI Co-op drew backlash after some users noticed that the bike in the image seemed to have a unique feature: two sets of handlebars.

"REI using AI slop now. So much for caring about the environment," read a Reddit post over the weekend about the ad that received hundreds of upvotes.

Turns out the image was the result of AI adjustments, with REI pointing to an AI tool from Meta, Instagram's parent company.

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[underpants]

1. Really REI, really?

[dalton99a]

2. At least they didn't add square wheels

[cbabe]

3. Thanks. And:

https://www.carscoops.com/2026/06/rei-meta-ai-ad/

…

On top of that, the left crank doesn’t exist in the photo and the chain appears to be on one side of the bike atop the chainring and below it on the other side. In other words, the kind of errors that have become familiar to anyone who has spent enough time looking at AI-generated images.

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[tanyev]

4. Everybody who lives near an REI needs to stop in and ask to see that bike.

Exactly as pictured.

[Wiz Imp]

5. The model's response was perfectly on target.

https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/webp/2026/06/gv4rf--2048x1679.webp

“A few months ago I did a photoshoot for Van Rysel for images to provide to REI. Standard Stuff. I love doing shoots. Then today I get tagged in...whatever the fuck this is. The thing is, this was an official shoot. That I got hired for, so why are they Al deep frying the images? To alter a product they’re supposedly selling? And my face along with it? lol. I’m so lost.”

[jmowreader]

6. The more I look at this picture the funnier it gets

Apparently this bike has no crank arm on the right side, the cassette (the gears on the wheel hub) is on the other side of the bike from the chain, it has both rim and disc brakes, there's no cable running to the back rim brake and you're supposed to stop the bike by grabbing the brake lever and leaning back since the part of the handlebar you'd hold while you're squeezing the brakes is part of the seat. There's a cable running to the front rim brake, which is always good because if your bike has two different kinds of brakes you want both to work. The logo on the downtube is blurry as shit, and there's something written on the chain stay that isn't on the real bike. The bike is WAY too short for the model - a bike's top tube should be one to two inches lower than your inseam, and this one looks like it's about six inches lower than the model's inseam. But it'll stay upright without being held up, which would be pretty cool for waiting at stoplights.

This is the actual bike in question: https://www.rei.com/product/249714/van-rysel-edr-2-af-claris-bike?color=DARK%2520GREY

I'm a'gonna tell y'all exactly what's going on here.

They started out with two pictures: an editorial photo of pro cyclist Amity Rockwell - that seems to be her married name because most of the web pages about her are labeled Amity Gregg - standing on a path in a park buckling her cycling helmet, and a product photo of the bicycle. Apparently Van Rysel couldn't have just loaned the photographer a bicycle to put in the picture. (Just so you know, the shadow is off too...it's at the wrong angle for the bike and Amity doesn't have one.) There are quite a few problems with doing this, and the biggest one is the photo of the bike Van Rysel has (and that was provided to the advertising agency) is of the other side of the bike so the buyer can see the derailleurs.

SO...they flipped part of the bike in the photo, photoshopped around the bottom bracket so it kinda sorta didn't look like the chainwheel was on the wrong side, blurred the logo on the downtube and hoped people who are savvy enough about bikes to want to spend $1200 on one won't notice.

[BuddhaGirl]

7. I love REI but I'm boycotting

them due to their union-busting activities.

https://www.ourrei.com/

Also on July 1st they are cutting employee benefits and reducing new hire starting pay:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rei-cuts-compensation-labor-talks-122000901.html

[highplainsdem]

8. They deserve to be roasted. And this is a good example of how lazy/trusting people using generative AI tend

to become, no matter how often they've read or been told that genAI makes mistakes, so they should check its results carefully.

And that tendency to become more lazy/trusting applies no matter what type of results they've asked AI for. It's a self-reinforcing tendency, because they overlook more errors/hallucinations by simply not looking for them in the first place, which makes those AI users even more impressed by how accurate and intelligent they think AI is.