GREAT MOMENTS IN QUALITY CONTROL: Coca-Cola’s AI ad just ruined Christmas… again.
One AI-generated Christmas ad could have be brushed off as a novelty experiment. With two in a two in a row, Coca-Cola is making AI slop a new festive tradition.
Despite the backlash last year (or because of it?), the soft drinks giant has again decided to start the season with an AI-generated mess that sabotages its brand. Somehow it still doesn’t see the contradiction of its ‘real magic’ tagline.
The 60-second spot was produced by AI studio Secret Level. Like last year’s effort, it references the classic Holidays Are Coming ad with Coca-Cola’s red trucks crossing snowy landscapes to deliver Christmas cheer. The polar bears of old are now joined by an incongruous mix of gawping AI critters, from rabbits to seals, before the piece end with a jump scare: an AI-animated Santa Claus inspired by Haddon Sundblom’s 1930s illustrations.
Coca-Cola is so proud of the monstrosity that it’s even posted a bizarre behind-the-scenes video that appears to have an AI-generated voiceover. Two anonymous observers marvel over how a “tiny team of five specialists” managed to “churn out and carefully refine” over 70,000 video clips in 30 days.
Those video clips weren’t refined carefully enough: Devastating graphic shows just how bad the Coca-Cola Christmas ad really is. “Based on what the company’s been saying, it sounds like the aim of this year’s Christmas ad was less about building brand storytelling and more about trying to prove itself right after last year’s disaster. Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s global VP of generative AI, said that this time around the brand ‘controlled every cinematic detail’ to achieve ‘seamless narrative continuity and character consistency’. But it seems the public at large has a better eye for detail than Coca-Cola’s own team.”
Exit quote: “The only explanation people can think of is that Coca-Cola is running the campaign for rage engagement, but that seems bizarrely off brand, and particularly for a Christmas ad.”
There’s only one thing Coca-Cola can do at this point to soothe the public’s collective ire: Hire Dylan Mulvaney in an effort to make us all forget the bad AI Christmas ad.