Shot on 35mm film in the US and UK, OpenAI’s new campaign follows different characters using ChatGPT to cook, learn, travel and reach personal goals—an elegant piece of brand storytelling that shows AI slipping quietly into everyday life.
The world is changing fast, thanks to AI. So fast that many people don’t yet realise how different life already is. OpenAI’s first large-scale brand campaign, launched today, feels like the clearest indication yet that this shift is only accelerating.
The films, running in the United States, UK and Ireland, capture the small moments where ChatGPT lends a hand—helping someone master a recipe, plan a trip, or finally manage a set of pull-ups. Each story is drawn from real prompts and framed as if the technology is simply another tool in the room. It’s less about the product and more about the quiet satisfaction of accomplishing something.
OpenAI says the idea grew from the way people naturally use ChatGPT. Elke Karskens, the company’s UK head of marketing, calls it “everyday magic”. “Whether that’s learning something new, reaching a fitness milestone or unlocking creativity,” she says, “we want to show how it can help you do more of what matters to you.”
The craft behind the new campaign is as considered as the message. Director Miles Jay shot the spots entirely on 35mm film, giving them a warmth and texture rarely seen in tech advertising. For out-of-home, accompanying photography by Samuel Bradley adds a documentary feel, from London’s Old Street Roundabout to the wide streets of Los Angeles. Styling by Heidi Bivens adds a touch of fashion-editorial polish, while OpenAI’s in-house team handled creative development in collaboration with the agency Isle of Any and production by SMUGGLER. Global media partner PHD is steering placements across primetime TV, streaming and landmark outdoor sites, including Piccadilly Lights, Manchester Arndale and central Dublin.
ChatGPT itself played a quiet supporting role, helping to organise shot lists and schedules—a nod to the product’s promise of making life easier. Even the films’ soundtrack choices, from Perfume Genius’s ‘Fool’ to Simple Minds’ ‘Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime)’, lean towards timeless rather than futuristic.
But here’s the irony: the campaign leans on some of the oldest tools of creativity—real people and locations alongside analogue film stock. I guess this only highlights OpenAI’s message… that its technology is a tool that is here to help not replace us.
The timing is pointed. ChatGPT’s UK audience has quadrupled in the past year, and seven in ten UK users under 45 say AI helps them succeed in life. Earlier this year, OpenAI made a splash with its first Super Bowl ad; this new effort feels more intimate, aiming to build familiarity rather than spectacle.
It also follows a busy week for OpenAI, which just unveiled , a new feature designed to give ChatGPT a live, always-on sense of what’s happening in the world. Pulse promises to keep conversations up to date without users needing to hunt for the latest news—a move that edges the product further into daily habits and makes the brand push feel especially timely.
For creatives, the work serves as a beautifully shot reminder of how quickly AI is becoming an integral part of our culture. It doesn’t shout about disruption. It instead looks to those real human moments—meals out, milestones, small victories—where technology is present but not the hero. As it transpires, it’s not coming for our jobs either.
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