Vodafone’s latest commercial starts with an image of a baby in a womb, before cutting to multiple high-paced vignettes of everyday life moments and ending with a man sitting alone on a mountaintop. Also, it’s all AI. The commercial was “100% AI-produced without a single real pixel,” Amr El Badry, Vodafone’s global senior brand identity and communications manager, told Ad Age.

The commercial, which is running overseas for the international telecom brand, is the latest spot from a major advertiser to experiment with generative AI video tools. Last month, Coca-Cola debuted three AI-generated commercials to recreate its classic “Holidays Are Coming” ad from 1995. One of those commercials has appeared regularly on U.S. TV. Now, Vodafone is taking its turn introducing its first AI ad called “Rhythm of Life,” which will mostly run on social and digital channels but has appeared on TV overseas, including in Albania, Badry said.

Vodafone was prepared to hear what has become usual feedback in the advertising community whenever AI is deployed in new parts of the industry, according to Badry. “Some of the people in the ad industry are going against [the commercial],” Badry said, “but on a consumer level, from what we have been seeing around our ad, it has been so far good. So, I don’t see the same backlash that happened with other brands so far. Fingers crossed.”

Also read: Coca-Cola’s AI lead on response to its AI holiday ads

The release of AI-generated ads is typically accompanied by debates about how the technology could harm creatives or cut jobs, and whether AI is even capable of making artful commercials. In Vodafone’s case, the spot has the added difficulty of including humans, and going for a photo-realistic look; AI appears to be better at handling non-human subjects and hyper-realism, which was the style of the Coca-Cola holiday spots. (One of the three Coca-Cola ads, from Secret Level, depicted people, which were based on real actors, while the other commercials only portrayed wildlife and landscapes.)

There were three agencies and studios involved in the production of Vodafone's ad: New Commercial Arts, Design Bridge and Partners, both in the U.K., and Sleeper out of New Zealand, Badry said. Also, famed filmmaker Sebastian Strasser, who runs the production house Lipstick, directed the commercial. Badry emphasized that the commercial was developed by human artists, using AI as a tool. 

“The creative idea was entirely human,” Badry said. “AI was used as the production tool to enhance mainly and accelerate the process for us. But the campaign’s direction, storytelling and the vision was all crafted by our creative team.”

“We think that’s what makes it groundbreaking, from our side,” Badry said.

Views on AI ads

The use of video AI in commercials is only growing as the technology becomes more widely available. Consumers became familiar with text- and image-generating AI over the past two years, with the emergence of OpenAI and other AI startups. Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Amazon have all developed AI creative tools, as have Adobe and Getty. OpenAI, which also runs ChatGPT, released Sora, its AI video generator, to the public this week. On Tuesday, OpenAI had to limit signups for Sora because of high demand, according to the company.

Still, it is an open question as to whether consumers will welcome brands and their AI advertising. A little less than half of respondents (45%) said brands should use the technology to create ads, according to an Ad Age-Harris Poll from August.

This week, digital ad organization IAB and Sonata Insights released a study about Gen Z and millennials’ interest in AI-generated commercials. “Gen Z and millennial consumers are much less enthusiastic about them than industry executives think they are,” the report said. The study surveyed 300 Gen Zers and millennials and 75 ad industry executives. The study found that 80% of advertisers have at least a “somewhat” positive opinion of AI-generated ads, while 48% of the consumers shared that opinion.

Meanwhile, “52% of industry executives said brands that use AI-generated ads are ‘creative,’” the study said, adding that “only 38% of Gen Z and millennial respondents shared that perception.” Industry executives were also considerably more likely to say that brands that use gen AI ads are ‘innovative,’ ‘forward-thinking’ or ‘fun.’”

Forty-five percent of Gen Zers surveyed by the Ad Age-Harris Poll said they opposed AI in ads. The survey included responses from 1,090 U.S. adults aged 18 and up.

Advertisers are concerned a bit about how consumers will perceive AI-generated ads, listing it as the second-most common misgiving, behind the legal and ethical implications, according to the IAB-Sonata Insights study.

Personalized touch

For Vodafone, the use of AI was a way to create a complex commercial with multiple settings and diverse characters, without traveling to far-flung locations, Badry said. At the same time, there was artistry involved with about 10 AI creators assisting the director, Badry said. The commercial was intended to resonate across various regions across Europe, including Germany, Greece and Romania.

AI also helps introduce nuances of personalization into the campaign, Badry said. That was also one of the goals for Coca-Cola with its AI commercial, depicting a variety of settings that could appeal to different markets.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a lot of diversity being represented, because it’s coming from a global perspective to be able to easily localize it in any market by just adding their own language,” Badry said. “We also chose a very global track [a remix of 'Rhythm of the Night'] that was a hit across Europe. So what we try to do when we produce global assets is think of the markets and assure that it would work across markets in terms of music, in terms of cast.”

Jim Sowden, a creative director who was not involved in the ad, posted the commercial to LinkedIn, saying it broke new ground with AI. The artists used ComfyUI, the AI platform, in the production process, Sowden said in a message to Ad Age. “I would say this uses the most diverse set of tools that I’ve seen,” Sowden said. “The post work is also notable, I think it’s one or two notches more refined than what Coke attempted. It feels more like an ad made with AI, rather than AI trying to make an ad.”