April 1, 2026
Imagination Inside Runway’s Big Ad Contest
Every creative’s dream is a brief with absolute freedom, no client revisions, no budget restrictions on locations, and no producers telling you an idea is “too out there.” Recently, Runway ML made that dream a reality with the launch of their Big Ad Contest For Products That Don’t Exist.
The premise is brilliant: creators are given a choice of quirky briefs for completely fictional products like a garden hose that marks your transition into adulthood or a bookmark that holds back utter chaos, and are tasked with creating a 30- to 60-second commercial using Runway’s generative AI tools. With a $100,000 prize pool on the line, the only limit is the creator’s imagination.
Naturally, we couldn’t resist throwing our hat into the ring. For our submission, we decided to pivot from the stylized animation techniques we’ve been deeply immersed in for over a year and jump back into the sandbox of pure photorealism. It has been an absolute blast pushing these tools to render highly tactile, cinematic textures and lifelike environments again.
The fictional product we invented is Cinder Whiskey. We designed a moody, “Old Money” aesthetic built on amber, mahogany, and slate gray, aiming to make every single frame feel like a period when time moved slower. Cinder is more than just a premium, thick spirit poured into a crystal glass, it is a brand built on unapologetic escapism. It is the dim, amber-lit sanctuary of a high-end lounge where a $100 bill buys you absolute discretion from an impassive bartender. It’s the shared, deadpan illusion of being completely off the grid, metaphorically unreachable, so you can protect your peace and ignore the outside world. Ultimately, the entire campaign distills down to Cinder’s core philosophy: “Be exactly where you want to be.”