An AI version of Toys ‘R’ Us founder Charles Lazarus in the brand’s first-ever video created with OpenAI’s Sora technology, in partnership with Native Foreign.
Toys “R” Us/Native Foreign
Resurgent retailer Toys ‘R’ Us is the first brand to use Sora, OpenAI’s long-awaited text-to-video tool, for its ad — and the one-minute spot, which debuted at a conference in France this week, is garnering mixed reviews online.
Toys ‘R’ Us, the once ubiquitous toy store brand that closed all locations when it went bankrupt in 2017 only to be revived in Macy’s stores in 2022, premiered the 66-second spot at Cannes Lions. the annual gathering of the global advertising elite on the French Riviera. The ad uses Sora, the yet-to-be-released AI tool from OpenAI, which the brand’s creative partner, Native Foreign, had early access to.
“Charles Lazarus was a visionary ahead of his time, and we wanted to honor his legacy with a spot using the most advanced technology available,” said Kim Miller Olko, the company’s global chief marketing officer and president of Toys ‘R’ Us Studios. “Our brand embraces the innovation and emotional appeal of Toys ‘R’ Us to connect with consumers in unexpected ways. We strive to capture that nostalgic feeling and deliver it in a unique way to Toys ‘R’ Us kids of all ages. Partnering with Native Foreign to push the boundaries of Sora on OpenAI is really exciting. Dreams are full of magic and endless possibilities, and so are Toys ‘R’ Us.”
The company said on its Studios page, which is now the landing page for the ad, “We’re excited to partner with Native Foreign to push the boundaries of Sora, a groundbreaking new technology from OpenAI that’s gaining global attention. Sora can create videos up to one minute long, featuring realistic scenes and multiple characters, all generated from text instructions. Imagine the excitement of creating a young Charles Lazarus, the founder of Toys ‘R’ Us, and imagining his dreams for our iconic brand and beloved mascot Jeffrey the Giraffe in the early 1930s.”
Indeed, the new Toys ‘R’ Us AI ad takes viewers on an unflinching journey into the uncanny valley to tell the origin story of the brand and its founder, Charles Lazarus, and of course, the iconic Toys ‘R’ Us mascot, Jeffrey the giraffe.
“Ever wonder how Toys ‘R’ Us and Jeffrey the Giraffe came to be?” asks a female narrator as a 1950s small-town bicycle shop moves across the frame. “The son of a bike shop owner, Charles Lazarus had a vision that would change toy stores forever.”
On screen, young Charles is seen in his father’s shop in a scene that stylistically recalls the first 20 minutes of Forest Gump. As the boy falls asleep on the table, a mini toy giraffe on the table next to him comes to life. We soon find ourselves in Charles’ dreamy fantasy as he passes through a child’s vision of space and then drifts towards, then into a sort of tunnel, where he is met at the other end by a crude, early version of Jeffrey the Giraffe.
Reactions online to the text-to-video technology and how Toys ‘R’ Us used it here were mixed. While some marvel that “the use of generative AI in advertising is here,” others like writer Mike Drucker are unimpressed or find it too irritating, as he tweeted: “I love this ad it’s like ‘Toys R Us started with the dream of a little boy who wanted to share his imagination with the world. And to show how, we fired our artists and dried up Lake Superior, using a server farm to generate what it would look like in Stephen King’s nightmares.”
Nick Kleverov, Native Foreign’s chief creative officer, told CNN that the process of working with Sora was also mixed in terms of ease and speed.
“Everything you see is created with text, but some shots came together faster than others; some took more reps,” he said. “The blocking, the way the character looks, what they’re wearing, the emotion, the background — it has to be a perfect dance. Sometimes you would create something that was almost right and other times not so right.
Sora was first shown to the world in February with OpenAI touting its ability to create video with simple text commands that include multiple symbols, specific types of motion, and detailed backgrounds. OpenAI has not announced an official release date for Sora, but it is rumored that it could be available to the public by the end of the summer.
