Will the Coca-Cola ad deter brands from using AI in film?

If you spent any time on social media this week, you probably witnessed the backlash to Coca-Cola's 2024 Christmas ad. The brand has used the same ad since 1995, but this year, Coca-Cola sidestepped from its tried-and-tested formula to add AI-generated animals, faces, backgrounds, and a sleigh to match. 

2024 ad

As a result, the brand "cut through the noise" in a way it probably didn't expect to. YouTube comments described it as "soulless," and one X user called it "genuinely disappointing."

But the echo chamber of social media doesn't represent the general population. Dom Boyd, managing director at Kantar, who worked on the ad, said that in its testing, "the vast majority of people didn't notice the ad was AI-generated."

But what kind of precedent does this set for brands? Does it deter them from using AI in their ads? Or has Coca-Cola fired the starting gun?

Dom Boyd
Managing director, Kantar

Sometimes, the most interesting thing about a question isn’t what it asks but the assumptions it reveals.

For example, brands and marketers’ most important stakeholders—ordinary people outside of the marketing industry echo chamber who actually buy stuff—will notice that this ad is "AI" and, if they do, will give monkeys.

I can happily tell you that neither of the above is true because – full transparency – Kantar helped the Coca-Cola team develop and optimise this year’s Christmas ad. The people that matter most – Coca-Cola’s target audience – still enjoy it, feel good when they see it, and love the brand for it. Lots.

In fact, Kantar’s LINK [ad testing] shows that the vast majority of people didn’t notice the ad was AI generated (we asked), and the execution is one of the highest-performing this year for short-term sales potential. Because the tech isn’t the point. The starting brief was "How do we keep one of the most loved and effective brand-building campaigns of all time – 'Holidays are coming' —relevant?" Not "how do we do an AI ad?". AI simply became a tool to achieve that.

The result? There’s no big new idea or radical shift, no glossy new soundtrack. Just an instantly distinctive creative glass of pure Coca-Cola, fizzing with nostalgia, happiness and now zero sugar, too.

So if this ad deters other brands from using AI in film, more fool them. Because this is a brand-building masterclass.

And we’re all better off because of that.

Ant Nelson and Mike Sutherland
Executive creative directors, Adam & Eve/DDB

It’s not about how an ad is produced; it’s about how it’s perceived. And rightly or wrongly, AI ads are causing concern for some customers.

But I’d prefer to focus on another Coca-Cola ad, "Masterpiece", as a way forward. The campaign included elements of AI but was warmly received by the public. Partly because the use of AI felt integral to the idea but primarily because people saw it as adding to the creative process rather than replacing it. Having a mix of physical photography, CGI and GenAI felt balanced and worthwhile.  

I think that’s a lovely template for other brands to adopt.

Mark Graeme
Executive producer, Red Studios@ Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO

‘Tis the season, but I’m not sure it’s real. I don’t think this Coca-Cola ad will deter brands from broadly using AI for their needs, but from even a glimpse at consumer reaction, I suspect it may make brands think twice before using AI to reinterpret a TV classic.  It’s rare to have a much-loved, returning ad that holds a special place in consumers’ hearts and in their brand perception.  With nostalgia heavily in play here, the decision to modernise using AI is a somewhat strange production choice. Especially set against a line of "It’s always the real thing".  In amongst the artificiality, at least we can all agree that Santa’s real, right?

Sachini Imbuldeniya
Chief executive and founder, House of Oddities

The Coca-Cola ads do a brilliant job of exposing the limitations of AI. The tools are great, and when they are used to enhance genuine creativity, the results can be really effective. But these ads feel so off the mark and so badly judged.

Coca-Cola has a reputation for corporatising Christmas (there’s still an ongoing popular myth that it invented Santa’s red and white suit), but this uncanny valley mess is a step too far and rightly leaves audiences feeling colder than Rudolph’s love-conkers. That backlash is likely to put off many brands that are starting to dip their toes into the AI waters. 

Kim Lawrie
Group head of technology, The Beyond Collective

AI is great for the shortcuts it can create, but we’re seeing exactly what the problem is. It’s learning from the past and repeating. Where’s the creative leap? The connection? Is it anything more than something that feels like stock footage? Don’t get me wrong – the way that video and production have leapt forward in the past year is staggering. It’s a full, beautiful, polished ad, not Will Smith eating spaghetti in a Cronenberg tribute nightmare. 

But it’s that – and that only. Brands leaning into AI right now feel premature and gimmicky. It’s smoke and mirrors, and it’s universally disliked – no one wants to feel the connection we share with the rare brands we like to disappear into the mill of cheap procedural content. 

Who’s benefiting? Certainly not the customer. Not yet. Wise brands might choose to wait until the tech is synonymous with magic – invisible, not bizarre.