At this point, I think it’s pretty hard not to have heard of Temu or at least seen an ad on Instagram. The most “attractive” part is the promise to buy an iPhone 15 for 9.90 Mexican pesos (less than half a US dollar) – a literally unbelievable offer. I started a little research to find out if the iPhone 15 offer on Temu for 9.90 pesos is real. In short, no, it’s not, but as always, it’s a little more complicated.
iPhone 15 Theme real or fake?
This is somewhat real. In my case, after seeing an absurd amount of ads on Instagram and YouTube from a woman describing how she bought an iPhone 15 from Tem for 9.90 pesos, I decided a few days later to download the app using a Google account, which simply didn’t match my interests (I don’t want Tem to have access to my “real” Google account). The first thing that caught my attention was that if you’re looking for an iPhone 15, you won’t find any offer, even at the official price of 19,499 pesos or $799. I found a lot of cases and accessories, but not a single offer to buy an iPhone 15.
So I started googling and found a couple of articles that talked about some kind of lottery in a very limited amount. They all linked to some sort of TikTok tutorial created by someone called @tutosfrance where she talks about the lottery. The key is getting a promo code (dnn3377 according to @tutosfrance), but it never says where you get that code (I’m guessing it shows up when you click on the iPhone 15 for 9.90 pesos promo code) and I found a few different ones in countless TikTok posts.
And if it’s a lottery…
How to win iPhone 15 in Theme?
Back to @tutosfrance’s guide, she points out that once you download the app and enter the promo code, you’re entered into a draw that will take place one day at a specific time. The woman in the guide suggests setting an alarm since the iPhone 15 is extremely limited, but she says she saw a video of another girl who won one.
Does this all sound convincing to you? It certainly seems like a very deceptive advertising campaign to me, designed to attract users to the app. And, going back to my experience, when I downloaded the Temu app, I entered at least three giveaways, where I got 80% off, 3,000 pesos (about $150) in bonuses, and a free order. All the giveaways were some kind of roulette, where I was always given “one more chance” or “one more chance” on the second try to get the expected prize. In other words, it seems like everything is designed to release dopamine in your brain, make you feel lucky, and get an incentive to buy something from the items on sale.
From my perspective (as someone who usually reports on social media trends and has some insight into how online advertising and e-commerce work), the iPhone 15 offer on Temu is nothing more than a lure to download the app. After all, building a significant user base is one of Temu’s short-term goals.
Source: Digital Trends
