Oh god make it stop.

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Honestly it’s a great publicity stunt. Not like people would give a fuck about toys r us otherwise.

    • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
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      3 months ago

      come on, clicked through and auto logged in to slashdot…

      but my last comment was (oh shit) 17 years ago

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Toy’s R Us is, interestingly, still huge in Asia Pacific. In Japan, Babies R Us rivals other major childcare suppliers.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • Schal330@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This gave big uncanny valley vibes. I imagine it was meant to feel like a magical advert, but instead it felt creepy.

    • DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      R’lyehian text definitely found under the windows of the shop. They must have manually done things like the bicycle shop sign.

    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      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.

    • philycheeze@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Macys owns the name in the US and uses it to mark their toy section. It is super sparse and not at all exciting.

    • Dalraz@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Toy R Us Canada is still operational. Not sure if this is related to the canadian operation or not.

          • K0W4L5K1@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 months ago

            Dont worry when Pierre Poulivre (PP head) gets elected shit will get americanized we are already halfway there with the dismantling of public healthcare and schooling. Actually even he doesnt get elected Trudeau is doing nothing to stop the provincial governments from dismantling the public system already

    • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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      3 months ago

      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.

    • pacmondo@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      In Canada it got bought out by another investment group and the national chain still exists in many big malls here.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      3 months ago

      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.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • MTK@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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

  • Eggyhead@kbin.run
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    3 months ago

    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.