When OpenAI shipped GPT Image 2 last week, my X feed turned into the same five demos: astronauts on Mars, isometric office scenes, a cat in a beanie. Cool. But I run a marketing tool company, and the question I actually had was: can this thing replace a $3,000 product photoshoot?
Short answer: yes, with the right prompt. Long answer: most prompts you see online are tuned for "wow factor," not for shipping. Headlines need negative space. Product heroes need consistent lighting. Lifestyle shots need to look unstaged in a way the default model resists.
So I spent a few hours writing 56 prompts specifically for ad creative — product hero shots, OOH mockups, social ads with in-image taglines, type posters, flat lays, packaging, brand collabs, editorial. They're all live as a free gallery here:
👉 Soku AI's Free GPT Image 2 Prompts
Below are the seven I'd hand a junior designer on day one — copy-paste ready.
1. The "floating product" hero shot
Every DTC brand needs this. The trick is to over-specify the lighting and surface because GPT Image 2 will default to mushy studio mood otherwise.
Studio product photograph of a frosted glass skincare serum bottle with a black dropper, suspended mid-air against a soft peach gradient background. A single droplet of golden serum is frozen falling beneath the dropper. Hard rim light from the upper right, gentle reflected fill, subtle shadow on a bone-white acrylic surface below. Hyper-real macro detail on the brushed aluminum collar, condensation
beads, packaging-shot quality. 4:3, centered composition, copy-safe negative space on the left third.
Why it works: explicit light direction (upper right rim), explicit surface (bone-white acrylic), explicit copy zone (left third). The model stops guessing.
2. The lifestyle ad with a tagline already burned in
GPT Image 2 is genuinely better than predecessors at typography. You can ask for the headline directly and it'll usually nail kerning on the first try.
A lifestyle ad creative for a premium water bottle brand. A woman hiking on a scenic mountain trail, holding the [water bottle] with a natural grip. Wide shot, golden hour light, lush green background. Tagline: 'BUILT FOR THE LONG WAY.' Bold white sans-serif text, lower third. Photorealistic. No watermarks, no extra text.
Why it works: the bracket placeholder lets you swap products. The "no watermarks, no extra text" is load-bearing — without it the model invents fake brand marks.
3. The OOH billboard mockup
Pitch decks live and die by these. Don't ask for a "billboard" — ask for the specific physical context.
Photorealistic mockup of a massive curved LED billboard in Times Square at dusk, displaying an ad for a luxury skincare brand: an oversized close-up of a dewy face, a single product bottle, and short bold typography. Wet pavement reflections, ambient signage glow, blurred yellow taxis passing in the foreground. Cinematic 16:9, billboard occupying the upper-right of frame, slight wide-angle distortion.
Why it works: "wet pavement reflections" + "ambient signage glow" + "yellow taxis in motion blur" are what sell the realism. Without them you get a flat billboard floating in a clean street.
4. The type-led poster
Useful for B2B, event branding, conference comms. The trick is committing to a type system and a single accent color.
Editorial type poster: an oversized vertical-set classic serif headline reading "QUIETLY POWERFUL" filling the full frame, set in deep navy on a textured cream paper background. A small product mark and a single date in fine type at the bottom corner. Subtle paper grain, slight letterpress emboss feel. 3:4.
Why it works: telling the model what kind of serif (classic), what finish (letterpress emboss), and what texture (cream paper grain) gives it three hooks to latch onto instead of generating generic "elegant text."
5. The before/after for paid social
If you're running performance creative on Meta, this is the workhorse.
Social ad composition split vertically down the middle: left side warm-toned with the word "BEFORE" subtly burned in, right side bright cool-toned with "AFTER", showing the same model — left with dull skin, right with luminous glowing skin. Product bottle floats centered on the seam. Bold sans-serif headline space at the top. 1:1 square.
Why it works: explicit color temperature shift (warm → cool) gives the model a visual rule for "transformation" that survives even at low quality.
6. The flat lay for ecommerce + Pinterest
These are surprisingly hard to get right because the model wants to clutter.
Top-down overhead flat lay on a soft sage-green linen surface: a complete five-step skincare routine — cleanser, toner, serum, moisturizer, SPF — neatly aligned with subtle space between each item. Sprigs of dried botanicals, a folded muslin cloth, a bone-handled spoon for accent. Soft diffuse daylight, gentle shadows, editorial spacing. 1:1.
Why it works: "subtle space between each item" + "editorial spacing" tells the model to leave room. Without those phrases it crams everything together.
7. The brand collab
Limited drops are the most-shared ad format on social. The model loves this because it's basically two product hero shots glued together.
Energetic collab visual: a co-branded chip bag and a limited-edition controller floating in zero-G against a saturated electric-purple background, controlled splash of confetti and crumbs frozen mid-air. Hard rim light, neon accent, gen-z high-energy. 1:1.
Why it works: "controlled splash" + "frozen mid-air" gives motion that feels intentional rather than accidental.
What I learned writing 56 of these
A few patterns that survived from product hero to OOH:
- Specify the surface, not just the background. "Bone-white acrylic" beats "white" every time. The model uses the surface to anchor its lighting.
- Negative space is a directive, not a vibe. "Copy-safe negative space on the left third" is read as a hard constraint. "Clean composition" isn't.
- Always close with a denial list. "No watermarks, no extra text, no logos" prevents the model from inventing a fake brand for you.
- Aspect ratio belongs at the end. Putting it first sometimes gets ignored; putting it last as a closing instruction lands better.
- Use bracket placeholders for the product noun. It gives you a templated prompt you can swap across SKUs without rewriting the whole thing.
The full 56
The above seven are a sampler. The full gallery has 56 prompts across nine
categories — packaging mockups, brand collabs, editorial portraits, UGC-style
shots, and more — all free, all copy-paste, organized for ad scenarios:
👉 Soku AI's Free GPT Image 2 Prompts
Each card has a one-click "Try in Soku AI" button if you want to skip the prompt-engineering altogether and have an agent run a campaign for you. (Soku is free during beta.)
Happy hacking!
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