AI, Taste and the Future of Advertising | Justine Armour, 72andSunny
Technically Creative by KoobrikLabsShow Notes
In this episode of Technically Creative, Orlando Wood sits down with Justine Armour, Chief Creative Officer of 72andSunny International, for a conversation about AI, advertising, creativity, taste, originality and the future of creative work. As generative AI makes it possible to produce more ideas, images, advertising and content than ever before, Justine argues that the most valuable creative skill may no longer be the ability to make more. It may be knowing what not to make. Her argument is fascinating: AI is already very good at producing work that is acceptable. Work that is pretty good. Work that lives in the middle. But culture has never moved forward from the middle. It moves because of outliers, divergent thinkers and people with enough conviction to pursue ideas that initially make everyone else uncomfortable. And that means taste may become more valuable in the age of AI, not less. After nearly 30 years in advertising, including leadership roles at some of the world's most celebrated creative agencies, Justine believes experience, discernment and the ability to recognize an extraordinary idea are becoming increasingly important. In a world of infinite creative possibility, the advantage belongs to people who can tell the difference between something that's merely good and something genuinely original. But this conversation goes well beyond AI. Justine talks candidly about creative leadership, agency culture, collaboration, burnout, failure and the importance of remaining human inside an industry becoming increasingly automated. We explore how 72andSunny builds a collaborative creative culture, why consensus can sometimes push advertising toward mediocrity, and why creative leaders need to create environments where unusual ideas have enough space to survive. Justine also reflects on stepping away from advertising after more than two decades of pushing herself relentlessly, what that experience taught her about creativity and leadership, and why reconnecting with instinct and creative energy changed the way she works. And for the next generation of creatives entering advertising during the AI revolution, her advice is surprisingly clear. Learn the tools. But don't let the tools define your taste. “Reject the algorithm, reject the averaging of yourself.” Because if AI can increasingly reproduce what's already familiar, originality, obsession, cultural curiosity and a genuinely individual point of view become the things that separate one creative from everyone else. In this episode: • AI and the future of advertising and creative agencies • Why generative AI makes taste and discernment more valuable • Why “the middle” may lose value as AI-generated content increases • How creative leaders identify truly original ideas • AI tools including Midjourney, Runway and Luma • Why AI-generated advertising can still fail at craft • Creativity, collaboration and consensus inside advertising agencies • The changing role of copywriters, art directors and creative departments • Why young creatives need to develop taste beyond social media algorithms • 72andSunny's approach to creative culture and collaboration • Independent agencies and the changing economics of advertising • Burnout, creative leadership and Justine's decision to step away • Why failure can make creative leaders better • What the next generation of advertising talent should learn about AI • Why originality may become the ultimate creative advantage If you're interested in artificial intelligence, advertising, generative AI, creative leadership, agency culture, branding, marketing, creative careers or the future of creativity, this is a conversation about what becomes valuable when the ability to simply make things is no longer scarce. Technically Creative is a technology podcast for people who don't necessarily think of themselves as tech people, exploring how AI and technology are changing film, television, advertising, publishing, media and the creative industries.
