- Warner Bros. is releasing a new movie called The End of Oak Street, featuring dinosaurs roaming suburbia and starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway.
- The studio’s marketing strategy for the movie includes AI-generated promotional videos featuring talking dogs, which has received overwhelmingly negative feedback online.
- The backlash against the AI promotional videos may impact the box office success of The End of Oak Street, potentially serving as a cautionary tale for Hollywood about the risks of using AI in marketing.
Warner Bros. has had some setbacks recently, including Supergirl becoming the lowest-grossing DC movie since Catwoman. However, the studio is hoping to bounce back with some other ambitious projects, including The End of Oak Street. This is a movie in which the titular street and the surrounding neighborhood are suddenly transported to a different time and place. Nobody has any power, but they soon discover something more pressing to worry about: namely, all the hungry dinosaurs who are roaming suburbia. It’s a fun premise, and the fact that the movie stars both Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway is just the cherry on top.
The movie comes out in less than a week, and buzz for it has been quietly building since the first trailer dropped. However, that initial buzz wasn’t enough for Warner Bros., who decided to juice excitement for The End of Oak Street by releasing some of the worst AI promotional videos known to man. It’s a marketing effort that has completely blown up in the studio’s face. Whenever these videos are shared on social media, the comments always have one thing in common: they are filled with users saying they’ll never watch a movie that WB used AI slop to advertise.
The End Of Slop Street
As far as marketing goes, the AI video for The End of Oak Street is utterly insane. It is designed as a podcast hosted by two talking dogs; their guest is the family dog from the movie. They discuss the movie from a canine perspective, including who was better at giving out treats and scratching ears: Ewan McGregor or Anne Hathaway. Additionally, the AI dog actor delves into how he ran from virtual dinosaurs by chasing a real tennis ball. The guest doggo refuses to confirm whether or not his character survives the movie, and the mock interview ends with him encouraging audiences to bring “plenty of pupcorn” to the movie.
So, uh…what the hell is going on here? The short answer is that Warner Bros. has partnered with a dog-owner social media app known as DogPack. The app regularly releases scripted content in the form of The Dogbone Podcast. AI handles all of the animation and the vocals, and episodes are designed to explore what dogs are really thinking when their owners are not around. This promotion for The End of Oak Street was more of the same, with the AI podcast hosts asking the movie’s canine star details about his time on the movie.
Driving Audiences Away
While that explains what this is, it doesn’t explain why in God’s name Warner Bros. thought this was a good idea. Like, there is a dog in The End of Oak Street, but this isn’t a dog movie, and certainly not a talking dog movie. So, it doesn’t make much sense that the studio is using talking dogs to promote the damn thing. Plus, all of the film’s previous marketing has made it look like it’s a sci-fi survival horror movie. Why, then, is it being promoted here like a goofy, Air Bud-style movie?
Beyond those questions, the bigger issue is that this promotional video is killing The End of Oak Street‘s reputation before the movie comes out. The online response has been almost universally negative, with users rightfully decrying this video as lazy AI slop. Obviously, many users have commented on the ugly look of the fake podcast and the problematic ethics of generative artificial intelligence. But the most prevailing comment has been that the release of this video (plus an AI dinosaur attack video targeted towards Malaysian users) has made them far, far less likely to ever watch this movie, in theaters or otherwise.
Backstabbed By The Studio
Only time will tell if this cheap marketing stunt actually impacts the box office for The End of Oak Street. If so, though, Warner Bros. may have accidentally unleashed a cautionary tale that the rest of Hollywood would be wise to follow. Presumably, these executives wanted to save some money by outsourcing some of their promotional needs to a company that specializes in AI slop. And in seeking to save a bit of cash, they may have doomed a movie that cost $85 million to make. What does this mean for the future of Warner Bros. and the film industry in general?
With any luck, some AI slop dogs will come along any minute now to explain it to us.
