Holland America, a cruise line owned by Carnival Corp., is airing a regional Super Bowl commercial that is chock-full of images and videos produced by AI platforms, including Midjourney, Runway and OpenAI’s Sora.

The 30-second spot depicts historical scenes created by generative AI, such as a Roman spectacle in the Coliseum, horseback riders galloping toward the Parthenon and hunter-gatherers approaching Stonehenge. AI-generated content was used in nearly every shot of the ad, then touched up with visual effect tools including CGI, according to Kacy Cole, Holland America chief marketing officer. 

Although its spot is running regionally as opposed to nationally, Holland America is the first brand this year to confirm using AI-generated material in an ad airing during the Super Bowl. It remains to be seen whether OpenAI, the major AI platform behind ChatGPT and Sora, used its own AI tools to create imagery for its national Super Bowl ad. The company did not reveal details surrounding the creative or comment on the spot. 

Most brands running national ads refrained from using AI in their official spots, although several used the technology in pre-production, Ad Age previously reported. To this end, AI will still be a big part of this year’s Big Game. Alongside OpenAI, Google, Meta, Salesforce and other tech companies will push AI products in their commercials. 

Holland America developed its ad in-house with production agency Deux Vingt. It will run in up to 10 regional markets, including San Diego, Seattle, Tampa, Denver and Phoenix, Cole said. Its timing during the game, what quarter it runs in, depends on the market, Cole said. Meanwhile, competitor MSC Cruises is airing a national spot during the game, featuring Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom.

The purpose of Holland America’s ad is to promote the brand’s recent partnership with The History Channel, for which it has developed special trip itineraries to places of historical significance. Holland America wanted to emphasize the idea of history coming to life, so it used around 10 AI tools to get the job done, Cole said. These include image generators Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, as well as video generators Runway and Sora.

In the past year, a handful of major brands have created campaigns that heavily depended on AI-generated content, and they often landed with mixed reception. For instance, Toys R Us developed an ad through Sora last summer that was widely criticized by creatives. More recently, Coca-Cola ran a holiday campaign on TV that was built using generative AI, and it proved to be divisive, especially among marketers who were wary about the intrusion of AI into their creative process. 

During last year’s Super Bowl, Bodyarmor, a Coca-Cola-owned sports drink brand, aired a regional spot that was filled with AI-generated fakery. There was a creepiness to the ad, but that was an intentional play on Bodyarmor’s abstention from artificial ingredients. 

Cole did not express any concerns over how viewers could respond to the role of AI in Holland America’s ad.

“We were really thoughtful with how we used it,” Cole said.