Tag: video
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A Craft Distillery Got an Idea a Physical Shoot Would Price Out
A Michigan craft distillery doesn’t have a giant’s budget. Farley Oil and Smoke&Oakum made its bourbon spot with no physical shoot. The director says that didn’t make the ad cheaper. It made an ambitious idea worth pitching to a client this size at all.
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Google Hired Three Creative Chiefs to Make AI Spots — and Filmed Them Doing It
Jayanta Jenkins ran at least 300 iterations of his spot in Google Flow. Tiffany Rolfe had to fact-check the historical details the model invented for hers. Google put three A-list creatives on its AI tools, pointed them at small businesses, and filmed the trial and error for release alongside the ads.
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ESPN’s Poker Coverage Adds an AI That Watches for Tells — After Players Are Out
The World Series of Poker returns to ESPN with an AI that reads posture and blink rate for bluffs. It runs on players only after they’ve been eliminated — and its builder doubts it would find anything on a pro who has spent a career erasing tells.
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ampm Trades Animatronic Snacks for an AI-Built Smorgasbord
“Too Much Good Stuff” has been ampm’s platform for more than 25 years, previously carried by animatronic snack characters and in-store humor. The new campaign from RPA drops both for a generated hyper-real environment built around photographed products — the chain’s first work using AI-assisted creative tools.
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Dollar Shave Club Drafts the Founding Fathers Into the Razor Wars
On July 1, Dollar Shave Club rolled out “250 Years. No BS. Still Free,” a set of digital ad spots made in-house with generative AI. The setup: America’s forefathers, rendered in hyper-stylized Revolutionary War imagery, fighting “big razor monopolies.” It is the brand’s pricing grievance, but in a tricorner hat. The campaign also promotes $2.50…
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YouTube Moves the AI Label Into Daylight
YouTube says it will start automatically detecting and labeling videos with “significant photorealistic AI-generated content,” shifting away from the creator self-disclosure system it introduced in 2024. The automated labels begin rolling out gradually in May 2026, using internal signals YouTube has not fully specified. For anyone who has ever gone spelunking in a video description:…
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$1M, 21 AI Spots, and a Ticket to Cannes: Luma’s “Dream Brief” Goes Public
Luma AI’s “Dream Brief” set out to get working creatives hands-on experience with the product. Over two months, the contest pulled nearly 400 AI-made ad submissions from 58 countries and more than 100 agencies, then a panel of heavy hitters narrowed it to 21 spots headed to Cannes Lions. The hook is simple (and very…
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Deel’s AI “Dream” Ad Nails the Hard Part: Humans
Deel’s latest 30-second spot, “Dreaming of Deeling,” leans into a literal dream sequence to sell a very un-dreamy topic: payroll. The ad follows a woman floating through clouds, pausing in front of a cityscape, then flying again as clouds morph into currency symbols—eventually joined by coworkers cruising along on their own personal cloud commutes. What…
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Spaghetti Monsters, De-Aging, and AI Twins: This Week’s Top 5 Brand Plays
ByteDance’s Seedance (now in its second generation) is the new video model fueling equal parts creative glee and IP panic. Creators have been stress-testing it with the internet’s favorite benchmark—Will Smith + spaghetti—except the latest flex is Smith fighting a spaghetti monster, posted by Magnific AI founder Javi Lopez. AI producer Billy Boman summed up…
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Samsung pushes Galaxy on social with with AI-generated material
Samsung is promoting its new Galaxy AI phone with a social-first video push that leans heavily on generative AI—sometimes subtly, sometimes not. One spot on X shows skateboarders cruising with groceries, with visuals that read a bit like polished stock footage; Samsung flags it at the end with: “This content was generated with the assistance…
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The AI Olympics Ad You Couldn’t Find (And That Was the Point)
Liquid Death ran a real, AI-generated Winter Olympics spot that looked so “is this even a real ad from the brand?” that viewers spiraled into Reddit and shaky TikTok replays trying to prove it existed. The ad features an AI figure skater pitching Liquid Death sparkling water as the less “artificial” choice—then promptly goes off…
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Carl’s Jr. Revives Iconic Ads with AI Twist and Nostalgic Appeal
Carl’s Jr. is leaning back into the “bikinis and burgers” era after previously trying to retire it. The reboot started back in 2025, with a Super Bowl-adjacent social push featuring influencer Alix Earle – which drove social engagement. The brand saw a 91% jump in Instagram followers per Metricool and 2.5 million TikTok views in…
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Bought the Spot, Built the Ad: Artlist’s 5-Day Super Bowl Flex
