But while OpenAI is reportedly pitching the technology to Hollywood, one of the first public backers was brand management company WHP Global, which currently licenses the Toys “R” Us brand to stores like Macy’s and is opening up larger stores. Nearly every Macy’s department store now has a branded toy section, but it’s usually a modest section with a few rows of toys, rather than the toy warehouses that once inspired children’s dreams.
Some headlines are reporting that this is the first commercial made with OpenAI’s Sora, but… press release It won’t be broadcast anywhere else. Toys”R”UsHowever, the film made its debut in front of advertising agency executives at the 2024 Cannes Lions Film Festival in France last week.
The spokesperson also makes no attempt to claim that the footage was entirely generated by AI. Native Foreign, the creative agency that produced the footage, employed “about a dozen people” to create the video, with “corrective VFX,” according to director Nick Krebeloff. Sora was “about 80 to 85 percent done,” he said. He wrote to X:
Native Foreign appears to have reused some shots it had taken earlier at Sora, a bike repair shop owned by the company, as part of its Toys “R” Us project. It was unveiled in MarchCompare this to the final edited clip below:
Disclosure: The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, has a technology and content agreement with OpenAI.