The snow is coming back (well, that remains to be seen), the gifts and Mariah Carey. And, of course, the annual announcement of Coca-cola recovering its traditional Santa Claus, the Nordic landscapes that look like a model and the company’s trucks decorated like Christmas trees. Last year there was controversy because the announcement was entirely made by AI and It was creepy.. This year it is clear that Coca-Cola does not seem to care too much about negative opinions.
The advertisement. The brand has digitally recreated his iconic ad’Holidays Are Coming’ from 1995, where the trucks decorated with Christmas lights in a caravan style were seen for the first time. There were real people who greeted and responded with wonder to the arrival of the Coca Cola shipment, but this time the substitution for animals has meant that AI is needed for the realization. Why not opt for CGI animation, which artificial intelligence clearly seeks to imitate? This commitment to technology seeks to modernize a traditional advertising symbol, but has sparked an avalanche of criticism on social networks and among creative professionals.
Why it is controversial. Above all, there is how visually artificial the advertisement is: animals with dead looks follow one another in an advertisement whose nature does not leave much room for innovation, but in this case it moves visually along paths traveled a thousand times. Then there is a more spiritual complaint: The naturalness and warmth expected in a traditional Christmas advertisement is nowhere to be found here. The original ad may have been corny, but at least it contained some legitimate invocation of the Christmas spirit. This is a spot made by machines that generates a certain nostalgia for a more analog and artisanal spirit, which we associate with Christmas.
And of course, heThe controversy also spreads to the ethics of using AI: Leaving aside the convenience or not of using real actors, even with the decision to use animated characters, many would have found it preferable to hire a specialized studio.
What Coca-Cola says. The company has talked about “innovation and creative efficiency.” Pratik Thakar, vice president and head of generative AI at Coca-Cola, said: to The Hollywood Reporter that “AI allows us to substantially accelerate the production process”: tasks that traditionally required an entire year can now be completed in just one month, making it easier to launch campaigns more quickly and flexibly. AI also facilitates immediate access to a historical archive of spots, which can serve as inspiration for new campaigns.
The art of AI. This is not the first time that Coca-Cola has partnered with studios linked to AI to make spots (three have participated in this one: Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card). For example, in his ‘Masterpiece‘2023, artificial intelligence was used to animate a large part of the spot, but this one was better received: despite the use of these tools, there was a defined art direction and with an intention, not a mere intention to save costs.
Vacation again. In 2024, Coca-Cola used AI to Complete your Christmas announcement. Already then they sought to renew the classic ‘Holiday Is Coming’, but the result was harshly criticized: At that time the video generation was in a much lower state of development than it is today, and the wrong decision was made to include people in the advertisement, evoking the spot from the nineties. The errors are multiple: deformed trucks, wheels that do not turn, frozen elements, apart from the now traditional empty and expressive look of humans generated by AI. And above all, it put Coca-Cola’s “betrayal” of the Christmas spirit on the table for the first time.
And next year, another (possibly). Many buts can be put to these spots, but as Thakar has made clear, if the only thing that interests the company is economic effectiveness, it is certainly something that cannot be competed with. We are condemned, it seems, to many more festive advertisements with glazed looks, frozen gestures of hysteria and animals that appear to be in the process of being desiccated.
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