Not So Merry Marketing

Coca-Cola’s New Holiday Advertisement Faces Controversy Over AI Usage

Photo by Mikael Stenberg on Unsplash

The iconic soda brand Coca-Cola recently released their annual holiday ad for this Christmas season. However, instead of the cozy nostalgia viewers have come to love and know, they were met with a commercial that was very blatantly using AI. 

This is not the first time the company has done this. In their 2024 holiday ad, there was extremely obvious usage of artificial intelligence. After the large amounts of backlash that the company received over this issue, people hoped that they would learn from the past, and go back to their old animation style of years prior. This was not the case, instead they doubled down on this experimentation in their marketing. In this year's commercial, the company tried to hide the fact of their AI usage by replacing the awkward humans with polar bears and sloths. Despite the company seeking to stream-line the animation, it is still being described as “inconsistent and clumsy, with visuals switching between realism and cartoonish awkwardness.”

Overall, Coca-Cola disappointed its consumers for a second time. Their approach now seems to center efficiency and profit, rather than the prioritization of their timeless feel. This should be a lesson to other name-brands who wish to experiment with AI in their marketing: costs can never replace a creative spark.