
A Bot Is Posting Bizarre Cell Phone Covers on Amazon - alangibson
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s//ref=mw_dp_a_s?ie=UTF8&k=My-Handy-Design
======
wlesieutre
This has been going on for years. I can't find the particular listing anymore,
but I once went searching Amazon for an EnOcean (wireless protocol) motion
sensor and found a phone case with a photo of a motion sensor on it.

Presumably most of these are never purchased, but they generate thousands of
listings and print them on demand if one ever gets an order.

~~~
lftl
The weird part about these is that they're listed as prime and shipped and
sold by Amazon. Is there some way to list on demand products that way?

~~~
AaronNewcomer
Yes, Amazon now offers Seller Fulfilled Prime.
[https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=2...](https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=201812230)
(need to be logged into a seller account to see this page.

"Seller Fulfilled Prime allows you to list your products as Prime-eligible and
handle the fulfillment yourself. You can display the Prime badge on the
products you already ship directly to customers with 2-day shipping and free
standard shipping. There is no fee to enroll in Seller Fulfilled Prime.

Before you can participate, you must satisfy performance requirements during a
trial period to demonstrate that you can meet customers' service expectations.
After successfully completing the trial, you're automatically enrolled in the
program."

------
Jaruzel
At some stage we'll hit a tipping point where most posting traffic across the
internet is created by bots. Already we're reading bot curated news, looking
at bot analysed kitten pictures, and now bot created products. I would love to
go back in time and try and convince younger me and co., that this fancy
inter-network we're playing with is not actually for us, but for our future
bot overlords.

-Jarbot

~~~
chasing
Eventually the internet will just be bots creating content for other bots to
consume. And us humans can go outside and find something better to do with our
time.

~~~
AgentME
I have a bot that goes outside and enjoys it for me.

~~~
sogen
I have a bot that feeds my dog. I don't need to interact anymore!

------
owlninja
Just a heads up that some of the titles it uses for the cases are NSFW

------
trevyn
I wonder if the bizarreness of the images is part of a guerilla marketing
attempt to create viral posts like this.

~~~
jdietrich
I very much doubt it. I think the more straightforward explanation is far more
likely - that someone has fed an Amazon listings bot with a big library of
cheap or pirated stock photos. If you look on any stock photo site, you'll see
huge numbers of unusual images with very specific titles. For stock
photography, it makes perfect sense; there's a very long tail of articles that
need cheap illustration. Healthcare is a very lucrative niche, hence the
preponderance of medical images. Obviously this dataset is massively unsuited
to this particular purpose, but if the cost of a listing is effectively zero,
then there's no real downside to being completely indiscriminate.

Given that the seller has listed nearly 32,000 items, I don't think that
there's any amount of human decision-making involved.

~~~
hengheng
For a publicity stunt you'd have to license the best of /r/wtfstockphotos.

------
diyseguy
People who looked at this one: [https://www.amazon.com/Ingrown-toenail-
dressing-phone-Samsun...](https://www.amazon.com/Ingrown-toenail-dressing-
phone-
Samsung/dp/B01C22B98A/ref=pd_day0_107_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01C22B98A&pd_rd_r=XMVG178E26MEE5BH56C3&pd_rd_w=ROMnB&pd_rd_wg=eg6iw&psc=1&refRID=XMVG178E26MEE5BH56C3)

also looked at this one: [https://www.amazon.com/Goldblum-Waterproof-Curtain-
Curtains-...](https://www.amazon.com/Goldblum-Waterproof-Curtain-Curtains-
LiangZP/dp/B01N3PNZDI/ref=pd_sbs_107_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01N3PNZDI&pd_rd_r=7Q7ZWHCGW75BQS84TWNZ&pd_rd_w=w3gs8&pd_rd_wg=uZelm&psc=1&refRID=7Q7ZWHCGW75BQS84TWNZ)

------
russdill
Not sure if the original link is mobile, but I don't get any product images.
Try this one: [https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=My-
Ha...](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=My-Handy-Design)

------
asciimo
I was hoping that this was the work of a brilliant artist. But reading the
comments suggests it's the work of an automated workflow that optimizes for
Amazon's search algorithm. Maybe it's still art.

------
deadmik3
oh boy just ordered my new vaginal discomfort iphone case

~~~
ribosometronome
Personally, I'm more of a "Worried Teenage Girl in Bedroom With Pregnancy
Testing Kit" kind of guy.

~~~
whegare
But have you seen Woman In Underwear Masturbating While Lying On Bed?

------
donatj
A few years ago I bought some rainbow stickers with the text "Mothman" on
them, just because I stumbled across it and it was bizarre.

Digging a little further, the seller had basically every word + background
combo you could think of. Surely created by a bot and made to order.

------
bonoetmalo
So is this "dada-esque"?

------
marchenko
One day this is going to happen with someone's stolen boudoir shots and we
will witness the first of a new genus of lawsuits.

------
thomasjudge
Just in time for Prime Day!

------
dhartsfield
Money laundering, maybe? I mean, Is anybody buying these?

~~~
sharemywin
if there are 32k you only need 1 in 10000 to and you're selling 3 a day. which
if they make 10 a day profit. would be worth the time to make one.

------
dddw
my bet it's somebody his art-project that run awild

