“Dress up your buddy’s wife in a tiny latex dress”: A digital fashion startup ran Meta ads for an AI app with an “undress” option

“Ever want to see how your neighbor would look in a tiny crop top?” 

“Dress up your buddy’s wife in a Tiny latex dress.” 

“Ever wonder how your college crush would look in a cheerleader outfit?” 

Those are some of the lines used in dozens of Facebook and Instagram ads for DressXme, a tool that allows you to upload a photo of a person and use AI to change their outfit. Users who clicked the ads were taken to a website with a prominent “Undress” button that could instantly depict anyone in underwear or lingerie.

DressXme’s marketing and “Undress” option bear similarities to nudifier/undress apps that have used Meta ads to help generate an estimated millions in customer revenue, according to a recent Indicator analysis. Such apps typically conceal their ownership and use AI to remove all, or nearly all, clothing from an uploaded image.

But instead of being operated by a shady overseas player, DressXme is made by DressX, a US company that runs the DressGO kids fashion game on Roblox, has partnerships with Lacoste, PUMA, and Snapchat, and has received recognition from Vogue and Fast Company for its digital fashion products.

DressX is headquartered in Los Angles and raised nearly $15 million in financing in 2023, according to an SEC filing. Beginning in late June, it ran Facebook and Instagram ads for dressxme.com, one of the company’s AI-infused products. The ads typically used 3D or AI animations of attractive young women and encouraged users to upload images of other people and dress them in sexually suggestive outfits.

Meta’s policies forbid content that promotes, or offers to make, non-real non-consensual intimate imagery. The ads also appeared to encourage people to violate DressXme’s Terms of Service, which require users to affirm that they “have written consent from each identifiable person in Your Content to use their name, voice, and likeness as described.”

Indicator shared examples of the ads with Meta, PUMA, Lactose and Snap Inc. Meta removed roughly 200 DressXme ads and banned the associated ad accounts. PUMA said it had suspended its partnership with DressX and participation in DressGO, the startup’s Roblox app.

“We have clear rules against non-consensual intimate imagery and don’t allow ads for apps offering to create it,” said Daniel Roberts, a Meta spokesperson, in an email. “We removed the ads that were shared with us and have restricted the accounts behind them. We recently announced new steps to further clamp down on these apps, including building new dedicated technology to identify them and taking legal action against a company that repeatedly broke our rules.”

The ads were placed via a recently-created DressXme Facebook page, the official DressX page, and the company’s verified Instagram account, which has over 76,000 followers. All profiles remain online as of this writing.

“This is the first time we’ve seen these ads, and we find them disturbing,” Robert-Jan Bartunek, a PUMA spokesperson, said in an email to Indicator. “PUMA’s involvement with DressX has been limited to a small-scale licensing agreement permitting the sale of a limited number of PUMA-branded digital items within their Roblox experience, DressGo. We have never been involved with the DRESSXME product or campaign, and our work with DressX has been entirely separate from that activation. In light of these developments, we have suspended our relationship with DressX and our participation in DressGo.”

In an emailed statement later attributed to DressX product manager Denys Tereschenko, the company said that the ads were managed by an “external partner.”¹

“At DRESSX, we do not support and do not condone the type of advertising content you described,” the statement said. “We work with external partners to manage and test advertising, and we were disturbed to learn that certain creatives associated with these campaigns were inappropriate and misaligned with our brand values.”

It emphasized that DressXme cannot be used to generate nude images and said that the company was “implementing stricter oversight and controls to ensure that all future advertising materials are fully compliant with platform policies and aligned with the aesthetics, standards, and values of DRESSX.”

Tereschenko and the company declined to say whether company employees and/or leadership had approved or viewed the ads and why dressxme.com had an “Undress” button. (It was renamed “Hot” after Indicator reached out for comment. The option was eventually removed.)

“As soon as our management team became aware of the situation, we ended our relationship with the contractor who created the paid advertisements and the Undress button (which never allowed nudity) was removed,” Tereschenko said.

A representative for Snap said that DressX provides digital clothes for Bitmojis in the Snapchat app, and that users aren’t able to generate their own clothes. Roblox and Lacoste did not respond to requests for comment.

