On June 22, 2026, REI confirmed that Meta had automatically enrolled the outdoor retail cooperative into an AI personalization tool without its knowledge or consent, which then altered a vendor-supplied photograph used in an Instagram advertisement, producing a deformed bicycle image that circulated on social media for approximately a week before being removed. The advertisement promoted a bicycle from French cycling brand Van Rysel and showed a woman standing beside a bike; social media users pointed to visual anomalies including an extra pair of handlebars, illegible text on the frame, a missing crank arm, and disc brakes mounted on the wrong side of the wheel. One Reddit commenter catalogued at least ten structural errors. The ad had been running for approximately five days before any internal action was taken. REI stated it had since taken steps to unenroll from the tool. The vendor-provided image was not AI-generated; Van Rysel had conducted an actual photo shoot with fitness model Amity Rockwell, who confirmed she was hired for an official shoot. Meta's Dynamic Media system, which became the default for Advantage+ Catalog ads beginning September 1, 2025, with full enforcement by October 20, 2025, automatically delivers product images or videos based on predicted user engagement and adapts images in real time based on placement.