Coca-Cola’s new AI-driven holiday ad is an eyesore

Coca-Cola is once again using generative AI to reimagine its classic Coke caravan holiday commercials, and in doing so, takes away some of the brand’s festive cheer. after Receive backlash For three weeks Holiday commercials created by artificial intelligence Last year, which featured sliding wheels and weird-looking faces, the company doubled down on its efforts with a new AI-powered Christmas campaign that’s even more visually jarring than the first.

the “Holidays are coming“Commercial attempts to avoid problems with producing realistic humans by showing a range of different creatures instead. There is no consistent style, alternating between an attempt at realism and a cartoonish, bug-eyed look, and polar bears, pandas and sloths move unnaturally, like flat images that have been clumsily animated rather than 3D computer-rigged models. Compared to convincing fake videos created by tools like OpenAI Sora 2 or Google I see 3the videos produced for this Coke ad look very old.

The only noticeable improvement in my opinion is that the wheels of the famous Coca-Cola trucks are constantly turning this year, instead of constantly sliding on snow-covered roads. The Wall Street Journal Coca-Cola has reportedly teamed up with Silverside and Secret Level for its latest holiday campaign, two of the AI ​​studios that previously worked on Coke’s 2024 Christmas ads.

Coca-Cola declined to comment on the cost of the new holiday campaign, according to what it said The Wall Street JournalBut he said about 100 people were involved in the project, a number comparable to the company’s older AI-free productions. This includes five Silverside “AI Specialists” who have helped catalyze and optimize more than 70,000 AI-powered videos.

This comes at a time when AI tools are rapidly improving to replace manual work performed by creative professionals, raising concerns about future job opportunities. Google has also provided The first commercial created entirely by artificial intelligence this year, saying consumers don’t really care if ads are created using technology. Coca-Cola has been aggressively adopting its use in advertising, despite problems it has encountered in previous campaigns, including a commercial in April that caused a sensation. A fake book by JJ Ballard.

Those past blunders appear to be worth the risk for Coca-Cola, said Manolo Arroyo, the company’s chief marketing officer. The Wall Street Journal Its latest holiday campaign was cheaper and faster to produce than traditional production. “Before, when we were doing filming and all the standard processes for the project, we would start a year ahead of time,” Arroyo told the publication. “Now, you can get it done in about a month.”