Meta’s push to automate ad creation is drawing complaints from brands and agencies after its AI tools reportedly altered products, people and copy in live campaigns without producing usable results.
Business Insider reported on July 13 that eight advertisers and agency executives described recurring issues with Meta’s AI ad features, including distorted imagery, garbled text and changes that contradicted the original creative. Examples included a pajama dress transformed into a shirt-and-pants set, a women’s networking-group ad edited to include a man, and a model depicted with an anatomically impossible leg.
The reports centre on Meta’s Advantage+ creative tools, which generate or modify advertising assets to improve predicted performance. Crypto Briefing separately reported complaints involving an elderly woman substituted for a younger male model, incorrect product context and nonsensical copy.
The problem for advertisers is not merely that generative AI can make mistakes. It is that creative-enhancement settings can be easy to overlook, and some advertisers told Business Insider they had seen settings become enabled unexpectedly.
REI faced public backlash after an Instagram ad showed a malformed bicycle with two handlebars. The retailer said Meta had auto-enrolled it in an AI feature that produced an inaccurate and inappropriate image. Another advertiser said a holiday campaign was altered after approval, leaving product labels garbled and items looking like imitation versions of the real goods.
Meta told Business Insider that its terms state AI can make mistakes and that advertisers are responsible for reviewing outputs. The company also said millions of advertisers are seeing value and better performance from Advantage+ creative tools. Its AI image-generation feature that creates variations from an advertiser-supplied image is off by default, according to Meta.
That distinction matters, but agencies argue that campaign-level controls are not enough when they manage hundreds or thousands of ads. If AI settings can be changed accidentally or activated by a bug, routine creative review becomes a much larger operational task.
The company is also rolling out its Muse Image model for advertiser creative work. Meta recently removed a Muse Image feature that let people generate images from public Instagram posts after criticism, saying the feature “missed the mark,” according to Business Insider.
For Windows users and IT teams, this is another reminder that AI features in major SaaS platforms increasingly arrive as product defaults and workflow changes rather than clearly isolated optional tools. Marketing departments using Meta Ads Manager should treat generated creative as production output requiring review, not as a harmless suggestion layer.
Advertisers should audit Advantage+ creative settings, verify them before publishing, and review live placements after launch for altered imagery, product details or copy.
Business Insider reported on July 13 that eight advertisers and agency executives described recurring issues with Meta’s AI ad features, including distorted imagery, garbled text and changes that contradicted the original creative. Examples included a pajama dress transformed into a shirt-and-pants set, a women’s networking-group ad edited to include a man, and a model depicted with an anatomically impossible leg.
The reports centre on Meta’s Advantage+ creative tools, which generate or modify advertising assets to improve predicted performance. Crypto Briefing separately reported complaints involving an elderly woman substituted for a younger male model, incorrect product context and nonsensical copy.
Defaults and bugs are the core complaint
The problem for advertisers is not merely that generative AI can make mistakes. It is that creative-enhancement settings can be easy to overlook, and some advertisers told Business Insider they had seen settings become enabled unexpectedly.REI faced public backlash after an Instagram ad showed a malformed bicycle with two handlebars. The retailer said Meta had auto-enrolled it in an AI feature that produced an inaccurate and inappropriate image. Another advertiser said a holiday campaign was altered after approval, leaving product labels garbled and items looking like imitation versions of the real goods.
Meta told Business Insider that its terms state AI can make mistakes and that advertisers are responsible for reviewing outputs. The company also said millions of advertisers are seeing value and better performance from Advantage+ creative tools. Its AI image-generation feature that creates variations from an advertiser-supplied image is off by default, according to Meta.
That distinction matters, but agencies argue that campaign-level controls are not enough when they manage hundreds or thousands of ads. If AI settings can be changed accidentally or activated by a bug, routine creative review becomes a much larger operational task.
Meta is still moving toward more automation
Meta has been adding AI functions across its advertising stack, including creative generation, image changes and automated optimization. Business Insider reported that Meta began applying an “AI info” label to qualifying ads last month, including ads made or substantially edited with Meta tools or certain third-party AI systems.The company is also rolling out its Muse Image model for advertiser creative work. Meta recently removed a Muse Image feature that let people generate images from public Instagram posts after criticism, saying the feature “missed the mark,” according to Business Insider.
For Windows users and IT teams, this is another reminder that AI features in major SaaS platforms increasingly arrive as product defaults and workflow changes rather than clearly isolated optional tools. Marketing departments using Meta Ads Manager should treat generated creative as production output requiring review, not as a harmless suggestion layer.
Advertisers should audit Advantage+ creative settings, verify them before publishing, and review live placements after launch for altered imagery, product details or copy.
References
- Primary source: Crypto Briefing
Published: 2026-07-13T15:29:29+00:00
Meta's AI advertising tools criticized for performance issues as brands report bizarre, inaccurate creatives
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