Artlist, an AI design platform, ran a regional Super Bowl spot that was generated entirely with its own tools—and the plot of the ad is basically “yes, we really did this with AI.” The 30-second narration positions the Super Bowl as advertising’s biggest creative stage, then pivots to the pitch: with Artlist’s generative video product,…
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When the Tables Turn: Pigs Farming People in AI-Powered PSA
British animal rights group Viva! decided to flip the factory farm narrative—literally. Their latest ad imagines a “Happy Human Farm” where pigs run the show, complete with free-range humans lounging in meadows before meeting their unfortunate end. Crafted entirely with AI tools by creative Christian Brandes, the spot positions itself as a cheerful promo for…
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Mari-Knows It All: Topps Fakes the Best ’80s Ad Career That Never Was
Topps is revisiting a sports “what-if” with the help of AI and a heavy dose of nostalgia. In its latest Bowman Draft campaign, the trading card brand reimagines a young Dan Marino—who was actually drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1979—in a parallel ad-world where he’s more than a football great. In an alternate…
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AI Drama with a Side of Stroganoff
Noodles & Company gave fans more than just comfort food —they served up an AI-powered ad that doubles as a soap opera for the tastebuds. After the company put the popular Steak Stroganoff dish on hiatus, consumers voiced their displeasure and the brand tapped generative AI to dramatize actual complaints via short, theatrical scenes. Picture…
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Secret Level’s AI Holiday Special Is What Happens When ChatGPT Meets Claymation
Secret Level is back with not one but two AI-powered holiday specials that double as a time capsule for generative tech’s warp-speed progress. “A Very AI Yule Log 2” builds on last year’s fireplace-with-a-twist, using 630 surreal, 10-second AI-generated scenes stitched into 105 minutes of what can best be described as merry chaos. Made in…
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Slop and Scroll: AI Filler Takes Over YouTube’s First Impressions
A new study from video-editing company Kapwing shows just how aggressively low-effort AI content—dubbed “AI slop”—is worming its way into YouTube’s recommendation engine. More than one in five videos served to new users falls into this category, which includes content created purely to rake in views with low production values and zero narrative. Among 15,000…
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Behind Lexus’ Whimsical AI Holiday Ad Campaign
Lexus is taking its holiday ad game into dreamier terrain—literally—by using AI to power a surreal winter drive that feels like it came straight out of a snow globe. The spot, created by AKQA, blends generative visuals with traditional art direction to tell a story that winds through frosted lakes, alpine trails, and twinkly forests—all…
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The Debate on AI Ads: McDonald’s Christmas Campaign Controversy
McDonald’s Netherlands pulled its fully AI-generated Christmas ad after it struck the wrong chord with viewers — both in the Netherlands and well beyond. The ad leaned into holiday chaos with a cheeky twist on “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” aiming to show McDonald’s as a calm-in-the-storm sanctuary. But what started as…
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Brands wrestle with authenticity vs. AI
As AI-generated marketing proliferates—and fumbles—some brands are reaping rewards by leaning hard in the opposite direction: showing off the real, the tactile, the definitely-not-CGI. A spec Pepsi ad from filmmakers Luke Barnett and Noam Kroll pokes fun at synthetic storytelling with a self-aware script featuring six repetitions of the word “real” in just 60 seconds.…
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Svedka’s Super Bowl Strategy: Vodka, Robots, and a Dash of AI
For the first time in decades, vodka will return to Super Bowl ad breaks, as Svedka nabs a coveted 30-second slot just after halftime in February’s Big Game. This isn’t just Sazerac flexing its distribution muscle—CMO Sara Saunders says the vodka brand, which had been sliding, is back on the upswing since their 2024 acquisition.…
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How Dollar Shave Club Uses AI for a Fresh Marketing Approach
Dollar Shave Club is back to joking about razors—and this time, it’s using AI to do it. The men’s grooming brand, best remembered for its snarky 2011 launch video, has returned to that “rebel-jester” tone with a new 60-second spot titled “We Put Our Money Where It Matters.” Created with Israeli agency Too Short For…
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Publicis’ AI-Driven Storytelling: Reflecting on 100 Years of Innovation
To kick off its 100th birthday, Publicis Groupe released a cinematic short film that retraces its history—not with a dusty corporate slideshow, but using a lion, generative AI, and the voice of an Édith Piaf impersonator. Titled “A Lion Never Gives Up,” the nearly seven-minute film fuses live-action scenes with AI-generated visuals inspired by over…
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How Coca-Cola Blends AI and Emotion for Holiday Success
