Why Coca‑Cola's latest AI ad is dividing fans online
What's the story
Coca-Cola has once again used artificial intelligence (AI) to create its Christmas ad for 2025. The company had faced criticism last year for three AI-generated holiday commercials with unrealistic elements. Despite the backlash, Coca-Cola has launched another AI Christmas campaign that many are calling visually jarring. The latest ad, titled Holidays Are Coming, features a cast of various animals to sidestep issues around generating realistic humans.
Animation flaws
Ad's animation style has been heavily criticized
The new Coca-Cola ad has been criticized for its inconsistent animation style, switching between realism and a cartoonish look. The polar bears, panda, and sloth in the commercial move unnaturally. This has led to comparisons with AI videos created by tools like OpenAI's Sora 2 or Google's Veo 3, which are far more advanced than the ones used in this Coke ad.
Production details
Coca-Cola collaborated with 2 AI studios for the ad
Coca-Cola collaborated with Silverside and Secret Level, two AI studios that previously worked on the 2024 Coke Christmas ads. The company did not disclose the cost of its new holiday campaign but revealed that around 100 people were involved in it. This number is similar to its older AI-free productions. Five "AI specialists" from Silverside also contributed by prompting and refining over 70,000 AI video clips for this project.
Industry concerns
Concerns about AI replacing human jobs in creative industry
The rapid advancement of AI tools to replace manual work done by creative professionals has raised concerns about future employment opportunities. Google has also launched its first fully AI-generated commercial this year, claiming that consumers don't really care if ads are created using the technology. Despite past issues with previous campaigns, Coca-Cola is fully embracing its use in advertising.
Cost efficiency
AI ads are cheaper and faster to produce
Coca-Cola's Chief Marketing Officer Manolo Arroyo told The Wall Street Journal that its latest holiday campaign was cheaper and faster to produce than traditional production methods. He said, "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."