While you were watching the NBA Finals, advertising history was being made. And most people didn’t even notice.
Kalshi just aired what might be the most important 30-second commercial in years—not because it was brilliant, but because it cost almost nothing to make and took just 2 days to create using AI.
Why This Changes Everything
Here’s what happened: AI filmmaker PJ Accetturo created an entire TV commercial using Google’s Veo 3 video model. The whole process? Two days. The cost? About 95% less than traditional production. The result? A spot that aired during one of the most-watched sporting events of the year.
Think about that for a second. A major brand just bypassed the entire traditional advertising machine—no production company, no film crew, no weeks of pre-production—and put their message in front of millions of viewers.
How He Did It (The Breakdown You Can Actually Use)
Accetturo didn’t just wave a magic wand. He developed a systematic “Gemini-to-Veo3” workflow that any creator can adapt:
Step 1: Script with AI Collaboration: Accetturo co-wrote with Gemini, asking it for ideas and shaping them into a simple script featuring “10 wild characters in unhinged situations.” His prompt to Kalshi: “The best Veo 3 content is crazy people doing crazy things while showcasing your brand.”
Step 2: Smart Prompt Generation: He asked Gemini to convert every shot into detailed Veo 3 prompts, specifically requesting only 5 prompts at a time since “beyond that, the quality starts to slip.” Each prompt fully described the scene as if Veo 3 had no context of previous shots.
Step 3: The Generation Grind: Using three separate Veo 3 windows simultaneously, he’d run prompts, get results in 3-4 minutes, then adjust and iterate. This took 300-400 generations to get 15 usable clips—but spread across two days, it’s still lightning fast.
Step 4: Simple Assembly: Merged clips in CapCut or Adobe Premiere, added music, and applied film grain to cover any quality issues with the 720p output.
The “Unhinged” Aesthetic: Instead of fighting AI’s limitations, he embraced them. The chaotic, GTA-inspired style wasn’t an accident—it was the strategy.
What This Means for Your Business (And Your Career)
This isn’t just about one commercial. It’s about what happens when the cost of content creation drops by 95%.
If you’re in marketing: You can now test dozens of video concepts for the price of one traditional shoot. Want to try five different messaging approaches? Go for it. The barrier to experimentation just disappeared.
If you’re a creative professional: The question isn’t whether AI will impact your industry—it already has. The question is whether you’ll be the one using it or the one being replaced by someone who does.
If you’re a business owner: Video marketing just became accessible in a way it never was before. That expensive video campaign you’ve been putting off? You might be able to create it for the cost of lunch.
The Talking Points You Need
When this topic comes up in conversations (and it will), here’s what you need to know:
The Economics Are Staggering: Kalshi got quotes from production companies “in the six or seven figure range with timelines that didn’t fit our needs” before deciding to try AI. Accetturo’s solution? $2,000 total cost for a commercial that’s tracking toward 20 million impressions.
The Three-Day Timeline: The video went from idea to live ad in three days, completely bypassing traditional advertising timelines. This wasn’t just faster—it was impossibly fast by industry standards.
Quality vs. Speed Trade-off: The ad features surreal scenes like “a farmer floating in a pool of eggs” and “an alien chugging beer”—deliberately chaotic content that turns AI’s current limitations into a creative strength.
The Scalability Factor: Accetturo has generated “30M+ views in 3 weeks using this exact workflow”, suggesting this isn’t a one-off success but a repeatable system.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Here’s what nobody wants to say out loud: This commercial is weird. Really weird. It features a farmer floating in a pool of eggs, an alien chugging beer, and an elderly man wrapped in an American flag screaming about Indiana winning.
But here’s the thing—it worked. Kalshi confirmed they’re “absolutely planning on doing more with AI” after this first success. The ad’s “unhinged” aesthetic wasn’t a bug, it was the entire point.
In business, that’s called a win.
What You Should Do Next
Try the Workflow: Accetturo has shared his exact process—from using Gemini for script collaboration to running three Veo 3 windows simultaneously. He even suggests limiting prompts to 5 at a time for quality consistency.
Study the Technique: Pay attention to how he turned AI’s quirks into features. Those random subtitles and inconsistent voices? He worked around them rather than fighting them.
Start Small, Think Big: You don’t need NBA Finals placement to experiment. Try this workflow for social media content, product demos, or internal communications first.
The Real Skill Insight: As Accetturo puts it: “The most valuable skill in entertainment and advertising is comedy writing. If you can make people laugh, they’ll watch the full ad, engage with it, and some of them will become customers.”
The advertising industry just got its iPhone moment. The question isn’t whether this changes everything—it’s whether you’ll be ready when it does.
What’s your take? Have you experimented with AI video creation, or are you still on the fence? Hit reply and let me know—I read every response.
Remember: AI won’t replace you, but the person using AI to create compelling content in 2 days instead of 2 months just might.
