HER + YOU. From a Broken Nail to an AI-Generated Commercial
By close friends.
A couple is breaking up. They’re dividing their apartment, labelling everything HERS or HIS. Then something breaks.
HER + YOU began with a broken nail and became a 40-second commercial about the things we can fix, and the things we can’t. We created the fictional glue brand and made the film for the OpenArt Ad Awards 2026, using AI to bring the story to life.
At a glance
- Brand
- HER + YOU, a fictional glue brand
- Project type
- Self-initiated competition entry, not client work
- Format
- 40-second commercial, 11 shots
- Credits
- Concept, strategy, creative direction and AI production by close friends.
Key highlights
- 1brand created from nothing
- 40seconds, no dialogue
- 11individually directed shots
- 6reference sheets holding the world together
The idea: make the ordinary memorable
Our client work spans hospitality, wellness, tech, entertainment and luxury. For a competition entry we chose the opposite, a product with no glamour at all. Glue has one job. Something breaks and you put it back together.
The idea started with a questionable beauty emergency, fixing a broken nail with glue. Not advice we’d recommend following, but it gave us a starting point. A nail couldn’t carry forty seconds, so we looked for other things that break. A relationship was the most interesting.
As the couple divide their belongings, a small accident interrupts the argument. For a moment, the question of what belongs to whom gives way to something they can actually fix.
We built the brand around one line,
Fix the thing.
The rest is up to you.
Glue can repair an object. It can’t decide what happens between two people, so the commercial doesn’t pretend it can.
Building HER + YOU
HER + YOU sounds like something between two people, not something on a tube of glue, and that mismatch is the joke.
We designed the name, the bottle and the label as if the product were real, so the film would read as an ad rather than a demo. By the time production started, the brand had a name, a product and a role in the script.
HER + YOU
Glue
Not for sale.
Made for the film.
Making the commercial
Building the world.
Two characters, a dog, an apartment, the product and the object at the heart of the story all needed to stay recognisable. We developed six reference sheets to establish their appearance before directing the eleven shots.
Face, front and back in one outfit: pink shirt, linen trousers, gold jewellery.
Face, front and back: black tee, loose jeans, white trainers.
A golden retriever, face on, standing and in profile.
One loft with tall windows, a cream sofa and moving boxes. Every shot happens here.
A ceramic lobster from three sides, so it matches before it breaks and after it’s fixed.
The HER + YOU bottle front, back and open, so the label never changes.
From keyframes to motion.
We established each shot as a still image before animating it, giving us control over the framing, lighting and characters before introducing movement.
flip the switch: the still came first.
Directing eleven shots.
Each shot was directed on its own, with one job in the story, so eleven AI generations play as one film.
Shot list · 40 sec
- 01The apartment
- 02Hers. His.
- 03The dog
- 04The chase
- 05The collision
- 06The lobster breaks
- 07Broken
- 08The glue
- 09The fix
- 10Ours
- 11The hug
Behind the commercial
The finished film tells its story in forty seconds without a word of dialogue. Behind it were two separate processes: developing the idea and bringing it to life.
Concept development.
AI production.
Why we made HER + YOU
We work with brands at different stages. Some have products and campaigns ready to shoot. Others have an idea, a launch date and nothing physical to put in front of a camera yet.
HER + YOU started with even less. There was no client, no existing brand and no product to photograph. We created everything around one idea, from the name and packaging to the characters, setting and finished commercial.
AI made it possible to produce the film. The concept gave us a reason to make it.
AI commercial FAQ
the short answers.
No. HER + YOU is a fictional glue brand created by close friends. for the OpenArt Ad Awards 2026, in the Best Brand Commercial category. Its name, packaging, product design and advertising concept were all developed for the project, which was a self-initiated competition entry rather than client work.
Yes, with planning and close direction. AI video can change faces, objects and settings between shots, especially when characters or the camera move. For HER + YOU, close friends. kept two characters, a dog, the product and one apartment recognisable across all eleven shots of the 40-second film.
Yes. AI production can visualise packaging, environments, characters and scenes before samples or locations are available, which suits pre-launch advertising and creative testing. HER + YOU went further, creating the product itself, though for a real brand the film must reflect what the brand will actually sell.
close friends., a creative studio in Sofia, Bulgaria. The team developed the concept and strategy, led the creative direction and directed the AI production. The visuals and motion were generated with AI on the OpenArt platform, directed shot by shot by the team.
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