Toys “R” Us premiered a short promo film at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival, created almost entirely using OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool, Sora. Partnering with creative agency Native Foreign, Toys “R” Us is the first brand to debut a film using this technology, which is not yet publicly available. The 66-second promo, featuring founder Charles Lazarus and mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe, received mixed social media reactions, with some finding it fascinating and others calling it “creepy.”
In addition to Sora, the promo incorporated corrective visual effects and an original music score. OpenAI introduced Sora in February, claiming it can generate realistic and imaginative videos from text prompts, potentially disrupting the digital entertainment market. The tool can create 60-second videos with multiple characters and detailed scenes, emphasizing the future potential of AI in filmmaking.
Kim Miller, CMO of Toys “R” Us Creative Studios, initiated the project after attending a brand storytelling group and aimed to create something unique. After Native Foreign tested Sora, Chief Creative Officer Nik Kleverov proposed the collaboration. Despite the AI’s capabilities, human involvement and iterations were crucial to the final product. Toys “R” Us is exploring advertising opportunities for the promo, with potential holiday iterations. OpenAI has not yet announced Sora’s official release date, but it is rumored to launch later this summer.
