In the advertising world, Christmas — along with the Super Bowl — is arguably the most exciting time of the year. Thousands, if not millions, of dollars are invested in holiday campaigns with one ultimate goal: to get people talking. Among the many industry leaders in this field, Coca-Cola has stood out for almost three decades. Its Christmas commercials, where the famous beverage always brings joy to people gearing up for the festive season, are almost always the most loved and widely shared. At least, until now.
Two days ago, Coca-Cola released this year’s much-anticipated holiday commercial on its YouTube channel, titled “The Holiday Magic is Coming”. Almost immediately, it was met with hundreds of criticisms and negative comments.
Let’s start from the beginning. The 30-second ad echoes an old commercial from the American company, specifically the 1995 Christmas ad titled “Holidays Are Coming.” In both videos, we see the iconic red trucks lighting up the streets as they pass by, ready to deliver the beverage to every home. So far, so good. The issue doesn’t lie in the content of the commercial but in its creation. The ad was entirely generated using Artificial Intelligence.
According to Forbes, three versions of the video were created by three different AI studios — Secret Level, Silverside AI, and Wild Card — using four different generative AI models. However, it is still unclear which version was published. A developer from Silverside AI commented on X, stating that the released ad was definitely not created by the company he works for.
The controversy arises from Coca-Cola’s decision not to involve artists, designers, directors, or writers, instead entrusting everything to AI. The creative community, in particular, was outraged upon seeing the ad. This indignation led Alex Hirsch, creator of the Disney series *Gravity Falls*, to comment on X: *“FUN FACT: @CocaCola is ‘red’ because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists! #HolidayFactz.”* Let’s just say he didn’t hold back.
Una domanda, però, sorge spontanea. Perché questo spot è riuscito a creare tanto scalpore e gli altri no?
“The Holiday Magic is coming” non è sicuramente il primo – e non sarà l’ultimo – commercial generato con l’AI. Quest’estate l’azienda di giocattoli Toys”R”Us ha rilasciato il primissimo spot interamente realizzato con SORA di OpenAI, un paio di anni fa Balenciaga è riuscito a far sfilare Harry Potter e altri personaggi dei film con i suoi capi; ma anche a stessa Coca-Cola già un anno fa lanciò lo spot “Masterpiece” che utilizzava l’AI.
But one question inevitably arises: Why did this ad stir so much controversy, while others didn’t?
“The Holiday Magic is Coming” is certainly not the first — and won’t be the last — commercial generated with AI. This summer, the toy company Toys”R”Us released the first-ever ad fully created using OpenAI’s SORA. A couple of years ago, Balenciaga managed to have Harry Potter and other film characters model its clothing. Even Coca-Cola itself released the “Masterpiece” ad a year ago, which also used AI.
So, where’s the catch? Why has this particular ad been scrutinized frame by frame, detail by detail? Why was it okay for other ads to feature characters with four fingers, but in this one, the polar bear’s fur looks too unrealistic, or the truck lights couldn’t exist in reality?
We don’t believe this backlash stems from opposition to the use of AI in general. Instead, it’s more about timing. AI is acceptable for the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, or other “worldly” events, but perhaps we’re not quite ready to entrust Christmas — the most traditional of holidays — to artificial intelligence.
