Coca-Cola's AI Ads and the Canyon of 'Meh'

Coca-Cola’s Christmas commercials are a holiday staple -  right up there with maxing out your credit card and involuntarily listening to Mariah Carey until your eardrums burst.

But lately, Coke’s been using AI to create their festive commercials and the response has been anything but jolly. Let's pop the top off the controversy and what it says about AI in advertising, shall we?

Coke’s AI Ads Trigger Consumer Outrage

For the second year in a row, Coca-Cola used AI to create an homage to its legendary 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” commercial. And just like last year, people hated it. Here’s why…

Firstly, people don’t like AI ads. Less than a quarter of US adults view them positively and just over a third say they’d be less likely to buy from brands that use them.

Beyond ads, public sentiment on AI is slipping overall. YouGov found the number of Americans who view AI negatively jumped from 34% to 47% in 2025 alone. 

Between fears of an AI bubble, job displacement and growing mistrust in Big Tech, pairing AI with the holidays feels cold and unappealing.

Sort of like seeing Mommy kissing Santa Claus…except Santa is a cyborg pleasure bot built to replace your father. Freaky, but not festive. Not that watching your parents kiss is festive, but you get the point....

Another reason people are upset is that Coke stepped on a classic. The original ’95 ad was created by Industrial Light & Magic - the FX team behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park. Sure, a truck covered in Christmas lights isn’t the apex of human creativity, but it was a genuine technical achievement from top-tier artists.

But the new ads look like something anyone could whip up in Sora - which, by the way, Coke actually used. 

This is Coke we’re talking about. The same company that popularized the modern Santa Claus.

You just don’t mess with a classic. Coke learned that the hard way once before.

The last and most obvious reason for the blowback from Coke’s AI ads is that they look plain bad. Inconsistent visual styles, soulless animals, and a truck that shape shifts more than a career politician. 

Coke tried to hide the glitches behind quick cuts to make the ad look passable, but no one was fooled. And that very pursuit of “good enough” is a microcosm of a much bigger issue in marketing right now...

How AI Content is Making Marketing "Meh"

Resorting to AI for frontline communication - your content, your ads, your messaging - has become the proverbial floor.

What began as a bottom-rung tactic for small operations that treat marketing as an afterthought is now a slippery slope of convenience, used and abused so heavily that it’s created a swelling landfill of mediocrity between crappy and genuinely great marketing. I call it the Canyon of "Meh.” 

It’s that middle zone where social posts, emails, web copy - everything - is cranked out with the same tools, making all the content blur together, devoid of any real brand or character. None of it’s actually good, but it’s “good enough.”

On one hand, it’s never been easier for great marketing to stand out. On the other, it’s never been easier for audiences to tune out.

To win, brands need to distance themselves from the Canyon of Meh and keep human connection at the heart of their marketing. Instead, Coke chose to swan dive into the Canyon, because, to quote their Chief Marketing Officer, it was “cheaper and speedier.” 

A cheaper and speedier move for Coke would’ve been to recirculate its classic holiday ads. That works well for M&M’s, Hershey’s and other cavity inducing brands.

But maybe Coke wasn’t aiming to win over hearts. Maybe it was aiming to be talked about. Afterall, why would they run it back with AI after last year’s uproar? 

If attention was the goal, Coke surely succeeded. Its ad has been the most talked about campaign of the Christmas season so far. It generated over 50,000 social posts and over one million engagements. The only catch is that 63% of it skews negative, and that number keeps climbing.

That’s not a shocker, AI ads are controversial. The next time you see an AI ad on social or YouTube, check the comments. You’ll notice the reaction is always overwhelmingly negative. To quote the great American band Fall Out Boy, “I don’t care what you think, as long as it’s about me.”

But here’s the thing: Using AI ads to get attention is a novelty tactic with as much lasting power as a pair of Temu headphones. As more brands use it, it becomes less controversial, less interesting, and way less effective.

AI's Place in Advertising

One of the biggest problems with leaning on AI-generated content is that it’s unimpressive and mediocre. Anyone can generate the same ads, the same visuals, the same forgettable messaging with the same relative ease - vibe marketers know the drill.

What actually stands out from this noise is fresh ideas, human connection, and craft - all the things you can't easily replicate. That’s the stuff classic ads are made from and that’s what great marketers will strive for to stay ahead of the curve and ahead of the Canyon. 

That’s not to say that AI has no place in advertising, it definitely does. It’s just far more useful under the hood - like using machine learning for targeting, analyzing performance data, and making campaign optimizations. But relying on it for your creative just misses the point, like using a compass as a paperweight.

For brands like Coke that choose this route, at best, your marketing will be benign and easy to overlook. At worst, you’ll drive off segments of your audience. Whether that risk is worth the reward, well…that’s up to you.

For McDonald's, it wasn't. Time will tell if Coca-Cola decides the same!