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🎬 Behind the Scenes of Danse Macabre (Long Version): https://youtu.be/QALh6PauOCw 🎥 Danse Macabre Trailer: https://youtu.be/b1A4U37asVg Hisko’s Website - Hiskohulsing.com He spent 11 years making an animated film. Then he was booed at its premiere for using AI. In this episode, Orlando Wood sits down with Hisko Hulsing, the Dutch artist, filmmaker and animation director behind Danse Macabre, Amazon's Undone and Netflix's The Sandman, to discuss the AI controversy that erupted at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Hisko spent 11 years creating Danse Macabre, producing 75 original oil paintings and working with 80 artists and production professionals. He used generative AI for a small part of the production, transferring the style of his own paintings onto traditionally animated characters. Despite this, the film was met with boos, walkouts and accusations of AI slop. Hisko responded by giving the protesters the middle finger. In this candid conversation, Hisko explains how the film was made, the emotional toll of the backlash, and why he believes artists experimenting with new technology are being unfairly targeted. He also addresses the legitimate concerns surrounding AI copyright infringement, training data, job displacement and the ethics of generative AI, including how AI has already eliminated his own commercial storyboarding work. In this episode: Why Hisko Hulsing was booed at the Annecy Animation Festival How Danse Macabre combines oil painting, traditional animation and AI style transfer The difference between professional AI-assisted filmmaking and AI slop Copyright, AI training data and the rights of working artists Why anti-AI backlash could drive creative professionals to hide their AI use How generative AI is changing the future of animation and independent filmmaking A fascinating conversation about artistic freedom, human creativity, AI ethics and the growing divide between traditional artists and emerging technology. Technically Creative is brought to you by KoobrikLabs, the data partner for creative companies. https://koobriklabs.com/contact/ #HiskoHulsing #DanseMacabre #AIAnimation #AIFilmmaking #TechnicallyCreative
Weekly AI news for the creative industries. This week, Technically Creative asks a bigger question underneath the AI boom: everyone seems to be getting richer, but who is actually paying for all of it? Hosted by Orlando Wood, founder of KoobrikLabs, the AI/IT partner for creative companies. To get in touch about using AI in your business, visit https://koobriklabs.com/contact/ This week: Meta rewrites its commercial terms in a way publishers fear could expand its rights to use their content for AI training. Fox is now running live TV campaigns where AI systems transact with other AI systems. Google wants to own more of the shopping journey. And Elon Musk unveiled a Roadster that can, sort of, fly. But the bigger story is economic. CoreWeave is carrying enormous debt. Anthropic is heading toward a historic IPO and says it is profitable on an adjusted basis. Character.AI filed for bankruptcy despite having around 12 million active users. And Netflix is profitable while still cutting jobs. So what happens when the companies making the most money need fewer people to make it? And what happens when AI efficiency starts removing the same consumers the economy depends on? Plus, the new American Entertainment Alliance is pushing for rules that would require major streamers to spend more with independent producers. Technically Creative covers AI, technology, Hollywood, advertising and the creative industries.
Can you copyright AI-generated work? If you create a film, image, character or advertisement using generative AI, who actually owns it? If you're a creative company looking to future-proof your business, book a free consultation with KoobrikLabs, the data partner for creative companies. 👉 https://koobriklabs.com/contact/ In this episode of Technically Creative, Orlando Wood sits down with Lisa Oratz, Senior Counsel at Ashurst, to explore AI copyright law, intellectual property ownership, fair use, and how filmmakers, artists, advertising agencies and creative companies can legally protect work created using generative AI. Lisa specializes in technology, entertainment and intellectual property law, advising studios, production companies, artists and technology businesses navigating the rapidly evolving legal landscape surrounding artificial intelligence. One of the biggest misconceptions about generative AI is that anything created using AI cannot be copyrighted. Lisa explains why that's not necessarily true. She discusses how her team secured copyright registration for Critters, an AI-assisted animated short film, by demonstrating meaningful human authorship through scripting, editing, modification and the selection and arrangement of AI-generated material. The conversation explores what constitutes sufficient human creative involvement, whether detailed prompts and storyboards can establish copyright protection, and why AI-generated characters and individual assets present particular legal challenges. They also examine the major AI copyright lawsuits involving Anthropic and Meta, the fair use debate surrounding AI training data, and how creators can minimize infringement risks when using generative AI tools. Finally, Orlando and Lisa discuss AI-generated actors, digital replicas, Tilly Norwood, SAG-AFTRA and how artificial intelligence could change the future of filmmaking and creative ownership. In this episode: Can AI-generated films, images and characters be copyrighted? How human authorship establishes copyright protection for AI-assisted work The story behind Critters and its successful copyright registration AI prompts, storyboards, editing and intellectual property ownership Anthropic, Meta, AI training data and the fair use debate How creators can protect their work and reduce copyright infringement risks Synthetic actors, digital replicas, Tilly Norwood and SAG-AFTRA What AI copyright law means for the future of filmmaking and advertising Technically Creative is a technology podcast for people who don't necessarily think of themselves as tech people, hosted by Orlando Wood, CEO of KoobrikLabs. This episode is sponsored by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit organization working to ensure that transformative technologies, including artificial intelligence, benefit humanity while reducing their potential risks. #AICopyright #GenerativeAI #CopyrightLaw #AIFilmmaking #TechnicallyCreative
