Toys "R" Us Faces Backlash Over AI-Generated Advertisement
Summary:
After launching an advertisement created entirely with OpenAI's AI tool Sora, Toys "R" Us faces widespread criticism. The ad depicts the company's founder, Charles Lazarus, and his vision but was criticized by industry figures such as the director of Avengers: Endgame, Joe Russo, and metaverse multimedia firm BasedAF's CEO, Robin Schmidt. Critics hit on the video's lack of visual continuity and the supposed high energy costs of AI-generated content. OpenAI's model initially impressed, but consistent issues have come to light, leading some to question its utility.
Toys "R" Us is facing a surge of criticism following the launch of its newest commercial, produced entirely with Sora, OpenAI's AI tool for generating video. The advertisement portrays the founder of the U.S. toy retail giant, Charles Lazarus, during his childhood and his idea of forming the toy store Toys “R” Us and its mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe. The promo was developed by the company's internal studio and Native Foreign, the creative agency. Along with the commercial, the toy company hailed its AI-created video as "surpassing the limits,” being the first major promotional video produced solely by OpenAI's text-to-video instrument.
"To honor the legacy of Charles Lazarus, a forward-thinking pioneer, we wanted to create an ad spot utilizing the latest tech available," Toys “R” Us CMO Kim Miller Olko remarked.
However, the commercial faced backlash from artists and directors, with condemning comments such as "it totally sucks” from Joe Russo, director of Avengers: Endgame.
Others expressed their critique from a technical perspective, highlighting the ad's discontinuity in its visual elements, including evident alterations in the protagonist's physical features and attire throughout the brief 66-second video. "It's like a bizarre dream where the person changes every time you see them," commented a user.
"Such a approach is misguided. It's perplexing why marketing people believed this was the ideal representation of their product's spirit,” commented Robin Schmidt, CEO of BasedAF, a metaverse multimedia company.
There were also beneficiaries who disputed the alleged energy consumption of AI-developed content compared to traditional video production for advertisements. "This does not appear superior to traditional methods, yet it consumes significantly more energy to create,” said RJ Palmer, a previous concept artist at Ubisoft. "Moreover, you can visibly detect where characters have been clumsily cut out from varying sources to create a unified image,” they added. "There's fundamentally no advantage to this."
OpenAI introduced its text-to-video model Sora on Feb. 15, initially impressing social media users with its capabilities. Nonetheless, its inability to generate consistent footage without any odd discrepancies in subjects has been exposed since its launch, which is evident in the rare instances of generated footage appearing in mainstream media.
Published At
6/27/2024 8:35:09 AM
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