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The holiday season may have just begun, but AI hatred is always in season. Enter a new holiday-themed ad from Coca-Cola that’s drawing backlash for its use of generative AI to bring its scenes to life — or at least that’s what it tried to do.
Commercial is very basic. A Coca-Cola truck drives through the winter landscape to a snowy town, and the woodland animals wake up to follow the truck and the contents of its soda bottle to the lit-up Christmas tree in the town square. It has the distinct luster of AI video generation.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Coca-Cola did almost the same thing last year with… Artificial intelligence holiday announcement That also touched a nerve. The company is proving that it has not learned its lesson or won the hearts and minds of its customers over the past year.
I’m an AI reporter and expert on creative AI tools. So I wasn’t too surprised when I saw the announcement and the backlash. There has been a boom in creative AI tools, especially in the past year, with many AI tools Built specifically for marketers. They promise to help with content creation, workflow automation, and data analysis. A large percentage (94%) of marketers have a budget dedicated to AI, and three-quarters of them expect that budget to grow, according to Canva Marketing and AI Report 2025.
What surprised me was that it was this ad that made people raise their pitchforks and torches. It’s very tame. Cute, even. Compared to the rise of racism, inappropriate and Content generated by artificial intelligence We recently saw that a Coca-Cola ad was tantalizingly benign. and this The problem.
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This feel-good festival commercial manages to address every controversial issue in the field of AI, which is why it is inspiring strong reactions from viewers. AI content has become – has already become – normalized. We cannot escape online chatbots and Back up ramp In our feeds. Coca-Cola’s use of AI in commercials is another sign that companies are moving forward with AI without really thinking about how we will react. Like advertising, there is no escape from artificial intelligence.
If AI in advertising is here to stay, it’s worth detailing how it’s being used and where we, as media consumers, don’t want to see it used. And while this is not a defense of Coca-Cola or AI, there is at least one thing the company did right in this particular ad.
Discovering artificial intelligence in a Coca-Cola ad
Coca-Cola’s “Holidays are Coming” ad is actually an advertisement remake From its famous 1995 ad of the same name. In a Behind the scenes videoCoca-Cola explains how it’s made. It is clear where artificial intelligence was used to create the animals. But I’m not sure I believe the company went “pixel by pixel” to create its mysterious friends.
This panda bear is obviously not real footage, but it has a certain AI quality that is part shiny, part plastic.
Coca-Cola’s AI animals don’t look realistic; They look like AI. Their fur has some detail, but those finer elements are not as defined as they should be. It is also not consistent throughout the animal’s body. You can see that the fur becomes less detailed when you look back at the animal. This kind of detail work is something AI video generators struggle with, but it’s something a (human) animator could likely spot and correct.
A mama polar bear’s fur is shaggier on his cheek than on the top of his head. I feel confident when I say that no polar bear fur is this smooth.
The animals make exaggerated surprised faces as the truck passes by, their mouths forming perfect circles. This is another sign of artificial intelligence. You can see in the behind-the-scenes video of someone clicking through AI variations of a sea lion’s nose, a common trait in AI software. There is also a glimpse of the feature that is very similar Generative Photoshop fill. Google I see the video generator It was definitely used at least once.
At the bottom of the image you can see the Veo 3 model selected to create these videos of the Coca-Cola truck.
The company has been working entirely on artificial intelligence for a while, starting with Partnership 2023 With OpenAI. Even Coca-Cola’s advertising agency, Publicis Group, bragged about snatching up Coca-Cola’s business With an AI-first strategy. It seems clear that the company will not be affected by its customers’ aversion to artificial intelligence.
All I want for Christmas are AI stickers
There’s exactly one thing Coca-Cola got right, which was the AI reveal at the beginning of the video. Using AI to create your content is one thing; It’s quite another thing to lie about it. Labels are one of the best tools we have to help anyone who encounters a piece of content decipher whether it’s real or AI-powered. Many social media apps allow you to simply toggle the setting before posting.
Notice the “Created by Real Magic AI” note in the bottom left corner.
It’s very easy to explain, but many brands and creators don’t disclose their use of AI because they’re afraid of getting hate for it. If you don’t want to get hate for using AI, don’t use it! But letting people sit and debate whether you did it or not is a waste of everyone’s time. The fact that content generated by artificial intelligence is It becomes indistinguishable From real photos and videos is exactly why we need to be so clear.
It is our collective responsibility as a society to be transparent about how we use AI. Social media platforms try to flag AI-generated content, but these systems are not perfect. We should appreciate that Coca-Cola did not lie to us about this AI-generated content. It’s a very low bar, but many others don’t go beyond it. (I’m looking at you, Mariah Carey. Just let us know if you’re using AI in your new device Holiday ad with Sephora!)
Artificial intelligence in advertising
Last June, Vogue readers were outraged when the American magazine ran an ad titled “Guess.” Featuring a model generated by artificial intelligence. Models at that time to speak About how AI was making it harder to get work in campaigns. Eagle-eyed J.Crew fans caught on Using “AI Photography” After a month. Toys R Us made headlines last year when it was introduced A strange ad with an artificial intelligence giraffealthough it stated that it was built using an early version of OpenAI’s Sora.
What’s really interesting about Guess and J.Crew’s use of AI is how clearly they use AI instead of real models and photographers. While Coca-Cola and Toys R Us’ use of AI was equally obvious, the AI animals weren’t exactly identical. As the president of Toys R Us said: “We didn’t want to rent a giraffe.” Points for honesty?
However, it is likely that real humans lost their jobs creating these AI ads. The Coca-Cola commercial could have been created, and perhaps improved, if you used animators, designers, and illustrators. Job loss due to artificial intelligence It worries adults in the United StatesAnd people who work in the creative industries They are definitely in danger. Not that AI-powered photo and video generators are ready to completely replace workers. That’s because for companies, the appeal of cutting-edge AI provides executives with an easy rationale. This is exactly what just happened Amazon It also laid off thousands of workers.
It’s easy to look at Coca-Cola’s AI-powered holiday ad and dismiss it as another blunder for the company, especially when there are so many other things to worry about. But in this strange new AI reality, it’s important to highlight the quiet moments that normalize this controversial technology just as much as the breakthrough moments.
So, this holiday season, I think I’ll drink Pepsi’s proprietary cranberry soda instead of Coke Zero.
