The owner of Toys ‘R’ Us just used Sora OpenAI to animate a zombie brand

While OpenAI is reported to be pitching Hollywood on the technology, one of the first entities to publicly voice opposition is brand management company WHP Global, which currently licenses the Toys “R” Us brand to stores like Macy’s and is also exploring larger stores. Nearly every Macy’s department store now has a designer toy section, but it’s usually just a few miserable aisles of toys, not the toy warehouses that once fueled children’s dreams.

Although some headlines call it the first ad produced using Sora with OpenAI, press release does not imply that it will be broadcast anywhere other than Toysrus.comalthough last week it also premiered in front of an audience of advertising agency executives at the Cannes Lions 2024 festival in France.

PR also does not claim to be entirely AI-generated. According to director Nik Kleverov, the Native Foreign imaginative agency that produced the footage had “about a dozen people” working on the film, with “corrective visual effects” applied on top. Sora “got us about 80-85% of the way there” wrote on X: :

It looks like Native Foreign even reused an earlier shot they generated with Sora as part of the Toys “R” Us project. This is a bicycle repair company showed up in Marchcompared to the final corrected clip:

Disclosure: Vox Media, parent company of The Verge, has entered into a technology and content agreement with OpenAI.