What's Christmas without the iconic Coca-Cola commercials? Yet this year there is disappointment for fans and nostalgics: the company has decided to create the ads with generative artificial intelligence.
Three commercials produced in collaboration with three AI studios (Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card) pay homage to the company's famous 1995 "Holidays Are Coming" campaign.
The elements are apparently all there: the cherry-red Coca-Cola trucks that drive through the city at night on silent, snowy roads, the squirrels and rabbits that look out to peek at them, the polar bears wearing Christmas scarves and sweaters and the boy to whom Santa Claus hands a bottle of ice-cold Coke.
But all this with the superimposed writing: "Created by Real Magic AI". Commercials that did not convince users, who were not inclined to forgive those unnatural movements. And that on social media have poured a wave of criticism . "Coca-Cola has ruined Christmas, stuff like this only ruins the Christmas spirit", writes one of them. Others even call them "terrifying", "they make you feel uncomfortable".
“The Coca-Cola Company has a long history of celebrating holiday magic in content, films, and events around the world for decades,” a spokesperson told The New York Times. “This year, we created the spots through a collaboration between human storytellers and the power of generative artificial intelligence .”
“We’re keeping our roots in our heritage and what Coca-Cola stands for as a brand, but then we’re connecting the dots with the future and technology ,” Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s vice president and global head of generative AI for the company, told Ad Age in an interview. “ And that was kind of a starting point .”
(Unioneonline/D)