One AI-generated Christmas ad could have be brushed off as a novelty experiment. With two in a two in a row, Coca-Cola is making AI slop a new festive tradition.
Despite the backlash last year (or because of it?), the soft drinks giant has again decided to start the season with an AI-generated mess that sabotages its brand. Somehow it still doesn't see the contradiction of its 'real magic' tagline.
The 60-second spot was produced by AI studio Secret Level. Like last year's effort, it references the classic Holidays Are Coming ad with Coca-Cola’s red trucks crossing snowy landscapes to deliver Christmas cheer. The polar bears of old are now joined by an incongruous mix of gawping AI critters, from rabbits to seals, before the piece end with a jump scare: an AI-animated Santa Claus inspired by Haddon Sundblom's 1930s illustrations.
Coca-Cola is so proud of the monstrosity that it's even posted a bizarre behind-the-scenes video that appears to have an AI-generated voiceover. Two anonymous observers marvel over how a “tiny team of five specialists” managed to “churn out and carefully refine” over 70,000 video clips in 30 days.
The aim seems to have been to achieve a shoestring approximation of the 3D animation style of movies like Madagascar. Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s global VP of generative AI, said the brand “controlled every cinematic detail, from camera angles to physics-driven realism, with intuitive visual annotations mimicking a director’s workflow”.
“This is more than filmmaking – it’s a transformational leap into the future of creativity and technology," the VP added. And yet the ad feels like it was shaped around the limitations of AI.
Animals stand in for humans to avoid the controversy of replacing actors, and probably also because AI still isn't great at human characters. Shots switch rapidly to try to distract us from the inconsistencies, but the trucks still look different from shot to the next. There's also a fireplace with no chimney opening, setting the scene for a festive family tragedy.
Branding experts are perplexed. “Firstly, can you really put aside the issues of AI generated creative displacing artists simply by using animals instead of humans?,” Fergus McCallum, CEO at TBWA\MCR wonders.
“Even if you can, there's no getting away from the lack of joy and authenticity. As audiences start to turn away from the AI slop being served to them on a daily basis, Coca-Cola are in danger of becoming inauthentic too. Whatever happened to 'I'd like to teach the world to sing'?!”
This year we should just start a trend where we make our own AI slop Coca-Cola Christmas commercials. Here's mine: pic.twitter.com/voJFpTCDHZNovember 3, 2025
Over on X, the public is no less caustic. “Fun fact: Coca-Cola is red because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists,” one person writes. Others are now describing Pepsi as the “artists' soda”.
