By way of reminder: at the beginning of the year, the US AI company Luma AI issued a global call for entries, inviting creatives to use its in‑house AI tools to produce commercials for fictional products.
The concept: ideas that were never realised, because they were too expensive, too risky, or too difficult to execute, were to be brought to life at last with Generative AI. The best works would be submitted by Luma AI to the Cannes Lions. Whoever wins gold there receives $1m from the tech company.
Only a few weeks after his mother’s suicide, Jonsson became aware of the Luma Dream Brief and decided to tell his story with the help of AI. In “The hug” Jonsson processes his mother’s death. And in doing so, he does what she, in her darkest phases, never managed to do herself: he asks for help. He addresses the Cannes jury directly with the request to award him gold, so that he can use the prize money to fight depression.
The technical implementation with Luma AI was easy, Jonsson says. The emotional strain, however, was enormous: “Two to three weeks after I had seen my mother dead at the undertakers, she seemed to be alive again through AI. I’ve often sat at the computer with tears in my eyes.”
Jonsson emphasises that “The hug” is not an official Faktor‑3 project, but his most personal work. “I don’t know whether it was the best or the worst idea of my life,” he says. “But if I could contribute in any way to sparing someone what my family and I experienced, then it’s worth a try.”
26 Cannes Lions submissions, top‑tier competition
Jonsson’s film has made it into the group of 21 finalists of the Luma Dream Brief. Overall, however, Luma AI is submitting 26 works to the Cannes Lions in the new Film Craft subcategory AI Craft. In addition to the 21 competition finalists, there are five more spots that the creative agency DE‑YAN, Luma’s partner in developing the Dream Brief concept, produced independently.
The competition is top‑tier. Among the finalists are works by creative veterans such as Hal Curtis and Chuck McBride, who revived a decades‑old Wieden & Kennedy idea. Their spot “Adrenaline junkies” comprises 85 complex shots and was realised in collaboration with the AI studio OneDay and the production company Arts & Sciences, a project that would hardly have been financially feasible without AI. DE‑YAN CCO Jason Kreher is also represented with an old FMCG concept that stages a bacterial battle in the stomach as an epic war scene. Here’s the YouTube playlist with all finalists.
In total, about 400 submissions were made across 58 countries and from in the region of 100 agencies. Participants spent more 10,000 hours working with Luma’s AI tools; some spots were created entirely within the platform, including audio, sound effects and editing. The works were evaluated by a jury featuring industry heavyweights such as Susan Hoffman (CCO, Wieden & Kennedy), George Felix (CMO, Chili’s), Bill Oakley (writer, The Simpsons), and Katie Gurgainus (global director brand voice, Nike).
Luma AI is sponsoring all 26 submissions and running the spots as ads. If more than one of the films wins gold at the Cannes Lions, the winners will share the $1m prize money. A special rule applies to “The hug”: any potential prize money is to be donated to organisations that support people with depression.
Source: Campaign Germany