Copyright TODAY
Coca-Cola is doubling down on AI. On Nov. 3, Coca-Cola released its latest “Holidays Are Coming” ads on YouTube, and for the second year in a row, some of them are generated with artificial intelligence. The pair of commercials look similar to animated films but were created by two “AI studios” — Silverside and Secret Level — and feature familiar themes for the company. In one AI ad, animals like seals, rabbits, porcupines and puppies look in awe as big rigs roll through towns that magically transform into festive scenes. The second AI ad features personified meerkats in sweaters and foxes in peacoats. In both ads, Santa Claus appears to bestow ice-cold soda to the masses. They’re part of a full holiday campaign that features various types of production, including an ad that employs the 1970 hit “Feliz Navidad” with human actors and traditional computer animation made by WPP OpenX, led by VML. Last year, the soda giant dropped its first AI-generated holiday commercials. They were largely poorly received, with negative feedback flooding their comments sections. Pratik Thakar, global VP and head of generative AI at Coca-Cola, says this year’s ads were guided by “human storytellers” who oversaw the direction to ensure the story stayed “authentic and emotionally resonant.” “Coca-Cola embraces innovation with AI-powered storytelling, bringing beloved holiday traditions and new festive narratives to life,” Thakar tells TODAY.com. “Our new and refreshed ‘Holidays are Coming’ adverts blend our heritage with modern innovation, demonstrating a unique collaboration of human creativity and cutting-edge generative AI.” But, perhaps predictably, the ads are garnering a similar response to last year’s on social media. Here are some examples of comments: “It’s immediately forgettable.” “The funny thing is, if Santa was real, I don’t think he’d support AI generated videos/advertisements. Santa is the essence of joy and creativity, this lacks all of that.” “2025 ai slop cheap coca cola commercial, you will *never* be 1990’s festively warm and comforting coca cola christmas commercial” “Soulless.” “Sure, looks better than last years. But I miss the ads that pulled at the heartstrings. I want to tear up watching any Christmas ad. This look won’t ever achieve that.” There are, however, a few fans of the ad: “Love love! Nice use of AI & much better than last year.” “Great AI art. Much better than the stuff ‘artists’ make.” Coca-Cola also posted a behind-the-scenes video showing the process behind the commercials. “It really feels like this work is, you know, actively shaping how storytelling is evolving,” Silverside says in one BTS clip. “It shows Coca Cola really reimagining the creative workflow, especially in this AI era.” The voiceover says the style the company was going for was “super expressive” with “hyperrealism” and “really cinematic scenes,” and that “five specialists … managed to churn out and carefully refine over 70,000 video clips” in 30 days. “Combining human creativity with AI to turbocharge expression and imagination, giving creatives more freedom, speed and control than ever before,” it adds. But the BTS video received a similarly negative response: “AI Slop is coming, AI Slop is coming! 🎵🎶” “Jeez, this is dystopian.” “As Miyazaki said: This is an insult to life itself.” “theyre acting like this is something they should be proud of.” Despite the naysayers, however, the company is moving full steam ahead with AI, like a big rig full of cola. “The evolution of this kind of technology has allowed us to enhance our films and fine-tune our storytelling to create a piece of content that our customers are receptive to and that they will engage with,” Thakar says. “Last year’s film performed exceptionally well and was a success with customers which is what matters most to us.”