Coca-Cola is doubling down on artificial intelligence this season, launching “Refresh Your Holidays,” a global campaign built around a retooled version of its AI-assisted “Holidays Are Coming” ad. This 60-second spot opens on Santa cracking open a Coke and follows a fleet of holiday trucks lighting up the snowy streets—and attracting an unusually attentive pack…
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Tom the Turkey Books It: Google’s First AI-Generated TV Spot
Google’s latest ad stars a plush turkey fleeing Thanksgiving via Google Search’s AI Mode—and notably, the entire spot was built using generative AI. Created with Google’s in-house Veo 3 video model, “Quick Getaway” follows Tom, the stuffed bird, as he ditches turkey season for a spontaneous holiday. The prompt? “I need to go somewhere with…
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Holiday Chaos, Now in High-Def AI
McDonald’s Netherlands is leaning into December dysfunction with a fully AI-generated holiday ad that’s as relatable as it is ridiculous. Created by TBWA\Neboko and directed by the MAMA duo of Sweetshop, the 45-second spot rides the fine line between festive and frantic. Think flaming turkeys, exploding trees, and a shopper dragged behind a bus—all set…
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Flo Who? Progressive Lets AI Animals Take the Wheel
Progressive has momentarily nudged its iconic mascot Flo to the backseat—literally—in a new national TV spot that leans fully into AI-generated imagery. The 30-second ad, titled “Drive Like an Animal,” swaps Flo’s on-screen antics for a parade of digitally conjured creatures, each embodying a particular driving stereotype. A lion and hyenas rage behind the wheel, a sloth…
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AI in Advertising: Consumer Reactions and Emotional Engagement
System1’s deep dive into generative AI advertising reveals something pundits love to debate but consumers don’t appear to care about: whether or not AI made the ad. In testing 18 AI-generated spots across three countries and 2,700 viewers, ads created with machine help actually outperformed traditional ones on emotional engagement, scoring 3.4 Stars against a…
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Pepsi Launches Prebiotic Soda, Shoppable From Your Couch
Just in time for holiday gustatory adventures, PepsiCo is cracking open the can on its new prebiotic cola. Following its acquisition of Poppi earlier this year, Pepsi is bringing functional fizz to the masses with a limited release of Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in Original and Cherry Vanilla. Each can clocks in at five grams of…
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Cuomo’s Deepfake Day Job: AI Hits the Campaign Trail
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is back in the political arena—this time with a digital twist. In a new 30-second campaign ad promoting his run for NYC mayor, Cuomo appears performing a series of wildly improbable day jobs: swinging from a skyscraper as a window washer, navigating subway tunnels as a conductor, and even…
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Inside GM’s AI Content Engine Metropolis
General Motors is taking a torque wrench to traditional marketing, putting AI squarely under the hood of its creative operations. After pulling marketing strategy, data, and insights in-house last year, the automaker developed Metropolis—a proprietary AI content engine trained solely on GM’s brand guidelines and vehicle specs. Built in collaboration with Monks and powered by…
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AI Transforms Cowboys Mascot in Blockchain Ad
Blockchain.com is mixing digital currency with digital creativity in its latest ad campaign, currently playing on the ultra-high-definition stadium screen at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The crypto finance firm tapped into generative AI to produce a unique one-minute spot that stars Rowdy, the team’s mascot, reimagined through an AI lens to pitch…
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NFL’s AI-Generated Season Opener: A Surreal Spectacle
The NFL launched its 2025-26 season with a groundbreaking, surreal ad titled “You Better Believe,” created in collaboration with agency 72andSunny. This psychedelic, AI-generated music video showcases a virtual parade celebrating all 32 teams, featuring elements like talking babies and airborne livestock, all set to a remix of “C’Mon ‘N Ride The Train.” Utilizing AI…
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The Rise of AI Avatars in Digital Marketing
TikTok has introduced AI-generated avatars, allowing brands to utilize the likenesses of real people for advertising, as seen with Scott Jacqmein, who licensed his image for $750. These avatars help streamline ad production for businesses but raise concerns among actors about contracts that grant unlimited use of their virtual selves across platforms without royalties. While…
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Byrna’s AI Ad Boosts Traffic by 50%
Byrna, a personal defense brand, has experienced a significant 50% increase in daily website visits due to its innovative AI-driven advertising strategy. The campaign, highlighted by a humorous commercial titled “We Don’t Sell Bananas,” has attracted 66 million views, reducing customer acquisition costs to $0.53 per visitor. This surge in traffic notably translated into a…