Jeep has launched a campaign featuring AI-generated vehicles and footage that were approved by product specialists to the same standards as traditionally filmed productions. Created by Highdive and its in-house production studio 1986, the spot 'Tire Story' used Google's Veo and Luma Dream Machine throughout development to scout locations, develop characters, and generate scenes. The campaign premiered during Google's lunch at this year's Cannes Lions and was part of the company's Creative Lighthouse programme, which asks brands to create 'Impossible Ads' - campaigns that could not exist without AI but remain driven by human creative vision.
From storyboard to AI dailies
The process began the same way any piece of work at Highdive does: with story. The creative team storyboarded key moments first, defining the central beats they wanted director Jon Gallo - an ACD and lead AI artist at 1986 Studios - to bring to life. From there, the team sat with the editor for "dailies," reviewing AI generations together as they would footage from a live-action shoot.
The spot follows a single discarded tyre as it chases a Jeep across different terrains, looking for a new home. Vehicles were built to millimetre-level product accuracy, while the full AI-assisted workflow compressed production from more than six months to two and saved over seven days of shooting time.
Happy accidents and a new kind of collaborator
Nathan Monteith, executive creative director at Highdive, said the most interesting part was the serendipity the tools introduced. "Across dozens of generations, you'd get these unexpected moments - a gesture, a camera move, a piece of texture - that nobody storyboarded but that opened up a new way into the scene," he said. "Our director and editor would catch those and bring them back to the team, and suddenly we're rebreaking a scene because the tool showed us something better than what we'd planned. It's less 'set it and forget it' and more a real creative back-and-forth, just with a different kind of collaborator at the table."
Monteith stressed that AI didn't replace the roles of director or editor but expanded what was possible within them. Directors still need to craft the story, since storyboarding and blocking remain baked into the workflow, and an editor's eye is still what weaves the narrative together. Seeing the technology as a powerful tool, not an end-all-be-all solution, was central to the team's approach.
Shifting from constraint-first to possibility-first thinking
While budget will always be part of any production conversation, Monteith framed the opportunity differently. "The real opportunity with AI isn't cutting costs, it's rethinking where the investment goes," he said. "It changes the question from 'what can we afford?' to 'what else is possible?' That shift from constraint-first thinking to possibility-first thinking is what we think actually changes how work gets made."
The team's biggest surprise was the difficulty of locking a sequence when infinite variations remained within reach. "When you have the option to keep trying different things indefinitely, it's a challenge to stay disciplined with the story you're telling," Monteith said. "You really have to be intentional, or you risk losing the plot because the temptation to 'keep trying things' is always right there."
Why this matters for Creatives
For creative professionals, 'Tire Story' is a concrete example of how AI for Creatives can reshape production without sidelining human authorship. The work exposes the gap between using AI to eliminate jobs and using it to eliminate limitations. The campaign's Generative Video pipeline - from scouting to final pixel - required the same director-driven, editor-curated discipline that any live shoot demands. The difference was a compressed timeline and a wider creative aperture. For directors, editors, and agencies watching the technology with unease, Monteith put it plainly: "AI hasn't replaced people - it's replaced limitations."
Your membership also unlocks:
