AVAILABLE FOR FREELANCE | Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane

TOBIAS MCCULLAGH
ART DIRECTOR  &  IDEAS MACHINE

PORTFOLIO        ABOUT

EXPLORING THE USE OF GENERATIVE AI IN ADVERTISING PROACTIVE THINKING AI GENERATED IMAGES AND VIDEOS EXPLORING THE USE OF GENERATIVE AI IN ADVERTISING PROACTIVE THINKING AI GENERATED IMAGES AND VIDEO  




ART DIRECTION
WITH GENERATIVE  AI


Proactive AI thinking

In the rapidly evolving landscape across industries, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a disruptive force, and my curiosity led me to explore its application in advertising.

All work here is proactive, showcasing my creative ideas and the know-how to execute them using AI tools.

The AI tools I have experience with: Midjourney, Runway, Luma, Weavy, nanoBanana etc



Buff Peanut Butter
Insight:
Peanut Butter is a good source of protein and healthy fats.
Idea: What if peanut butter helped bodybuilders get their protein intake?
Execution: A buff man made of peanut butter flexing muscles.



Dark Maltesers

The concept was generated through Midjourney. A dark chocolate idea for an ad.
Although it would be a nightmare to get approval for IP usage.

Insight: Dark chocolate is an acquired taste for adults. Maltesers are a great movie snack.
Idea: What if some of the darkest villains in cinema were dark chocolate Maltesers?
Execution: Let's have Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort and Anton Chigurh as dark chocolate with bite marks in them revealing the Maltesers' inside.



Durex Fruit

Insight: The eggplant emoji is widely known to represent the dick in sexting
Idea: What if we gave the eggplant emoji the skin of a fruit?
Execution: An eggplant emoji with the skin of the fruit flavours.

Images initially generated through Midjourney and altered in Photoshop.


Spicy Chicken

Insight: Chickens are prey for predators such as foxes.
Idea: What if the natural predators of chicken ate some spicy chicken and started breathing fire?
Execution: A campaign idea featuring natural predators, such as cats, foxes, snakes, etc., breathing fire from eating spicy chicken.



WD-40 - Loosen it

Insight:  WD-40 helps lubricate rusted or stuck metal objects.
Idea:  What if a bit of WD-40 could help in the impossibly hard situations?
Execution:  self-explanatory and simple... the legendary sword in a stone,  a rusted shut pirate's treasure etc.



Veggies on Ice

Insight: Kids often prefer unhealthy foods over (frozen) veggies.
Idea: A show that brings families together and helps kids fall in love with veggies again.
Execution: Veggies on ice is a figure skating performance that tells the story of two frozen peas.
They travel through the magical land of the freezer as they try to find their way back to the pea bag.




Mouth Wash
A simple Listerine / mouthwash idea of turning the dangling uvula in the mouth into hanging mint leaves
Midjourney and a bit of Photoshop to get the concept right, with hanging mint leaves.



Peg Leg Fix
Insight:
Gorilla Glue is also 100% waterproof. Pirates sail the seven seas.
Idea:
What if a pirate broke their wooden peg leg? Gorilla Grip Glue could put it back together even under wet conditions.
Execution:
A visual of a pirate's broken peg leg.

Generated through Midjourney and edited in Photoshop.



Rebel Cows
Insight: It's common knowledge that cow milk is used to make cheese
Idea:
What if the strong & bitey flavour of the Bega cheese is made from the milk of extra rebellious cows?
Execution:
A rebel cow shredding guitar like Gene Simmons from KISS

This idea could be expanded to other well-known people with a rebellious streak.

Midjourney for image generation and a little editing in Photoshop.
RunwayML for image to video.
AI Music sample: https://www.udio.com/songs/67EseGkDeZQtiYaH9VFqj3



Halloween | Spooky Old Pillow
Insight: The yellow pillow stains are pretty gross. They're made of oils, sweat, skin cells, etc.
Idea: What if we turned these yellow pillow stains into Halloween monsters?
Execution: Let's transform the yellow stains on pillows into freaky Halloween faces, reminding people to buy fresh/new pillows.

Animated through LUMAlabs AI
Music sample: https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot/spook2
Monster voice by: Myself




Check Your Orbs, Wizards
Insight: Testicular Cancer is generally found through self-examination.
Idea: There is a meme called ‘Pondering my orb’ - a Wizard looking into his orb. 
What if we used this analogy to encourage guys to self-examine their balls?
Execution: A wizard examining his ‘orbs’ and sharing how he looks for lumps or changes on his ‘orbs’. 
A way of getting guys to self-examine around Testicular Cancer awareness.

This idea can tap into pop culture, such as Harry Potter, LOTR, and D&D, to reach a young male audience.
Testicular cancer is most common in younger men, particularly those between the ages of 20 and 40. 
The average age of a testicular cancer patient is 33 years old


A rough concept:


Puffer Jacket Hot Air Balloon

Insight: Puffer jackets keep you warm by trapping body heat and preventing it from diffusing into the cold air around you.
Idea: Hot air balloons work on the same principle as trapping hot air to float.
Execution: Let’s make a puffer jacket hot air balloon.

Image initially generated through Midjourney.
Animated through RunwayML.
sound sample: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/hotairbaloontorch-60586/




Dancing Sloths | Energy Drink
Insight: Sloths are slow creatures and nocturnal.
Idea: What if an energy drink gave them a boost to dance in the night?
Execution: Dancing sloths enjoying a good night out.

Image initially generated through Midjourney.
Animated through LUMAlabs AI.
AI Music sample: www.udio.com/songs/dH2WTNSVMvsFiXzhNaqU9U




In the words of Austin Kleon,
"Creative people need time just to sit around and do nothing."





Midjourney and Generative AI serve as tools to liberate time for contemplation and ideation, pushing beyond the superficial to create truly impactful ideas.

I even wrote a small LinkedIn article on my thought in the use of AI for the ad industry - link

AI Education:
Institute of Applied Tech NSW & CSIRO
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- Responsible Artificial Intelligence
- Generative AI and its Business Applications

Google
- Introduction to Generative AI
- Introduction to Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Introduction to Responsible AI

Microsoft
- Microsoft Certified: AI Fundamentals - link



OTHER WORK & IDEAS