The toy store Toys R Us has released a video advertisement that has generated both praise and criticism online. The one minute long video It was created almost entirely with the tool sora of OpenAI which converts text to video and is not yet available to the general public.
The announcement, titled “The origin of Toys ‘R’ Us”shows the company’s founder, Charles Lazarusas a child and his pet, Geoffrey the Giraffe. This video was presented at Cannes Film Festivalgenerating thousands of reactions on social media.
Reactions were mixed, with some creative professionals calling the work “brilliant” and “exciting,” while others described it as “an abysmal affront” that “should terrify.” Kim Miller Olkochief marketing officer for Toys “R” Us and president of Toys “R” Us Studios, described The Wall Street Journal the creation of the ad as an opportunity to experiment with cutting-edge technology: “The train left the station and we decided to be the first to get on.”
Chris Beresford-Hillagency’s global creative director BBDOmentioned that many reactions were driven by fears about the potential of the artificial intelligence to undermine quality and employment in the marketing industry. “The world is full of ads like this, and I don’t think they’re very good,” Beresford-Hill told the WSJ “This announcement would never be discussed by anyone if it weren’t for AI.”
The process of creating the video was not simply a push of a button, according to Nik Kleverovcreative director of the agency and production company Native Foreign. Approximately 20 people on his team, including designers, art directors and animators, worked together to generate each shot or frame, providing sora several paragraphs of instructions. Kleverov explained that the tool often misinterpreted the writers’ intentionswhich sometimes required hundreds of revisions of the text.
A particular difficulty was instruct the artificial intelligence tool on the characters’ motivations to achieve the appropriate facial expressions and movements. According to Kleverov, Sora It completed between 80% and 85% of the work, before the team made small corrections to the images, similar to how colors are adjusted or blemishes removed in traditional post-production.
The final result contains numerous imperfectionssomething that online critics were quick to point out. For example, The virtual star of the ad does not look like the same child in every shot. However, Mark D’Arcyformer creative director and vice president of global business marketing at Meta Platformsdefended the bravery of Toys “R” Us in launching the ad: “I would say that it is mediocre and that It’s awesome in the way it was created.and that is as good as most of the advertising that is being done these weeks in the world.”
Miller Olko highlighted that the creation of the advertisement required less budget, time and personnel than would have been necessary without artificial intelligence, fulfilling one of the main attractions of this technology. This project poses a challenge to agencies that traditionally bill clients by the hour and by the number of people working on a project. Kleverov noted that They are still trying to figure out how to charge for this type of work, since “it’s not your typical production line.”
The ad aims to reintroduce Charles Lazarus and Geoffrey the Giraffe and remind consumers that, although Toys “R” Us only has two stand-alone stores in the United Statesthe brand now has presence in every Macy’s store. Miller Olko said the company plans to air the ad on multiple streaming platforms. streaming and is considering airing it on television before this year’s Christmas season.
Andy Kluthecomic book artist and illustrator, expressed in X that Toys “R” Us I should have hired actors instead of resorting to artificial intelligence, which would have made the video “it seems a thousand times less disturbing.” The criticism was amplified by recent cases of problems with artificial intelligence and its relationship with creatives. For example, in May, OpenAI stopped a voice function after Scarlett Johansson threatened legal action because a voice created by the tool sounded like his.
Despite the criticism, the creators of the video in Toys R Us and Native Foreign They consider the project a success. “I think this becomes part of our toolkit. It was a test. “It was successful. There were a lot of learnings. If the opportunity comes up again and it’s the right option, we will use it, but it will be one of many different things we would do,” said Miller Olko.
