"Something seems off about this peanut—aren't peanuts supposed to grow underground?" Recently, the promotional image for a certain peanut-flavored compressed biscuit in China was ridiculed by netizens. When advertising the biscuit's peanut ingredient, the image used was rather bizarre: peanuts appeared to be growing on a leafy shrub-like plant, which even had yellow flowers blooming on it.
According to media reports, the image originated from Liangpin Shop. On August 28, Liangpin Shop responded to a Dahe News "Kan Jian" reporter, explaining that: they had mistakenly used an AI-generated image as the product detail photo on e-commerce platforms. Upon discovering the mistake, they immediately updated and corrected the related pages, and have since initiated a comprehensive scientific review of all their product promotional materials.
The Dahe News "Kan Jian" reporter searched several e-commerce flagship stores of Liangpin Shop for the product in question and found that the incorrect images had already been replaced.
Back in April this year, there were media reports that some netizens had bought "tree-grown peanuts" on e-commerce platforms. Zhang Jun from the Henan Peanut Research Institute stated in an interview that peanuts are plants that flower above ground and bear fruit underground, saying "With current technology, no matter what method is used, peanuts ultimately have to form underground."
As a result, Liangpin Shop's promotional image was called out by netizens for lacking basic knowledge: "Luckily I planted peanuts as a child, otherwise I might have been fooled," and "Peanuts all grow underground, never have I seen tree-grown peanuts."
Ziniu News reported that AI tools have already become quite widely used in the advertising industry; as early as last year, many people found AI-generated images in ads nearby. Images generated by early AI were poor in quality and often attracted mockery for their bizarre visuals—even provoking an uncanny valley effect that not only failed to attract customers but actually drove them away. Now, as AI technology has improved, many more well-produced AI ads have been widely released. Although many can still spot an "AI image at a glance," at least major factual errors like having six fingers are less common. Some creative AI ads have even received praise from consumers for their out-of-the-box ideas.