Coca-Cola's latest holiday advertisement, a sequel to its 1995 classic, has once again put the spotlight on the growing pains of artificial intelligence in commercial filmmaking. The new campaign, titled "Holidays Are Coming," was produced with the AI firm Silverside AI, the same company behind last year's widely mocked AI-generated ad. The Wall Street Journal reported the collaboration, noting that the new spot was intended to evoke the nostalgia of the original, but early reactions suggest the technology's shortcomings remain hard to ignore.
Unlike last year's ad, where the focus was on stiff, lifeless human faces and malfunctioning truck wheels, this year's version largely avoids human features. Instead, the visuals are populated by a menagerie of animals, including polar bears and, unexpectedly, sloths—a choice that has puzzled viewers given the animals' lack of association with winter holidays. The only prominent human depiction is a close-up of Santa Claus, whose hyperrealistic grin and waving hand briefly distort into impossible shapes, a reminder of the technology's persistent glitches.
The ad's aesthetic, described as a "Thomas Kinkade-filter" landscape, features fluid yet weightless movement, with shots that lack cohesion. A behind-the-scenes video, narrated by what appear to be two AI voices, reveals that the production team "churned out" more than 70,000 video clips to assemble the final cut. The company emphasized that only five "AI specialists" and a month were needed, but the Wall Street Journal noted that around 100 people were involved in the campaign overall—a figure that undercuts the efficiency narrative.
Why the Backlash Persists
Critics argue that the ad's flaws are not just technical but also aesthetic. The choice of "hyperrealism" as a goal, as stated in the behind-the-scenes video, seems at odds with the warm, cozy feelings typically associated with holiday advertising. The result, they say, is a product that looks more like a tech demo than a polished commercial.
This year's release comes amid significant advances in AI video generation, including models like OpenAI's Sora 2 and Google's Veo 3. Yet Coca-Cola's ad, which was produced with Silverside AI, appears to lag behind these developments. Google's own AI-generated ad, which debuted last week using Veo 3, features only a few seconds of AI footage across disjointed shots, but its cartoonish style helps mask the technology's limitations.
The debate over AI in advertising is not new. Last year's Coca-Cola AI ad drew widespread mockery for its uncanny human faces and malfunctioning truck wheels. This year, the wheels spin correctly, but the absence of human faces—save for the distorted Santa—suggests the company may have lost confidence in the technology's ability to render people convincingly.
As AI tools become more sophisticated, the question remains whether they can meet the demands of professional filmmaking, where every frame must serve a narrative and emotional purpose. Coca-Cola's latest effort suggests that, for now, the gap between AI's capabilities and the expectations of audiences remains wide.