Go here to view a YouTube playlist of DressXme ads.

DressX was founded in 2020 by three Ukrainian women with “a vision to revolutionize the fashion industry through digital innovation.”

Its early products allowed people to virtually try on and purchase digital clothing and accessories from designers across different products and platforms. The company benefitted from hype and investment focused on the metaverse and AR, inking deals with Meta and Warner Music Group to bring virtual fashion to avatars and fans. (Warner also participated in the company’s 2023 financing.) DressX also launched DressGO, a Roblox game aimed at players 5 years old and above. Users could win prizes and purchase clothes from brands like PUMA using the in-game currency. 

In 2021, Vogue Business named DressX’s founders to its list of 100 “Tech and Web3 innovators.” In 2023, Fast Company dubbed DressX one of the “10 Most Innovative Companies in blockchain, cryptocurrency, metaverse, and Web3.”

As money and interest shifted away from the metaverse and into AI, DressX followed suit. Last year, it launched a generative AI fashion product that let users upload a photo of themself and use text prompts to change clothing and try on designer styles. On its website, DressX encouraged people to generate outfits for a dating app, LinkedIn profile pic, or to “spice up your relationship with an ultimate flirty dress.” 

DressXme, its latest generative AI product, is a website and app that offer free features and paid memberships that allow unlimited image generation and access to templated styles. The free version lets people upload a photo and change clothes based on existing templates – including one labeled “Undress” that was later changed to “Hot” before being completely removed. When Indicator tested the feature using an AI-generated person, the “Undress” button returned a version of that person in lingerie. Other options on the site included “Maid” and “Bikini.” 

“At DRESSX, we are committed to responsible action and practices and maintaining the highest standards of safety,” Tereschenko said in a statement. “Our technology only generates dressed images, supporting creativity and self-expression while strictly preventing nudity.”

One Meta ad for dressxme.com started with an attractive woman wearing tattered clothes and standing in what appeared to be a slum. The text on the screen said, “What to wear on a date with a CEO?” 

“I can’t go out in this, help me dress up,” said a voiceover. After a “DRESS HER” button appears on the screen, the woman steps into a fancy restaurant in a revealing dress and says, “Thanks, darling. Can you be my stylist?”

Variations of the ad began running from official DressX accounts in late June. In mid-July a new DressXme Facebook page went online. It almost immediately started running ads that encouraged users to upload photos of women and put them in revealing outfits. (Some ads also prompted users to upload photos of men.)

The limited targeting data available in the Meta Ad Library shows that some of the violative ads were specifically targeted at men. Other ads weren't restricted to male users but were nevertheless heavily viewed by men. The ads’ disclosure information listed DressX as the entity that paid for, and benefited from, the ads. 

The targeting and payment data is only available for EU audiences. DressX did not respond to a question about who was targeted with the ads.

Dressxme.com attracted 23,000 visits in May, when Similarweb, a digital market intelligence company, first detected traffic to the domain. The site generated 193,000 visits in July, the first full month that the ads were active. Roughly 28% of the site’s July traffic came from Facebook, according to Similarweb.

At the same time dressxme.com was driving clicks from ads, it was being promoted by online directories that specialize in, or have a section dedicated to, nudifiers and other NSFW AI tools. DressXMe is listed on ainsfwtools.com and thataicollection.com with identical marketing copy.

“Effortlessly undress and transform your photos with an AI-powered solution from DRESSX.ME!,” reads the tag line listed on both sites. (DressXme previously used the domain dressx.me; it now redirects to dressxme.com.)

It’s unclear how DressXme came to be listed on the sites and who wrote the description. The directories did not respond to a request for comment. The company did not respond when asked if anyone associated with DressX submitted the site to the directories, provided marketing copy, or paid for the placements.

Tereschenko, the DressX product manager, said that the company’s priority “is to uphold the highest standards in how our brand is represented, and we remain committed to maintaining a responsible and respectful approach across all channels.”

The quotes from DressX were originally attributed to Anastasiia Mozghova, a company spokesperson. After the story was published, she requested that they be attributed to Denys Tereschenko because of his role at the company.