Consider this the counterpart to the classic “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” for the YouTube age. Volkswagen and agency Deutsch look to tap into similarly positive, harmonious vibes with their Super Bowl teaser ad, “Sunny Side,” which presents a series of online meltdowns captured in YouTube freakout videos. The folks melting down, though, in “Sunny Side,” take a 180-degree turn of attitude as they get together with reggae musician Jimmy Cliff to sing the kitschy 1960s’ classic “C’mon Get Happy” of Partridge Family fame. The teaser hearkens back to a simpler, more optimistic time when we didn’t let ourselves get bogged down in and by the little things.
The notables who went from meltdown to uplifted in “Sunny Side” include such YouTube celebs as: the Eharmony cat-hugging woman; the sad Packers fan; “Boogie,” the guy who destroys his Xbox because someone called him fat; the baseball coach who throws a tantrum at an umpire; the screaming politician; and the sports mascots who fight each other.
The freakout videos captured were “Cat Girl,” “Packers Girl,” “Xbox Guy,” “Baseball Manager,” “Golfer,” “Political Candidate” and “Winnebago.”
The VW teaser continues a mini-tradition for the advertiser. Last year, its “The Bark Side” was a deft teaser/promo for “The Dog Strikes Back” in which a dog needs to slim down so he can get through his doggy door and chase the new VW Beetle in the great outdoors (with a nod to the 2011 hit VW Super Bowl commercial “The Force” coming at the end when patrons at the Star Wars cantina bar give the new spot a thumbs up–with a little prodding from Darth Vader).
Here’s “Sunny Side” directed by the Perloriain Brothers of MJZ, with visual effects by The Mill:
AI-Assisted Works Can Get Copyright With Enough Human Creativity, According To U.S. Copyright Office
Artists can copyright works they made with the help of artificial intelligence, according to a new report by the U.S. Copyright Office that could further clear the way for the use of AI tools in Hollywood, the music industry and other creative fields.
The nation's copyright office, which sits in the Library of Congress and is not part of the executive branch, receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of individual works. It has increasingly been asked to register works that are AI-generated.
And while many of those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, the report issued Wednesday clarifies the office's approach as one based on what the top U.S. copyright official describes as the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections.
"Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," said a statement from Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, who directs the office.
An AI-assisted work could be copyrightable if an artist's handiwork is perceptible. A human adapting an AI-generated output with "creative arrangements or modifications" could also make it fall under copyright protections.
The report follows a review that began in 2023 and fielded opinions from thousands of people that ranged from AI developers, to actors and country singers.
It shows the copyright office will continue to reject copyright claims for fully machine-generated content. A person simply prompting a chatbot or AI image generator to produce a work doesn't give that person the ability to copyright that work, according to the report. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ...... Read More