AI-generated videos already proliferate on the internet — and now brands are getting in on it. Coca-Cola “reinvented” an old-school holiday-time ad using artificial intelligence, and to say it’s not exactly filling social media with good tidings of comfort and joy would be an understatement.
The video is a new spin on Coke’s “Holidays Are Coming” ad from the 1990s. The original ad features a fleet of Coke trucks decked out in Christmas lights, spreading the holiday spirit as they drive through a snowy town. A namesake song soundtracks the ad, proclaiming, “‘Tis the season, it’s always the real thing.”
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The ad has been reproduced before, such as this one from the UK and Ireland in 2020. This year, however, the company used AI to create a new version of “Holidays Are Coming”:
The concept is the same: Coke trucks come to town to bring the magic of the holiday season. These ads include generated animals, including polar bears, a famous Coke holiday symbol in their own right. Multiple versions of the AI-generated ad appear to exist.
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The ad is what you might come to expect from an AI-generated video: an unnatural sheen to everything, and features and movements looking slightly off. People online immediately expressed their dislike of the ad:
“This looks like a poor imitation of the typical Coca-Cola Xmas commercial,” X user Brenden Gallagher wrote:
“i feel like im watching the death of art and our planet unfold in front of my eyes and no one irl seems to care [sic],” wrote X user @MoistyJc:
“With this creepy AI spot, Coca-Cola can no longer claim ‘It’s always the real thing,'” wrote James Vargas-Maclean on X, calling for a Coke boycott:
Despite playing under shots of AI-generated Coke bottles, the song does still proclaim, “It’s always the real thing.”
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Artificial Intelligence