Weekly AI news for the creative industries. This week, Technically Creative asks whether ad tech is about to become something much bigger: the system that creates, distributes, targets, measures and continuously rewrites advertising. TikTok, Meta, OpenAI, NBCUniversal, FreeWheel, Newton and Omnicom are all pushing AI deeper into advertising. Creative generation, media buying, audience targeting, campaign optimization and measurement are starting to collapse into the same technological loop. Technically Creative is brought to you by KoobrikLabs, the AI/IT partner for creative companies - www.koobriklabs.com That matters because advertising technology used to answer one question: who should see this ad? Now it is increasingly able to answer another: what ad should exist for that person in the first place? We look at how conversational AI could transform advertising intent, what happens when AI agents negotiate media and purchasing decisions with other AI agents, and why dynamic product placement inside finished films and television raises much bigger questions about authorship, creative control and whether a piece of media is ever truly finished. Elsewhere, publishers including HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette are using AI internally. Audible wants to use synthetic narration to make far more books available as audiobooks. Sony Music says it has requested the removal of more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks impersonating its artists. And local AI could become increasingly important for creative companies trying to keep unreleased scripts, rough cuts, pitches and client data secure. We also look at OpenAI’s work on AI-generated text provenance and Nikon’s decision to disqualify an AI-manipulated scientific image, which may point toward a more useful way of thinking about AI policy: different contexts require different rules. Hosted by Orlando Wood, founder of KoobrikLabs, Technically Creative covers the increasingly interdependent worlds of AI, advertising, Hollywood, media, technology and the creative industries.
How is AI actually changing professional film and advertising production? Technically Creative is brought to you by KoobrikLabs, the IT and AI partner for creative companies. In this episode of Technically Creative, Orlando Wood sits down with Ryan Black and Kyt Janae from Luma AI to explore how generative AI is moving beyond individual image and video generation and into professional filmmaking, VFX, advertising, pre-production, post-production, and hybrid production workflows. Luma is building AI tools designed around the way professional creatives actually work. Ryan and Kyt explain Luma Agents, a multimodal creative platform that combines Luma’s image and video models with other leading AI models, while Kyt explains her role as a Forward Deployed Creative, working directly with creative teams to integrate AI into existing production pipelines. The conversation explores a fundamental shift in creative production: AI can allow filmmakers and creative teams to explore dozens or hundreds of possibilities before committing enormous time and money to execution, while maintaining the specificity, consistency, control, and collaboration professional work requires. They also explore hybrid filmmaking, including Luma’s work with filmmaker Jon Erwin, Wonder Project, and AWS, where live actors, motion capture, virtual production, volume stages, VFX, and generative AI are brought together into a more collaborative production process. Ryan and Kyt discuss how AI can help with previs, storyboarding, set extensions, VFX, character consistency, localization, post-production, and creative iteration, while allowing experienced artists and filmmakers to remain in control of the work. And Kyt makes an important point: as these tools become more capable, creative thinking becomes more valuable. The model can generate possibilities. It still needs someone with an idea worth pursuing. We explore: How Luma Agents work inside professional creative workflows What a Forward Deployed Creative actually does Why AI production is moving beyond the one-prompt workflow How filmmakers can explore hundreds of creative possibilities before committing to execution AI-assisted filmmaking, VFX, previs, and post-production How hybrid production combines live actors, virtual production, motion capture, and generative AI Luma’s work with AWS, Wonder Project, and filmmaker Jon Erwin Why experienced filmmakers and artists remain essential to AI workflows How AI can give creative teams greater speed, specificity, consistency, and control Robert Rodriguez using AI to explore ideas he has carried for decades Why AI could make previously too expensive or complicated creative ideas possible How professional film and advertising workflows are changing This is a conversation about what happens when generative AI stops being something creatives experiment with on the side and starts becoming part of the professional production pipeline. For filmmakers, producers, VFX artists, advertising creatives, agencies, studios, and anyone trying to understand how AI is changing film production, this is a practical look at what the next creative workflow could actually look like. Technically Creative is a technology podcast for people who don’t necessarily think of themselves as tech people, exploring how AI and technology are changing film, television, advertising, media, and the creative industries.