By Steve Moran

You remember Toys“R”Us. They came along and killed all most all the mom-and-pop toy stores that I and my generation remember with great fondness, ushering in a new era of toys for the masses in warehouse stores with discount prices.

It all worked well until they were killed by Amazon, Walmart, Target, and leveraged buyouts that piled on debt and made it impossible to refurbish and revitalize their stores.

Today they are back, with two freestanding “flagship stores” and about a dozen others that are located inside Macy’s.

Storytelling

They just released an entirely AI-generated (and somewhat controversial) video. This is the 30-second version:

You can see the full one-minute video embedded here.

Senior Living and Video

We are seeing a lot more video being used in senior living, but it would be hard to argue that it is really moving the needle in terms of improving occupancy or the public perception of senior living. We are mostly seeing two kinds of videos:

  • Very traditional videos of residents doing things in senior living. Mostly an accurate portal but not very exciting. And most importantly very safe.
  • Video histories of residents’ lives. Some of these are powerful stories, but they have almost nothing to do with senior living. These are also safe.

What the Toys“R”Us video does — what powerful video storytelling does — is help us dream, to see things bigger and better. It makes us feel things.

That is what this AI-generated Toys“R”Us video does. It evokes fun nostalgia and happiness.

Perhaps video AI could be the new next generation of video storytelling for senior living. Maybe like this:

A dream scene where someone is growing older and older and older. Initially they are excited about growing older, as is always true with kids and often true with young adults. Then one day the vision changes, and they at first imagine a life of decline and loss.

The magic happens when they see themselves living in a senior living community, where they make new friends and have new experiences.

When we start telling those stories and painting those pictures, we will create some magic.