AI ads gone wrong: How global brands embarrass themselves

Thu, December 18, 2025 - 16:35

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AI ads gone wrong: How global brands embarrass themselves

McDonald’s and Coca-Cola face criticism over AI-generated Christmas ads (photo: Getty Images)

Author: Kateryna Ivaniuk

Major corporations such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have once again found themselves at the center of a scandal: their holiday commercials created using artificial intelligence have sparked a wave of backlash online, according to CNET.

McDonald's ad: short but disastrous

The 30-second McDonald’s commercial was created exclusively for the Netherlands and showed a series of Christmas mishaps set to a parody of the song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. The video quickly drew heavy criticism, prompting the company to remove it from its pages.

The ad was easy to identify as AI-generated content due to abrupt edits, poorly readable text, and inaccurate details. In one of the now-deleted posts, the CEO of marketing agency The Sweetshop Film confirmed that various AI tools were used to create the commercial.

Coca-Cola ad: more polished, but still AI-generated

Unlike McDonald’s, Coca-Cola’s commercial appeared more cohesive: a truck loaded with drinks drives through a winter landscape and a snowy town, while forest animals follow it to a decorated Christmas tree. However, AI-generated elements are also clearly visible here.

The animals look artificial, with detailed but unevenly distributed fur and poorly rendered small elements.

The characters display overly exaggerated emotions — a typical hallmark of AI animation.

A behind-the-scenes video shows how multiple design variations were generated using AI tools, along with technologies resembling Photoshop Generative Fill.

AI ads gone wrong: How global brands embarrass themselves This panda image is clearly not real, but it features AI-typical elements: unnatural shine and a plastic texture (photo: CNET)

Widespread adoption of AI in marketing

Experts note a growing use of generative AI in creative fields, especially over the past year. According to the Canva Marketing and AI 2025 report, 94% of marketers have a dedicated AI budget, and three-quarters expect it to increase. As a result, AI-generated content is appearing more frequently on social media.

The McDonald’s and Coca-Cola videos highlight all the controversial issues associated with AI, from visual quality to the normalization of automated content. The use of AI in advertising has become virtually inevitable, with companies continuing to adopt it despite negative audience reactions.

AI ads gone wrong: How global brands embarrass themselves At the bottom of the image, it can be seen that the Coca-Cola truck videos were created using the AI model Veo 3 (photo: CNET)

Coca-Cola openly acknowledged AI use

The only successful move by Coca-Cola was admitting at the start of the video that it was created using AI. Using AI in content creation is acceptable, but hiding it is not. Labels indicating AI-generated content help the audience understand what they are seeing: real footage or artificial content. Many social media platforms already allow adding such labels when posting.

Transparency is critical: as AI-generated content becomes nearly indistinguishable from real, the audience must receive accurate information about its origin.

Impact on the labor market

The use of AI in advertising affects real people. Campaigns could have been created with the involvement of animators, designers, and illustrators, which would have improved the quality of the ads. Job losses due to AI raise concerns, especially in the creative industry. For businesses, AI is attractive because of its efficiency and cost reduction, as seen with Amazon, where thousands of employees were laid off.

Normalization of AI in marketing

The holiday ads from McDonald’s and Coca-Cola show how AI is becoming standard in advertising. Companies continue to adopt generative technologies despite negative user reactions. Experts emphasize the importance of paying attention to such cases so that audiences understand the consequences of widespread AI use in content.

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