Revived retailer Toys ‘R’ Us is the first brand to use Sora, OpenAI’s highly anticipated text-to-video tool, for its advertising — and the one-minute spot it debuted at a conference in France this week is garnering mixed reviews online.
Toys ‘R’ Us, the once-ubiquitous toy store brand that shuttered all locations when it went bankrupt in 2017 only to be revived in Macy’s store locations in 2022, premiered the 66-second spot at Cannes Lions, the annual gathering of the ad world’s elite on the French Riviera. The ad utilizes Sora, the yet-to-be-released artificial intelligence tool from OpenAI, to which the brand’s creative partner, Native Foreign, had early access.
“Charles Lazaruswas 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 …