A grandfather who teaches how to choose watermelons. A young man with Down syndrome who laments that no one buys the pots he makes with infinite love. Both are generated by AI, and have managed, using sensitivity, empathetic messages and technology that increasingly imitates reality, to make millions of people believe that they are authentic. And let them buy. Above all, let them buy.
The wisdom of the old sensei. Paco del Campo He posted his first video a little over two weeks ago. He already has more than a million followers between Instagram and TikTok. Checkered shirt, knitted vest, home remedies to sleep better, to choose ripe melons or to distinguish normal apples from organically grown ones. And of course, it sells books with home remedies with prices between five and thirteen euros. As detected Delia Rodríguezin the fine print of its website it is recognized that “Paco del Campo” is a commercial name, not a person.
I can’t stand it in this city, let’s go to the countryside. Paco del Campo is not the only profile of advice on natural dyes, almost with tone rural-xploitation. Sofia.saludencasa gives holistic remedies and sells a book on the subject. Eduardo.holisticovidapossibly by the same author, gives advice and presents a book with very similar characteristics. The use of AI is obvious as long as the visitor is familiar with the visual tics of generative artificial intelligences, but it is completely normal that they fool most people and that they receive interactions and comments from dozens of people who believe that these experts are real.
The hook is no longer beauty. Three years ago we were talking about Aitana López, the virtual model from the Barcelona agency The Clueless: an AI with a declared advertising profiledesigned for brands with a tight budget. Its appeal was the visual appeal of the digital model. Paco belongs to another category: unlike Aitana López, no one warns that he is an AI, and the design opts for normality rather than physical perfection. The consequence is that it deceives much more easily: why would AI, when it can generate absolute beauty, replicate an old man’s face? Very simple: confidence in what is close sells more than physical perfection.
Even more perverse. This pattern of trust in profiles that want to dazzle with innocence takes on a more sinister nuance with the case of the now-defunct Martinmimoplants profile, which had more than 14,500 followers and 140,000 likes, but which disappeared from the map when the racket was discovered. It showed a young man with Down syndrome with a handmade pot business, lamenting that it doesn’t work. The fourteen videos posted by the account were artificial, and eleven of them did not carry any warning of AI-generated content. The most viewed video exceeded 600,000 views.
Martinmimoplants is not the first to resort to this technique: profiles of needy grandparents selling crafts have been seen, but the detail of Down Syndrome is new. This has generated an immediate response: Down Spain described the strategy as “false charity” and asked not to donate or buy without first checking the reliability of the seller. For its part, FACUA, which had already announced that it would take the case to the authorities, formalized the complaint to the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs on July 8, five days after the VerificaRTVE report that exposed it, for abusive clauses.
Majestic profiles. This article documented dozens of TikTok Shop accounts that showed supposed entrepreneurs crying about how bad their craft businesses were doing in order to actually sell products purchased in batches in China. The emotional script is the same as Martinmimoplants, and there is also a certain trait of vulnerability: disability in the Spanish case, and in those that The Verge points out, all African-American creators, that is, the thing takes on a racial point. Social networks are, for the most part, a space for business and it is beginning to be treated as such. For example, there are companies like the startup Doublespeed, financed by Andreessen Horowitz, which offers packages influencers synthetics for between 1,500 and 7,500 dollars, depending on the number of publications.
The regulatory response. Article 50 of the European Artificial Intelligence Regulation will require labeling of deepfakes and synthetic content that could be confused with real material from the August 2, 2026. Until then, Paco can continue publishing. For now, be careful with profiles that appeal to what is endearing and natural when the exact opposite abounds in their genesis. Or as the classic said, be careful out there.
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