"It's the real thing', 'Make it real', 'Real magic'... For decades, authenticity has been the message at the heart of Coca-Cola's branding. But not for Christmas 2024, it seems. The brand's taken the risky move of updating its world-famous 'Holidays are Coming' advert with new adverts made entirely with artificial intelligence. And i'm genuinely shocked.
Originally launched in 1995, Holidays are Coming remains close to the top in our pick of the best Christmas adverts of all time. Featuring a convoy of Coca-Cola trucks passing through a snowy landscape, and backed up with on-site activations in the form of Coca-Cola truck tours, the advert has become so synonymous with Christmas that many people say they know the season's begun when they hear that Kingdom Choir soundtrack. So why risk ruining that?
Coca-Cola says it decided to remake the Holidays are Coming ad using AI to update it “to today’s times” (perhaps we could add 'on today's budgets'?). It appears that there may be multiple versions. The version above was posted by Coca-Cola Brazil, and while a lot of those commenting seem unfazed by the use of generative AI, others are disappointed.
"It's lost its emotion. AI still isn't good enough to deliver," one person responded in the comments on the Instagram post above. "You know the audiovisual industry is over when a multi-million dollar company is using artificial intelligence for a flagship Christmas campaign" someone else wrote about the ad on X.
AI imagery is everywhere, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. But this is Coca-Cola – and one of its most iconic campaigns. It seems like such an unnecessary and uncreative use of AI. No matter how massively AI video has improved in recent months, it still looks weird (and cheap). The shots of the dog and the polar bear in the new Coca-Cola Christmas ad look like experimental test footage from an early Meta Movie Gen research paper. If this is good enough for one of the world's biggest drinks brands, it lowers the standard for everyone.
There are other parts of the campaign that are more interesting. There's a website where users can create their own snow globe by telling an AI Santa about a magical Christmas memory. I couldn't get it to work, but it's at least a more interesting and interactive use of AI, following on from the AI greetings cards stunt last year.
Coca-Cola's also repeating last year's 'Anyone can be Santa' message. Although, for someone who grew up during the 'stranger danger' panic of the 1980s, the poster design below with shadowy Santas lurking behind the tagline looks more like a public safety ad than a message about spreading Christmas joy.
But the AI-generated Holidays are Coming advert feels like a step too far, especially when the original was such an iconic asset for Coca-Cola. Until now, major brands have generally steered clear of using AI-generated visuals as finished content. The few examples of AI-generated ads that we've seen have been creepy (see the terrible Toys R Us brand film), and have generated public backlashes.
Brands as diverse as Lego, the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Transport for Ireland have been 'AI shamed' in recent months. How can Coca-Cola now expect to be seen as 'the real thing' with an 'AI-generated' disclaimer on its ads?
