3 mo. ago • 93%

Toys 'R' Us Riles Critics With 'First-Ever' AI-Generated Commercial Using Sora

https:// www.slashdot.org /story/430041

Oh god make it stop.

46 comments

Wait. What year is it?

Toy ‘R Us?

Slashdot?

111
- Honestly it’s a great publicity stunt. Not like people would give a fuck about toys r us otherwise.
  
  12
  
  Not like people would give a fuck about slashdot otherwise
  
  3
- come on, clicked through and auto logged in to slashdot...
  
  but my last comment was (oh shit) 17 years ago
  
  12
- Toy's R Us is, interestingly, still huge in Asia Pacific. In Japan, Babies R Us rivals other major childcare suppliers.
  
  9
  
  Toy ‘R Us is alive and well in Canada too. There's a Toy ‘R Us store 6 miles from Detroit in Windsor Ontario in Canada, as an example.
  
  5
Video source for those who don't feel like clicking around.

They don't go into detail, but I'd be real interested to see a breakdown of how this was made. It looks almost entirely like actual Sora output, with the exception of Geoffrey and the TRU logo, which I think are comped-in renders. But the rest of it all looks like genuine AI output, all the way down to a bit of R'lyehian text in a few places.

It's honestly a little scary how good this looks. Granted, this was made by a professional media team who understand how these tools work and know how to use them better than anyone else, so of course it's going to be good. But it won't be long at all before this becomes the baseline.

60
- This gave big uncanny valley vibes. I imagine it was meant to feel like a magical advert, but instead it felt creepy.
  
  13
- R'lyehian text definitely found under the windows of the shop. They must have manually done things like the bicycle shop sign.
  
  8
- It looks really good.
  
  But it's completely devoid of any sort of message at all, even by the standard of ads. It's basically entirely abstract.
  
  3
..........what? I thought they went out of business years ago?

48
- Macys owns the name in the US and uses it to mark their toy section. It is super sparse and not at all exciting.
  
  20
  
  Well, now I understand why Geoffrey didn't want to grow up. Now he's not a Toys R Us kid..........he's a corporate schill adult giraffe.
  
  13
- Toy R Us Canada is still operational. Not sure if this is related to the canadian operation or not.
  
  16
  
  Yet another reason to move to Canada, would you look at that.
  
  8
- They did (in the US). Bain Capital bled them dry and then sold off the scraps. There have been a few attempts to revive the brand but to my knowledge nothing has stuck yet.
  
  14
  
  Macy's now has a Toys Я Us branded toy department.
  
  5
- In Canada it got bought out by another investment group and the national chain still exists in many big malls here.
  
  6
In case anyone is curious - as I was - here's the commercial: https://youtu.be/uTVlnehpRHQ

(Not the Toys R Us channel, in case you don't want to give them direct views.)

26
- Thanks I hate it. ( •_•)>⌐■-■
  
  11
If I was a child, and toy stores looked like that, I'd be there in a heartbeat. This is making insane expectations for children that will never come to pass. Fuck this PR firm, fuck this company, and anyone else who has anything to do with this.

23
- Old Toys r Us was mostly just a warehouse vibe anyways. But it had a big box store level of toys to look over. It was the highlight of my childhood trips to the stores. They don't really need to pretend to be the old FAO Schwarz.
  
  12
This was a shockingly good result when compared to the cost of producing this with a set, film crew, actors, costume/makeup, and post production.

It doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be good enough to get your attention between the latest streaming show you or your kid is watching. It will absolutely do that for a tiny tiny fraction of the cost businesses had to pay before.

14
Honestly, brilliant move, even if the commercial sucks this is one of those "no bad publicity" situations since everyone is going to talk about the first AI commercial.

But after watching this ad, it honestly looks pretty good, slight uncanny vibes but if I just took it as "artistic choice" (ironic I know) of actually feels like a really nice ad

9
- actually feels like a really nice ad
  
  first time I've seen someone around here who actually liked and praised an ad
  
  8
  
  9
- Bingo. I left the whole deal thinking "who is talking about toys r us? ... Fuck."
  
  4
Carefully watch the kid's glasses.

Now you can't unsee it. You're welcome.

6
- What exactly can't I unsee?
  
  2
  
  His glasses are different in every scene. No consistency. It's subtle in the first few, but in the last shot they're a totally different style and shape and have a crossbar over the bridge that wasn't present in any of the previous scenes.
  
  3
  
  “It”
  
  You’re welcome?
  
  1
Toys Я Us

Wonder if Toys Я Us is a-Rushin'

5
It definitely looks like AI.

Also, merging with Macy's then using computers instead of humans to make a commercial, I wonder if Toys R Us is running out of money or something.

4
- They went bankrupt in 2018 and are but a shell of what they once were.
  
  4
Wow Slashdot is still around...

3
- And Toys R Us apparently.
  
  3
  
  It never closed in Canada, so that's far less surprising to me.
  
  1
I've always said that AI will never replace quality art, just the repetitive formulaic garbage. This is a good thing.

3
This has the same vibes as gamestop starting an nft marketplace.

2
One thing that always jumps out to me with each of these is that these videos are all just a sequence of 3 second clips stitched together.

I know all film consists of discrete shots edited into a larger piece but there's something mechanical about these. Like I'm watching a slide show that's just been placed in chronological order.

2
- Llms hit memory exhaustion between prompts, each "slide" is an individual generation which is why it feels so discontinuous. This will be really exciting after a couple breakthroughs though, especially when it can reference old generations.
  
  0

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