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Retailer Toys R Us is leveraging AI-generated video with its latest branded video using OpenAI’s privately generative AI video model, Sora.
The video, produced by advertising agency Native Foreign in collaboration with Sora, is a brief retelling of the company's origin story, told by Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus.
There, little Lazarus and the toy store's mascot, Geoffrey the giraffe, are rendered entirely in AI.
Toys”R”Us said in a press release that the more than one-minute video was produced by Toys”R”Us Studios president Kim Miller-Orko and directed by Native Foreign co-founder and creative director Nick Krebeloff. The video was screened at the Cannes Lions Film Festival in 2024. Toys”R”Us said the video was developed from concept to final product in just a few weeks.
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On X, an account going by the name Krebelov wrote, “I'm honored to have produced my first branded film with OpenAI's Sora. Kudos to Toys R Us for entrusting me with directing Geoffrey the Giraffe's origin story.”
Krebelov also shared more details about the AI video's production process in response to questions about X, writing that Sora “allows you to explore your imagination in movement.”
Venture Beat has reached out to both Native Foreign and Toys R Us to get more information about the ads and will update if we hear back.
Sora and AI video in general gain momentum
OpenAI released Sora to a limited number of creators it handpicked in February, but it hasn't yet made it available to the public because the company says it wants to continue “red team testing” the model — testing it for potential misuse — and get feedback from a small number of early users.
Since then, OpenAI has expanded access to its text-to-video platform to other filmmakers, and premiered five short films made entirely with Sora at the 2024 TriBeCa Film Festival in June.
Filmmaker Paul Trillo also used Sora to create a first-of-its-kind AI music video for indie chillwave musician Washed Out, which will premiere online in early May 2024.
Native Foreign and Kleverov were among the first few filmmakers granted access to Sora by OpenAI, and Kleverov said in an OpenAI blog post in March that Sora would allow them to “rapidly iterate on creative for our brand partners” and eliminate the possibility of budget shaping the narrative.
Elements of the final Toys R Us video appeared in Kleberov's first video posted by OpenAI, specifically the bike shop featured at the beginning. (The bike repair sign was significantly improved in the final video, no longer saying “repaich.”)
Of course, OpenAI isn't the only company making AI-generated video a reality: Runway demoed its next-generation video model, Gen-3 Alpha, which can create 10-second video clips, and Luma AI, Kling, and Pika Labs have all publicly offered text-to-video AI models, despite concerns that they may be infringing copyright by training them on copyrighted video clips without permission, consent, or payment.
Runway is one of the companies being sued by artists for this very reason, and is part of a growing number of lawsuits against generative AI media tool companies.
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