Toys ‘R’ Us has become the first brand to utilize OpenAI’s highly anticipated text-to-video tool, Sora, for its advertising. The revived retailer premiered a 66-second spot at Cannes Lions, the annual advertising conference on the French Riviera, garnering mixed reviews online. This ad marks a significant step for the once-bankrupt toy store, now revived in Macy’s store locations since 2022.
The ad, developed by Toys ‘R’ Us’s creative partner, Native Foreign, and showcased at Cannes Lions, features the yet-to-be-released Sora tool, which can create up to one-minute-long videos from text instructions. “Charles Lazarus was a visionary ahead of his time and we wanted to honor his legacy with a spot using the most cutting-edge technology available,” said Kim Miller Olko, the company’s global chief marketing officer and president of Toys ‘R’ Us Studios. Olko emphasized that the brand’s goal is to capture nostalgic feelings and deliver them uniquely to consumers of all ages by leveraging the innovative capabilities of Sora.
The ad, now featured on the company’s Studios page, takes viewers through the origin story of Toys ‘R’ Us founder Charles Lazarus and its beloved mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. The narrative begins with a 1950s small-town bicycle shop, moving into a dream sequence where a young Charles envisions a magical world, eventually meeting an early version of Geoffrey. This creative journey is designed to evoke a sense of wonder and nostalgia, with the ad’s style reminiscent of the opening scenes of Forrest Gump.
Reactions to the ad and the use of Sora have been varied. Some viewers are impressed by the integration of generative AI in commercial advertising, while others, like writer Mike Drucker, have criticized it for being jarring and lacking a human touch. Drucker tweeted, “Love this commercial is like, ‘Toys R Us started with the dream of a little boy who wanted to share his imagination with the world. And to show how, we fired our artists and dried Lake Superior using a server farm to generate what that would look like in Stephen King’s nightmares.”
Nik Kleverov, chief creative officer of Native Foreign, shared insights into the creative process with CNN. He noted that while everything in the ad was created using text commands, the ease and speed of production varied. “The blocking, the way the character looks, what they’re wearing, the emotion, the background — it has to be a perfect dance. Sometimes you would create something that was almost right and other times not so right,” Kleverov said.
Sora, first introduced by OpenAI in February, has generated significant interest for its ability to create videos featuring multiple characters, specific motion types, and detailed backgrounds from simple text commands. Although an official release date has not been announced, it is rumored that Sora may be available to the public by the end of summer.
The debut of this ad at Cannes Lions represents both a milestone for Toys ‘R’ Us and a glimpse into the future of advertising, where AI-generated content could become more commonplace. As the industry continues to explore the capabilities and limitations of generative AI, the reactions to Toys ‘R’ Us’s use of Sora will likely influence how other brands approach this emerging technology.
Your First 10 AI Skills
10 practical AI skills, copy-paste prompts and a 7-day plan to start using AI with confidence.
Download the guide →