Fresh Step produces three AI commercials in 30 days – for a tenth of the cost

US consumer goods group Clorox had three commercials for its cat litter brand Fresh Step developed in 30 days. The 15-second films feature talking, AI-generated cats. According to the company, production with agency RECE cost only about a tenth of a conventional execution. The spots are launching on US television, with shortened versions intended for social media; they are to run until 9 November 2026.

What's interesting here is less the AI cat than the production rhythm: a classic campaign with a long lead time becomes a series of short ad assets that can be continuously adapted.

Three spots instead of one big production bet

The new films all revolve around Fresh Step's core promise of controlling odours in the litter box. In one, a dog can no longer sniff out a litter box; in others, the focus is on especially large cats or a queue in front of the litter box. The agency RECE, together with the marketing team, first developed visual drafts and tested ideas already during the conception phase.

According to Clorox, this produced a package of three spots within one month. The company puts the production effort at a tenth of the traditional comparison; no specific budgets or independently verified costs are available. The creative difference is nonetheless tangible: scenes, texts and characters no longer need to be laboriously reshot as soon as the brand needs another variant.

Already the AI-parody Goodwipes spot, which was made in four days, demonstrated how speed can become a competitive advantage in the advertising market. Fresh Step takes a different approach: the brand relies not on a single current gag, but on a reusable system for product messages.

In parallel, Fresh Step is reaching new buyers via creators and retail media

How diverse these messages could become in the future is shown by a separate product initiative from the brand. On 4 November, Clorox unveiled "Fleur de Purr": a cat litter oriented more toward scent and lifestyle, initially available exclusively at Walmart and set to launch more broadly in April.

Clorox plans creator content, social ads, placements on Walmart.com and in-store display racks for this. Scent samples to scratch-and-sniff are even part of the concept. While the new AI spots reinforce the general odour promise, this product launch targets younger buyers who treat everyday items like a small lifestyle upgrade. For media planners, this is an interesting combination of brand film, platform-specific variants and purchase-close retail media.

The decisive question: what happens after the first spot?

The US advertising association network IAB reported in January that 83 percent of surveyed advertising decision-makers already use AI in the creative process – compared with 60 percent in the comparison survey 2024. At the same time, synthetic ads met with reservations among younger consumers. That is precisely why it matters whether the creative idea can stand on its own.

Another response to the AI boom is the hand-built miniature world of Oura: there, handcraft is deliberately turned into a brand signal. Fresh Step chooses the opposite pole but uses the technology for clearly recognisable, humorous fiction. And tools such as Runway Agent 2.0 show that the link between creative production and campaign analysis has long been moving into the software itself.

For German agencies there is a concrete task: decide at the briefing stage which elements of a campaign – product benefits, cut lengths, language, format – will later be needed as variants. Then fast AI production becomes a reliable content system.

Sources: Marketing Dive, 5. November 2026 · Clorox: Fleur de Purr, 4. November 2026 · IAB: The AI Ad Gap Widens, 15. January 2026