AI-Generated McDonald’s Christmas Ad Fails to Impress

If the holiday season is stressing you out, McDonald’s might just be the answer — at least, that’s the vibe from a now-removed AI-generated ad. Set to a tune that dubs the holiday season “the most terrible time of the year,” the ad features AI-created characters facing a series of winter mishaps, from chaotic family dinners to disastrous shopping trips, caroling gone wrong, cookie baking fails, and Christmas tree decorating disasters. It wraps up with a suggestion to “hide out in McDonald’s until January’s here.”

The ad, originally from McDonald’s Netherlands, has been taken down from YouTube but has resurfaced on various social media platforms, where it has drawn a wave of negative feedback. Viewers have criticized not only the use of AI but also the overall quality and message of the ad. This backlash isn’t surprising, especially in light of the mixed reactions to Coca-Cola’s recent AI-generated holiday campaign.

What sets the McDonald’s ad apart is its inclusion of human characters, unlike Coca-Cola’s animated critters. However, many of the people featured don’t make a second appearance, and some scenes are a bit off, such as one where a character falls while ice skating, only for their limbs to appear rubbery mid-fall.

In a LinkedIn post, The Gardening.club, the AI division of The Sweetshop, the studio behind the ad, revealed that it took them “seven intense weeks” to produce. They acknowledged that the effort involved was greater than that of a traditional production.

Melanie Bridge, CEO of The Sweetshop, echoed these sentiments in an Instagram post, stating, “The hours that went into this job far exceeded a traditional shoot. Ten people, five weeks, full-time. Blood, sweat, tears, and an honestly ridiculous amount of coaxing to get the models to behave and to honor the creative brief shot by shot.”