When OpenAI launched its text-to-video app Sora in September, there was an immediate backlash. To absolutely no one’s surprise, users on the platform had a field day using popular characters in their AI-generated videos, in all kinds of – admittedly creative! – situations. (See OpenAI founder Sam Altman Grilling Nintendo’s Pikachu.)
Brands condemned the use of their intellectual property without permission. The Film Academy called OpenAI for its blatant copyright violations. Shortly after launch, Altman wrote one blog post addressing the issue, stating that Sora would give rights holders “more granular control” over their IP on the app, adding that in the near future he expected many brands and content creators would welcome the chance to have their characters on the app. He called it a new form of ‘interactive fan fiction’.
Well, that day has arrived. According to a recent report in The Wall Street JournalOpenAI has opened the floodgates and is now talking to brands about how they can bring their mascots and characters into the app so users can showcase them in videos.
It’s clear why OpenAI wants brands to free their mascots. People would love to play in that sandbox with famous characters. Hell, they’re already doing it.
But what does it mean for the brands?
Most brands are still trying to figure out what their mascot stance will be towards Sora. I contacted McDonald’s, Geico, KFC and General Mills, but no one was willing to officially comment on it.
This is a newer, more urgent version of a conversation brands have been having for the past fifteen years. In the age of social media, how much creative control should a brand cede to its audience? Now the stakes are even higher, given the pace of technological progress, the public’s desire to make AI sloppy, and our inability to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not.
“Sharing the pen”
For centuries, the conversation between brands and everyone else was one-way. Advertising flashed in our eyes and rang in our ears, and that was that.
A two-way conversation started through social media. The mantra among marketers circa 2008 was to get involved in the social conversation, because people are talking about your brand whether you’re there or not.
In recent years, this has evolved even further into brands that actually collaborate with fans and makers. Morgan Flatley, McDonald’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, calls this “sharing the pen.”
Historically, most brands are nervous or overprotective when they don’t have full control over the creative. McDonald’s was chief among them, vigilantly protecting its intellectual property. In 2013 it is won a federal case for trademark infringement in Canada against a dim sum restaurant called MacDimsum. In 2019 she sent one cease and desist order to a small restaurant in Edmonton that serves an ‘Effing Filet O’ Fish’.
But the success of Famous Orders, a campaign launched in 2020 that regularly involved collaborating with artists to customize meals and create merchandise, changed things. Having artists like Travis Scott, BTS and Cactus Plant Flea Market play with the brand logos and characters, and the passionate response from fans – along with the sold-out merchandise and increased sales – gave Flatley and the brand more confidence to loosen the reins. The victory for McDonald’s lay in reflecting its role in the culture (the artists are true fans) and creating something new.
“I’ve become a big believer that if we focus on the right kind of creators in the right cultural phenomenon, and let go of some of our control over the brand, magic will happen,” Flatley told me in 2023 when we talked about the brand’s partnership with Marvel. “I don’t know if we would have felt as comfortable a few years ago transferring key aspects of our brand to be part of a storyline like this, but today we are really aware of the authenticity of our brand and the role it can play.”
Alyson Griffin, State Farm’s chief marketing officer, recently told me that the key to successful collaboration with makers is to be willing to relinquish some control. Brand leaders need to do their due diligence and research every potential partner, but they also need to let them cook. “When you know you have the right person because you’ve screened him/her for your brand’s needs, let him/her be,” Griffin said. “Let them create, because then it looks and is authentic.”
According to marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Sora was downloaded 3.8 million times in the US in its first month, despite only being available on iOS with an invite code. It was the number 4 app in the US at the same time. In a world where brands and marketers look for every opportunity to grab our attention, the temptation here is clear.
However, handing over your brand IP to the Sora 2 slop factory is a recipe for disaster.
Character chaos
Brand mascots have been an important part of advertising for more than 100 years. They’re used to marketing everything from kids’ breakfast cereals to batteries, from cigarettes to insurance, and they remain a valuable way for brands to build an emotional connection with people. Take the insurance industry, which has a huge selection of mascots aimed at making their brands more recognizable: State Farm’s Jake, the Geico Gecko, Progressive’s Flo, Mayhem for Allstate, Liberty Mutual’s LiMu Emu (and Doug), and the Aflac Duck.
A 2021 study reported that a long-term campaign with a recurring character will on average increase market share gains by 41%. The Grimace Shake helped McDonald’s increase sales in the US 10.3% in 2023.
When I was in journalism school twenty years ago, we were assigned to practice with a so-called survey article. In short, you choose a topic and ask a number of people the same question, and then see which story angle emerges from their answer. I chose to visit as many tattoo artists as possible one afternoon and ask them all, “What’s the craziest tattoo you’ve ever done?”
I’ll never forget the clear winner. When I asked the question, this artist’s eyes lit up and he rushed to find a specific folder on his shelf. He frantically flipped through the photos and flash designs until he found it. “There!” He pointed to a photo of a man’s fleshy calf with a highly detailed and anatomically correct depiction of all the characters from Winnie the Pooh on a picnic blanket, having an orgy.
That story taught me that some people will do anything for attention (and that I would never sing the Tigger song again). This now happens in real time on Sora, with the app fulfilling everyone’s weirdest visual wish.
Remember the public discourse where M&M’s talked about making the green M&M “less sexy”? If Mars puts its beloved characters on Sora 2, the brand is one quick prompt away from someone creating it Behind the green (M&M) door. Do you think that Duolingo owl is weird? Just wait.
Kevin Mulroy, founder and ECD at award-winning advertising agency Mischief, says the benefit for brands to surrender the rights to their intellectual property to Sora is still unclear. “Without a lot of narrative control and a clear link to a strategy, it’s very unlikely that ordinary people will use these mascots in the way these brands intend,” he says.
Strategy versus slop
The risk here isn’t just in the appearance of brand mascots in questionable content. It’s also the trade-off between the idea of facilitating people’s creativity versus brands that are complicit in the culture’s sloppiness by allowing their mascots to be used on Sora.
Prediction Market Kalshi made a viral splash during last spring’s NBA playoffs with an absolutely hilarious and unhinged AI-generated spot (see above) that cost just $2,000 to make. In September, Jake Paul tricked people with AI videos of himself in strange situations, later revealing it it was all a marketing stunt for Sora 2 (the spot was viewed approximately 1 billion times in six days). Whenever new technology comes to market, the first stunts get a lot of attention, as these illustrate. But what then?
“No doubt the brands that experiment first will benefit from a boost in cultural awareness, as we’ve seen with Jake Paul’s likeness,” Mulroy admits. “But at what cost? In a world where it has never been easier for a brand to say something, the real value lies in figuring out what the brand should say. The latter will not come from rogue AI content.”
Ultimately, every marketer will have to decide what value they want to trade when they join the Sora party. As Mulroy says, the key is to make sure there is an actual strategy behind it.
If not, that mascot’s brand equity could end up on a picnic blanket.
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