When it comes to famous Christmas commercials, there aren’t too many that are more iconic and nostalgic than Coca-Cola’s 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” spot. The company’s latest take on that ad, however, isn’t inspiring the Christmas spirit in a lot of fans.
You can watch the 16-second spot here, which in some ways is largely similar to the original, from the soundtracks to that big, lit-up truck. But if something feels a little off, it’s because it was Coca-Cola’s first ad to be fully generated by artificial intelligence.
The company’s European CMO, Javier Meza, explained the decision in an interview with Marketing Week, saying Coca-Cola wanted to bring this year’s holiday commercial to “today’s times.”
“We didn’t start by saying: ‘OK, we need to do this with AI,’” he said. “The brief was, we want to bring Holidays Are Coming into the present and then we explored AI as a solution to that.”
It’s safe to say that a lot of people on the internet would’ve preferred Coca-Cola modernizing the ad in another way, however. The reaction online has been overwhelmingly negative, with comments on the YouTube video and across social media calling it “slop,” “embarrassing,” and “creepy.” Or, as one commenter put it: “This is as heartwarming as an aluminum tree.”
“Over 14 years ago, people were recreating the Coca Cola Christmas ad in GTA San Andreas and it still came off as more authentic than this tripe,” wrote one X/Twitter user.
“Coca Cola decided to have its polar bears take a giant AI shit under the Christmas Tree,” wrote @joerussotweets on X/Twitter.
“It’s actually soooo concerning that a brand as big as Coca Cola is doing this,” added another X/Twitter user. “Surely they could’ve afforded to hire actors/designers/editors/etc. to make this?”
Others expressed similar concerns: “This is such slop bro. If a billion dollar company like coca cola cant pay real artists, actors, directors, etc to promote their product what precedent does this set for the rest of the market?,” wrote one person on the YouTube video.
But, most importantly: “Coca Cola is banned from Ba Sing Se.”
In fact, the reception is so harsh that it’s actually pretty difficult to find any positive sentiment. But Jason Zada, founder of one of the three AI studios Coca-Cola worked with to create the ad, touted the efficiency of using the technology to craft the spot.
“More than cost, it’s the speed,” Thakar told Ad Age. “Speed is I would say five times, right? And that is a huge benefit. The production time would have taken, traditionally, much longer. So that is a huge benefit.”
Coca-Cola has responded to the backlash yet, but it might lose some soda drinkers to Pepsi in the meantime.
AI remains a hot-button topic in creative industries, emerging as a major point of contention in last year’s Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes and in the current video game actor strike. For more on the issue, check out IGN’s full AI Week coverage from last year, including a report about how it’s become the new battleground in the animation industry.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.