Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas ad sparks fresh backlash despite human input claims

Coca-Cola has once again embraced generative AI for its annual Christmas campaign – and, for the second year in a row, the response from audiences and creative professionals has been overwhelmingly negative.

Despite the company’s attempt to smooth over previous criticisms by involving more human input, the newly released “Holidays Are Coming” animated spot has failed to win over sceptics.

While the 2024 campaign was already widely criticised for its uncanny visual style, Coca-Cola’s latest AI-powered ad has gone a step further by centring the festive narrative around a cast of animated animals, avoiding human figures almost entirely. The goal, seemingly, was to sidestep the awkward CGI human models that drew scrutiny last year. Yet, this tactic hasn’t shielded the campaign from widespread disapproval.

A number of Hollywood creatives have been particularly vocal in their objections. The Good Wife creator Robert King suggested the ad “worked better as ZOOTOPIA” and hinted that Disney “might want to think about suing Coke,” while concept artist Reid Southen dismissed the spot as “Stupid, ugly trash.” Illustrator Karla Ortiz called for a boycott, and Gravity Falls writer Alex Hirsch, who attacked last year’s effort, once again highlighted concerns around the growing use of AI in creative industries.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter prior to the ad’s release, Jason Zada, founder of Secret Level – one of the studios involved in the ad – argued that the process still relied heavily on human artistry: “There was a lot of hand-drawn character designs that went into it, a lot more sketching and world-building.” He also countered the notion that generative AI displaces artists, saying: “Human creativity is at the core of what we do… The best people who use AI are those who work as artists. If you do that it’s the ultimate superpower.”

Zada insisted that small, lean creative teams could, with AI, produce high-quality campaigns faster and more efficiently. “If you could do more with less you will do more,” he said, hinting that budgets would be used more efficiently to expand a campaign’s scope – such as by including multiple versions of a single ad.

However, many critics argue that this “efficiency” is coming at the cost of creative labour. One YouTube commenter quipped that the ad was “The best ad I’ve ever seen for Pepsi,” while another remarked, “Nothing says ‘holiday spirit’ like laying off your whole graphic arts department in the name of ‘moving forward and pushing the envelope’.”

The backlash comes amid rising concerns about AI’s growing role in corporate decision-making and the broader creative economy. Several major companies – including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft – have recently laid off thousands of employees, citing AI-integrated restructuring. This has amplified fears among younger generations and creative professionals that generative AI may come to replace, rather than support, human jobs in design, animation, and storytelling.

Coca-Cola’s Chief Marketing Officer, Manolo Arroyo, defended the use of AI from a commercial standpoint, telling The Wall Street Journal: “Before, when we were doing the shooting and all the standard processes for a project, we would start a year in advance. Now, you can get it done in around a month.” For many viewers, this is precisely the issue.

As one online critic put it, the final product feels less like festive cheer and more like “dystopian capitalist ritual.” With consumers expressing heightened frustration over the growing presence of AI in all corners of life – especially during a season celebrated for its nostalgia and humanity – Coca-Cola’s gamble on AI seems unlikely to pay off, at least in public goodwill.

Whether this will be enough to make the soft drink giant reconsider its creative strategy next year after the cola-teral damage of these previous years remains to be seen. But for now, it appears that AI won’t be taking over Christmas cheer anytime soon.