The Forestborn
A 30-second ad for a product that doesn’t exist, made with AI for Runway’s Another Big Ad Contest.
01
The Brief
Runway’s contest hands out briefs for products that don’t exist. Brief 05 was Understory, an adaptogenic mushroom blend of lion’s mane, reishi, cordyceps and chaga, “foraged from tradition, not trends.” The name, logo and tin came with the brief; the ad is mine.
02
The Idea
Two worlds, one punchline.
Deep in the forest, the Forestborn forage, sort, dry and grind every mushroom by hand, then haul the powder up a ladder into the tin. The ad then cuts to the people it is sold to, at a serene and expensive wellness retreat, and lets them taste it. The Forestborn get the last word: “We understand mushrooms. Taste buds… not so much.”
03
Building the World
Every shot began as a still. The Forestborn and their forest were developed in Nano Banana Pro, image by image, until the characters held together from shot to shot. The stills were then animated in Runway Gen-4.5, each used as the first frame of its shot, with Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 for a shot that links two frames.
