Clorox says AI cats cut Fresh Step’s production cost to a tenth

Fresh Step’s standing against rivals had dipped under pressure on its odour-control promise, Marketing Dive reports, and Clorox wanted something fast that it could change. Chief marketing officer Eric Schwartz told the Association of National Advertisers conference that the work is modular, so messages, packaging and benefits can shift as the brand learns, Marketing Dive and MediaPost report. Marketing Dive puts the saving at about ten further campaigns.

Nobody pretends the cats are real. “We’re not trying to fool anybody here,” said Deb Crandall, Fresh Step’s senior marketing director. Neither report names the video model or gives any results.

Generation is a small line on our sheets. At $0.07 a second at 720p on Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash or $0.126 on Kling 3.0 (our price sheet, checked 31 October), one pass at all three spots, 45 seconds in total, costs $3.15 to $5.67. Neither report gives a cost split, though RECE’s founder says the speed of AI lets composers, editors and AI artists work alongside strategy, concept, copy and direction at the same time.

The casting matters too. New York’s disclosure law, quoted in our guide, turns on the impression of a human performer, and California’s, from 1 January 2027, also counts a voice. A cat on screen is no human figure, and neither report says who or what voices these cats, so the voices are the part of this campaign to check.