While on one hand, AI-generated ads by large companies are heavily criticized, small businesses and local shops in the US are embracing generative AI tools for videos and experiencing unexpected success.
For instance, two videos each reaching several million views.
In the first, a Starbucks-like shop specializing in pistachio desserts and drinks created a fake local news video where a supposed fugitive pursued by the police races through the streets of an American city to buy pistachios at the shop in question. The plot is simple, but the execution is perfect. The ad likely required only a few hours of work but provided exceptional visibility for the shop.
Its strong point? The storyline that parodies those endless car chases broadcast ad nauseam on American TV news.
Another ad, much simpler, features a woman buying clothes from a clothing vending machine. She clicks on a giant screen, selects what she likes, and then orders. She is immediately delivered by a chute that drops her order into her bag. Again, one imagines that the work required to create the video was not enormous. However, the result is, as this video garnered over 8 million views.
The common point between these two videos, besides their cost, which must have been negligible compared to what it would have cost without AI: imagination, creativity, the anecdotal, which transforms an advertisement into a small story. And that’s probably where all the magic lies: storytelling (which I mentioned as a trend for 2026).
To be seen today, to stand out, the effort is less about the creative tools and more about creativity itself, the story, the way of saying something. Whether with AI or not, consumers need to be surprised, pleasantly if possible, something that takes them out of the monotony of social media, something that captures their attention for a few more seconds.
This is where some will stand out and others will continue tirelessly doing the same thing, wondering why they remain invisible in the crowd.
