There’s nothing like heading home for the holidays. But if that home happens to be generated by artificial intelligence, controversy is sure to follow.
Coca-Cola became the latest major brand on the receiving end of backlash for its use of AI in its marketing, catching heat for this year’s technology-fueled remake of its classic 1995 spot, “Holidays Are Coming.”
The 30-second spot features people walking through the streets in scarves and knit hats, holding bottles of Coke, while big red Coca-Cola trucks drive past, and deer, polar bears, and other animals frolic in the snow.
A second spot dives deeper into the animal universe, adding cats, monkeys, and owls to the mix.
As AI technology has become both more sophisticated and easier to access, artists and creative professionals have expressed concerns about their jobs being replaced by AI, and about AI models being trained on their work while they receive no compensation or credit.
The new Coke spot only added more carbonation to the bubbling outcry.
Alex Hirsch, creator of Disney comedy series Gravity Falls, wrote on X, “FUN FACT: @CocaCola is ‘red’ because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists! #HolidayFactz.”
Megan Cruz, host of podcast The Broad Perspective, chimed in, “This is always what (AI) was going to be used for btw. It’s not some great equalizer. It’s a way for already massively wealthy execs to add a few more mil to their annual bonuses by cutting creative teams entirely & having a machine vomit up the most boring slop imaginable instead.”
And Canadian voice actor KJ Burbank lamented, “Coca Cola using AI for an ad is genuinely so terrifying to me. Art is dying. Actors, replaced. Camera workers, replaced. Drivers, replaced. Designers, replaced. Soulless. This is affecting EVERYONE now. Whether you want to accept that or not. It’s going too far.”
