AI has taken over everything from maps to music to inventing futuristic novel technologies like scent teleportation to robots with varying levels of pushback from consumers and creators alike.
Coca Cola’s new ad has had an almost universally bad reception for their latest holiday ad that was created with AI video generators. The ad has been repeatedly described by viewers as ‘creepy, ‘uncanny’ and ‘soulless’.
Coca Cola are well known for their holiday ad that has run in variations of its original form since 1997, accompanied by the iconic song ‘holidays are coming.’ They are even credited for our modern interpretation of Santa Claus donning his iconic red outfit- previously depictions of old St Nick showed him in a green suit. All this has made Coca Cola also synonymous with the Christmas season.
One new version of the ad begins with AI generated vast natural landscapes followed by a selection of animals including a pufflin, polar bear and reindeer.
Somewhat ironically, some may say, as the generative energy needed for AI is contributing to massive emissions that exacerbate the loss of these natural freezing climes.
The ad then shows a fleet of the classic Coca Cola trucks moving from the snowy pine tree filled environment through a tunnel of Christmas lights to a more suburban landscape.
More animals then feature, including a labrador, an uncanny pair of squirrels that seem to blend into one another as well as three racoons in a tree.
The ad also then zooms out, showing the international space station. Then we’re back to, presumably the north pole, where a family of anthropomorphized polar bears in jumpers watch television in an igloo house.
An alternate version of the ad is even more uncanny, featuring three AI generated human beings as well as the hands of Father Christmas, notably not showing his face as is typical in the original ads.
So why have they messed with a classic advert and invested in AI technology to alter it?
European CMO Javier Meza said “We didn’t start by saying: ‘OK, we need to do this with AI'. The brief was, we want to bring Holidays Are Coming into the present, and then we explored AI as a solution to that.”
The Coca Cola team collaborated with three AI studios called Wild Card, Silverside AI and Secret Level which used generative AI tools including Runway, Leonardo and Luma as well as a specialized model called Kling for the complex human motion.
The ad was also generated by Coca Colas own Real Magic AI, an AI powered platform launched with OpenAI that utilized GPT4, Dall-E integrated with Coca Colas own creative assets.
Last year the platform was used to invite digital artists to design billboards, with the winners appearing in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus.
