Coca-Cola’s A.I.-Generated Holiday Ads Receive Backlash

With temperatures dropping, nights growing longer and decorations starting to appear in store windows, the holidays are on their way. One of the season’s stalwarts, however, is feeling a little less cozy for some people: Coca-Cola, known for its nostalgia-filled holiday commercials, is facing backlash for creating this year’s ads with generative artificial intelligence.

The three commercials, which pay tribute to the company’s beloved “Holidays Are Coming” campaign from 1995, feature cherry-red Coca-Cola trucks driving through sleepy towns on snowy roads at night. The ads depict squirrels and rabbits peeking out to watch the passing caravans and a man being handed an ice-cold bottle of cola by Santa Claus.

“’Tis the season,” a jingle chirps, “it’s always the real thing.” The tag line, pushing Coke’s “real thing” slogan, is juxtaposed with a disclaimer: “Created by Real Magic AI.”

The internet pile-on arrived swiftly as consumers decried the commercials as uncanny valleyesque perversions of the company’s classic ads.

“Coca-Cola just put out an ad and ruined Christmas,” Dylan Pearce, one of the campaign’s many critics, said on TikTok, adding, “To put out slop like this just ruins the Christmas spirit.”