A Kalshi advertisement that director PJ Ace called the “most unhinged” commercial possible aired during Game 3 of the NBA Finals this week.
The AI-generated ad features “crazy people doing crazy things,” according to PJ Ace, who spent two days making the commercial. After finishing, he posted it on X, commenting, “Kalshi hired me to make the most unhinged NBA Finals commercial possible. Network TV actually approved this GTA-style madness. High-dopamine Veo 3 videos will be the ad trend of 2025. Here’s how I made it in just TWO DAYS”.
The ad features some standard markets on Oklahoma and Indiana to win the NBA Championship, then goes on to list more obscure events such as “US confirm aliens?” and “Egg prices to go up this month?”. A character then delivers Kalshi’s tagline, “Kalshi lets you legally trade on anything, anywhere in the US.” The commercial finishes by noting, “The world’s gone mad, trade it.”
The company has gained attention recently by expanding into election and sports betting markets, emphasizing that it brings legal betting to all 50 states.
AI-generated ad a 95% cost reduction
Filmmaker PJ Ace commented that the ad was made using Google’s AI products, Gemini and Veo 3. He explained the process on a Reddit post that has now been deleted: “Kalshi hit me up wanting a spot where people placed odds on wild markets during the NBA Finals,”
“I told them that the best way to use Veo 3 right now is to have crazy people doing crazy things while they highlight your brand. They love GTA VI. I grew up in Florida. This concept kind of wrote itself.”
He went on to add, “I asked their team if they’d put together a few dialogue bits they wanted to include, and I came up with 10 different crazy people in crazy situations for them to say those lines in,”
“I co-write with Gemini—asking it to pitch me ideas, then I take the best ones and shape them into a basic script. This took around 300–400 generations to get 15 usable clips. One person, two days. That’s a 95% cost reduction compared to traditional advertising.”
Despite the low cost, PJ Ace claims the process still requires an expert to lead the AI.
“Just because this was cheap doesn’t mean anyone can do it,” he commented. “I’ve been a director 15+ years. Brands still will need to pay a premium for taste. The future is small teams making viral, brand-adjacent content weekly, getting 80 to 90 percent of the results for way less.”
He says that most of his productions “fall between $10k and $40k,” adding that “it pays way better than I made doing live-action commercials because it’s 10x the volume and I can work in my boxers.”
Kalshi set to push more boundaries
The ad highlights how Kalshi sees itself, as a company not afraid to take risks and push boundaries. The company is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has upset state regulators who claim it is offering unregulated betting. So far, judges have sided with Kalshi in legal battles, and the CFTC has become more favorable in allowing political and sports trading.
Under previous administration, the regulator challenged Kalshi over its US presidential election market, but withdrew the challenge last month. Current Kalshi board member, Brian Quintenz, looks set to take charge as the chair of the organization, and his comments made to a Senate hearing on Tuesday, suggest he will allow further expansion of prediction markets.
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling. Adam focuses on emerging stories in the ever changing landscape of betting in the US. Read the latest on prediction markets, changing legislation, and sweepstakes.
