PX Mart gets clicks and comments for AI video depicting ghosts
AI videos of people? Nothing new. But AI videos of immortal spirits in a Ghost Month commercial for a supermarket chain? Well, for PX Mart it was an original concept that involved a team of real people and nearly 40 actors. While many praised the commercial for its creative use of AI, others criticized it. Some said the video looked uncanny and artificial, with others believing the video combines elements of Ghost Month and Tomb Sweeping Day, which took place four months ago.
- In Taiwanese, train sounds like “heading home.”
Click-clack, click-clack.
We’re off, we’re off.
These ghostly spirits are starting out on an arduous journey that mere mortals cannot see with their eyes, yet a PX Mart commercial that incorporates AI has brought life to what was once invisible.
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Traveling by paper planes, sitting on flying wheelchairs, and riding dolphins, this commercial, with its virtual world and comforting narration, has “heading home” as its theme. Yet many netizens feel that the video is mixing elements of Ghost Month and Tomb Sweeping Day.
Liu Hung-cheng
PX Mart Marketing Dept.
We often talk positively about ghosts, about how some ghosts have no home to return to because they don’t have living descendants to pray for them. But because, in general, Taiwanese, like Buddhists with their incredibly kind hearts, pray for these ghosts, which has turned Taiwan into an island of joy. So, we felt like we could use this way of thinking to help these spirits return to this land, just like as if they were to return home.
The company responsible for making the video used a lot of Generative AI techniques as well as AI visual effects, causing both praise and criticism from the general public. The creative director posted videos on social media that showed the filming process; the post also stated that the project, including the script, was the work of a team of real people and that the actors are real people.
Liu Hung-cheng
PX Mart Marketing Dept.
In terms of the production process, in total we hired around 36 actors, who, with green screen technology, were filmed doing normal scenes, so the make-up, the characters themselves, and even the costumes, it was all real people being filmed. Production costs exceeded NT$4 million, so the video isn’t something that could be done with a typical video production budget.
Starting Aug. 13 and ending Sept. 10 this year, the Ghost Festival is here once again, but some prefer their uncanny experiences to be free from AI.
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2026-08-12
