AI Had Some Thoughts on Making Rainbow Bunny Bop Better

Mar 24
3 min read

Last week I tried setting up some Meta & Google Display ad campaigns. I uploaded my standard product photo and was surprised to see that both platforms automatically generated new images of my game. Completely different versions of a product I have been designing and refining for years, conjured in seconds by an algorithm that had clearly never actually played Rainbow Bunny Bop.

I had to delete them before they went live in my campaign.

Here is what AI thought would improve my game, organized by category.

AI Had Notes on the Name

Apparently "Rainbow Bunny Bop" was just a jumping-off point.

Facebook gave us "Rainbow Bunny Box." Close! The aesthetic is actually pretty charming and the Easter basket scene is genuinely lovely. But somewhere between my product photo and the finished ad, the word "Bop" became "Box." A Rainbow Bunny Box sounds like a subscription service for people who really love bunnies. I would subscribe.

Google gave us "Bunney Game." Just... Bunney Game. No further elaboration. No rainbow. Just vibes and a misspelling.

AI Redesigned the Product Entirely

This is where things get creative.

The two-box problem. My original photo includes one box. Facebook looked at it and thought: what if there were two boxes? And what if they were completely different shapes? One looks more like a book than a box. The other is a triangular pyramid situation that I genuinely cannot explain. It also kept the Sparks Play Family Fun Award badge from my original photo, which is a real award, so at least AI has good taste in accolades.

Rainbow Bunny Bop is now a construction toy. Google generated not one but TWO images of people assembling a large 3D wooden rainbow arch with their hands. No cards anywhere in sight. I will say the rainbow arch is beautiful and I briefly considered pivoting my entire business.

Google added components I did not know I needed. One image features the game laid out with dice, tokens, a standalone smiling bunny figurine, and what appears to be 43 of something (the box says "43"). Or maybe that is the recommended minimum age?Rainbow Bunny Bop is a card game. It has cards. That is the whole thing. But apparently AI felt it was incomplete without some cubes.

AI Had Casting Notes on the Bunnies

Not going to lie. This hurt my feelings! Blossom, Butters, Cupcake, and Douglas did not make the cut in most of the AI images.

When the bunnies did seem to make the cut, they underwent a serious makeover from additional sets of ears, picasso-esque faces, extra tails, and what I can only assume is a butt for a face?

Even Wix is guilty

A few months back I accidently toggled something on that set Wix into high-gear generated social media posts for my site. I have since toggled the feature off and deleted most of the images, but I found one that I missed that might as well be added here for posterity:

Does this game look ADORABLE? Yes! Would a customer be able to purchase this game? Nope, because it doesn't exist!

The Takeaway

I genuinely do not know how any small business is supposed to use auto-generated ad images with confidence. I uploaded a photo of my actual product and got back (without asking) alternate universe versions of it, three of which were added to my campaigns automatically.

The good news: game photographers, product stylists, and anyone who takes real photos of real things for a living, your jobs are absolutely safe.

And if anyone wants to license the rights to Bunney Game, the 3D rainbow construction toy, or the mysterious 43-component deluxe edition, please reach out. Apparently there is a whole product line I did not know I was making.

Have you had a similarly unhinged experience with AI-generated ad creative? Drop it in the comments. Misery loves company. 🐰

— Becky & the Bunnies