- Coca-Cola’s holiday commercial, “The Holiday magic is coming.” was made using the company’s AI platform, Real Magic AI.
- Real Magic AI works similarly to image generator DALL-E and grants artists access to Coca-Cola archive assets.
- Coca-Cola debuted its first artificial intelligence-generated commercial last year.
Coca-Cola’s annual holiday commercial has dropped, but many consumers and artists aren’t thrilled with its artificial-intelligence production.
Coca-Cola launched its holiday commercial, “The Holiday Magic is coming.” on Monday. The 30-second video is a tribute to the company’s 1995 holiday commercial, “Holidays Are Coming.” Both commercials feature Coca-Cola trucks, decked out in holiday lights, brightening up the world around them. While human actors “light up” in excitement in the ’95 commercial, AI-generated polar bears snuggle up in an igloo in the latest rendition.
The holiday commercial was created using Real Magic AI, Coca-Cola’s artificial intelligence platform powered by OpenAI. The platform, which functions similarly to image generator DALL-E, allows artists to access Coca-Cola archives for their projects.
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AI backlash: Artists, consumers question Coca-Cola’s intent
Several artists have taken to social media this week to share their views on the advertisement.
Alex Hirsch, creator of Disney’s television series, “Gravity Falls,” commented on an X (formerly Twitter) post of the commercial, “FUN FACT: (Coca-Cola) is ‘red’ because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists! #HolidayFactz.”
The post garnered more than 631,000 views, as of Thursday morning.
Of its social media platforms, Coca-Cola only posted the advertisement on its YouTube channel. The more than 1,300 comments on the video largely display aversion.
The top comments read, “Pepsi, now is your chance to make a live action ad bashing on Coke for using AI” and, “Nothing like celebrating the spirit of Christmas with the most soulless commercial possible.”
In response to the advertisement, Shelly Palmer, a professor of advanced media in residence at Syracuse University, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that it “truly sucks.” He compared the video to the 2004 film, “The Polar Express” on “bad acid.”
“In practice, Coke wasn’t breaking new creative ground; they were trying to use technology to reduce production costs and see if they could figure out how to save millions of dollars on what would otherwise be a multi-million dollar animation project,” Palmer wrote. “It turns out that in 2024 … you can’t. Maybe this will be possible in 2025 or 2026, but not today.”
In a statement shared with USA TODAY on Friday, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said:
“The Coca-Cola Company has celebrated a long history of capturing the magic of the holidays in content, film, events and retail activations for decades around the globe. We are always exploring new ways to connect with fans and experiment with different approaches. This year, we crafted films through a collaboration of human storytellers and the power of generative AI. Coca-Cola will always remain dedicated to creating the highest level of work at the intersection of human creativity and technology.”
Others express excitement over the holiday commercial
Some expressed excitement about the commercial.
Chris Barber, an AI developer at Silverside AI, shared a slightly different, shorter version of the Coca-Cola commercial on X. In his post and an accompanying reply, Barber said Coca-Cola commissioned three artificial intelligence partners to create and pitch the advertisement. Silverside AI was one of the partners.
A Coca-Cola spokesperson confirmed that the company collaborated with three partners − Silverside AI, SecretLevel and The Wild Card − to create three different advertisements, which are being shown in different media formats globally.
Barber’s video attracted more than 18.4 million views as of Thursday morning. Several X users took to the video’s comments to share their distaste for the use of artificial intelligence in advertising. One comment stated, “I hate it. AI has no place in creativity.”
In response, Barber replied, “All good that you don’t like it, but I do think there is room for AI in creativity when these tools are used in conjunction with human vision and emotion.”
Not Coca-Cola’s first AI endeavor
“The Holiday Magic is coming.” is not Coca-Cola’s first advertisement made using artificial intelligence. Last year, the company released “Coca-Cola Masterpiece,” which launched the Real Magic AI platform.
The nearly two-minute video features a Coca-Cola bottle flying through an art gallery, “falling” into different famous artworks, including Vincent Van Gogh’s “Bedroom in Arles” and Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
The video received mainly positive feedback. One of the top comments on the “Coca-Cola Masterpiece” YouTube video on Thursday morning read, “This is so much better than that Christmas ad. This is actually good.”
Other companies dip into AI waters
Coca-Cola may be getting recent heat for its use of artificial intelligence, but it’s not the first company to utilize the technology.
Last year, Toys ‘R’ Us released its own advertisement made with artificial intelligence, featuring the company’s founder, Charlies Lazarus, as a child. The commercial sparked controversy for its inconsistencies, as Lazarus’ boyhood character appears a bit different in each new shot.
Perhaps a more widely accepted use of artificial intelligence was in Nike’s eight-minute tribute to tennis player Serena Williams. The project, “Never Done Evolving,” used archival footage of Williams and artificial intelligence to generate more than 130,000 games of 2017 Williams playing against her younger, 1999 self. The project has received several awards since its release in 2022, including “Digital Craft: Curation of Data” from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a statement from Coca-Cola and clarify that Coca-Cola worked with three artificial intelligence partners on creating the holiday advertisement.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at [email protected].
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