- Last updated
- 13 October 2026
- Nature
- AI persona
- Style
- Cartoon
- Debut
- 2003
- Origin
- Brazil
- Created by
- Magazine Luiza
Summary
Lu do Magalu is the virtual persona of Magazine Luiza (Magalu), one of Brazil's largest retailers. Ogilvy says she was "born" in 2003 as the in-store voice of the company's commerce site, and Brazilian press describes her as a shopping assistant that grew into a digital influencer: a 3D avatar the retailer's social team runs as a character with her own feed. Pedro Alvim, Magalu's social media manager, leads the team responsible for her, according to Showmetech. Virtual Humans dates her first appearance on video to 13 August 2009 and says she opened the retailer's YouTube channel earlier; her debut is given as 2003 here because that is when Ogilvy says she was created.
Magalu and Ogilvy Sao Paulo turned Lu into an influencer who appears on live TV shows and in popular music videos and makes content for large brands, a campaign that won a Cannes Lions Gold. Her feed mixes product promotion, unboxing, gameplay, fashion, memes, music and causes such as awareness of violence against women. Mercado & Consumo reported in November 2020 that she reached one million TikTok followers in three months, the first Brazilian retail brand to do so. Virtual Humans' 2022 ranking called her the most followed virtual influencer in the world, with her reach largely confined to Brazil.
On 5 October 2026 her Instagram, which presents itself as "Lu do Magalu" with the bio "Influenciadora Virtual #magalu, Criadora de conteudo", showed 9.7M followers, her YouTube "Canal da Lu - Magalu" 2.98M subscribers and her TikTok 7.5M followers. Virtual Humans lists her as inactive or discontinued, though all three accounts were still posting daily or weekly at that date.
Is Lu do Magalu AI?
Yes. Lu do Magalu is a virtual 3D character created by the Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza and run by its social media team as the brand's spokesperson; no real person is presented as Lu.
Every page that bears on the question agrees that Lu is not a real woman. Ogilvy, whose Sao Paulo office worked with Magalu on her influencer campaign, says she was "born" in 2003 as the voice of Magazine Luiza's commerce site and calls her the world's biggest virtual influencer. Showmetech reports that she has been developed since then by the company's social and influence team, led by senior social media manager Pedro Alvim. Her own profile describes her as a "Virtual 3D Influencer", and in Virtual Humans' 2020 interview she speaks of herself as a virtual being that Magalu created.
She is a computer-made brand character, not a person using AI tools, so the answer is yes in the sense readers usually mean. She predates today's generative AI, though: she is a 3D animated avatar whose posts, lines and campaigns are written and produced by people at Magalu, so "AI" here means virtual, not an autonomous system.
What stays unknown is how each video is made. The research noticed some press images and video frames that seem to show a motion-capture performer, but no page it read names a performer or a voice actor, and none of the platforms' AI labels was recorded. If a named performer were confirmed, she would be better described as hybrid.
Evidence
Ogilvy's case study says Lu was "born" in 2003 as the in-store voice of Magazine Luiza's commerce site and calls her the world's biggest virtual influencer.
ogilvy.comShowmetech reports that Lu was created in 2003 and has been developed since by Magalu's social and influence team, led by senior social media manager Pedro Alvim.
showmetech.com.brVirtual Humans' profile quotes her Instagram bio, "Virtual 3D Influencer", and her words "I am a virtual being".
virtualhumans.orgIn Virtual Humans' 2020 interview, Lu, answering in character, calls herself Magalu's virtual spokesperson and influencer, and the interviewer says Magalu created her over a decade earlier.
virtualhumans.org
Assessed 9 October 2026
YouTube
Long-form work
Audience over time
How their audience has moved
Followers · all platforms
20.3M
▲ 31k (+0.2%) since 9 Oct 2026
Instagram 9.8M · TikTok 7.5M · YouTube 3M
Added up from 9 Oct 2026, once every platform had been read; tracked since 5 Oct 2026. Each platform is read about once a week.
@magazineluiza
TikTok