McDonald’s withdraws its AI-created Christmas advertisement following criticism.
Following the negative response to Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Christmas commercial last month, one might anticipate that other major corporations would exercise more caution with their own AI-driven projects.
However, that wasn’t the case.
McDonald’s Netherlands decided to create its own festive advertisement using generative AI tools, but the reception after its release on December 6 was far from positive.
The backlash was significant enough that the company has since removed the ad.
The 45-second commercial, which conveys the message that Christmas is “the most terrible time of the year,” showcases various holiday mishaps, including tangled Christmas lights and Santa stuck in traffic. The advertisement suggests that the remedy is to find solace at McDonald’s.
If you're interested, you can view it here.
Despite the advancements in AI-generated video, many found the ad uncomfortable due to awkward color grading, unnatural body movements, and brief clips, not to mention the concerns about such budget-friendly productions taking work away from skilled production teams.
“Please bring back people doing things again,” one Instagram commenter noted, while another remarked, “A $200 billion company that doesn’t even sell real food also can’t make a real commercial.” One Reddit user bluntly expressed, “It’s crap.”
The advertisement was created by TBWANeboko, a creative agency that collaborated with a production company called The Sweetshop to produce it using AI tools.
In response to the backlash, The Sweetshop released a rather unusual statement, as reported by Futurism, attempting to clarify their approach.
“For seven weeks, we hardly slept, with up to 10 of our in-house AI and post specialists at The Gardening Club [our in-house AI engine] working closely with the directors,” stated The Sweetshop's CEO.
“We generated what felt like dailies—thousands of takes—and then refined them in the editing process as we would with any high-quality production. This wasn’t merely an AI gimmick; it was a film.”
The statement went on: “I don’t view this ad as a novelty or a seasonal experiment. To me, it represents something much larger: when craftsmanship and technology converge with purpose, they can produce genuinely cinematic work. So no—AI didn’t create this film; we did.”
With both Coca-Cola and McDonald’s experiencing backlash over their AI advertisements, it will be intriguing to see whether other leading brands choose to embrace this technology or avoid it in their forthcoming commercials.
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McDonald’s withdraws its AI-created Christmas advertisement following criticism.
In light of the criticism surrounding Coca-Cola's AI-generated Christmas advertisement last month, one might anticipate that other major corporations would exercise more caution in launching their own AI-driven campaigns. However, that has not been the case. McDonald’s Netherlands opted to utilize generative AI tools to create its own holiday commercial. Yet, the response from the public was not favorable...