Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas advert faces fierce backlash over creativity loss.
Photo Credit: Coca-Cola via YouTube
FOR THE second year in a row, Coca-Cola has released an entirely AI-generated Christmas advert, called “Holidays are Coming,” sparking widespread backlash. Users across the Internet are criticising the company, calling the advert “AI slop,” denouncing its visuals as impersonal, and condemning the company’s choice to use generative AI rather than employ artists. The Coca-Cola company has declined to comment on how much they spent on the ad, but confirmed that even fewer people were involved than last year.
Coca-Cola pushes forward with AI despite strong opposition
The advertisement, which is labelled as having been created with ‘Real Magic AI,’ features groups of animals including hedgehogs, seals, and rabbits, gawking at passing illuminated Coca-Cola trucks as Holidays are Coming, a choir song performed by The Kingdom Choir, swells in the background.
Despite fierce backlash from its previous holiday campaign, which was also AI-generated, the Coca-Cola company’s head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, stated, “We need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope… The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in.”
In addition to the advertisement, Coca-Cola released a behind-the-scenes video with what seems to be an AI-generated voiceover explaining how the campaign was made. Apparently, the entire team dedicated to making the advertisement consisted of just five people, and they generated more than 70,000 video clips in just 30 days. Coca-Cola collaborated with two AI studios in order to make the ad. The advertisement will air in around 140 countries.
‘Soulless,’ ‘ugly’ campaign generates fierce backlash from users
Users have been quick to call out the company for using AI for an advert, despite having the resources to employ real artists. The campaign has been described as “ugly,” “creepy,” “slop,” and “soulless,” with many rallying to boycott the soft drink.
Joked one user in the comments on YouTube, “The most profitable commercial in Pepsi’s history.”
Another user on X said, “[Y]ou’re a multiBILLION dollar company. pay REAL animators. this is disgusting.”
Others chided the actual quality of the AI-animation, saying that apart from the tone-deaf nature of the advertisement, it does not even look good.
Last year, animator and creator of popular TV show Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch, posted on X in response to Coca-Cola’s holiday campaign: “FUN FACT: @CocaCola is “red” because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists!”
AI: good for pockets, devastating for artists
AI-generated media has been long denounced by artists, as AI programmes draw from real works made by humans to generate its images and text, the vast majority of which are stolen without permission. Additionally, AI-generated works, being cheaper and faster to produce, are quickly replacing human-made ones, even within companies with the means and ability to pay artists a fair and living wage, like Coca-Cola.
Indeed, in many companies across the world, the adoption of AI is making internships and marketing roles harder to come by, and many young people between the ages of 20 and 24 are having a difficult time finding work. Artists and animators are hit especially hard by the adoption of the technology.
Coca-Cola’s campaigns, once synonymous with Christmas
Many users are mourning Coca-Cola’s previous Christmas campaigns, which were not only a signifier of the holiday season for many, but had become iconic in their own right. In fact, Coca-Cola’s Christmas adverts, dating as far back as the 1930s, highly popularised the jolly, rosy-cheeked, red-coat-wearing, and friendly Santa Claus imagery, and heavily influenced the modern version of the character that we know today.
The “Holidays are Coming” advertisement first aired in 1995, showing illuminated Coca-Cola trucks driving across snowy roads and enchanting onlookers.
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