United StatesFood and restaurants2024 – ongoingThe Coca-Cola Company
AI-generated "Holidays Are Coming" Christmas ads
Coca-Cola's AI-made remake of its 1995 Christmas ad drew a backlash, and the company made another one the next year
Problem
Coca-Cola's "Holidays Are Coming" spot, first aired in 1995 with real trucks and actors, is one of its best-known seasonal campaigns. The company had used generative AI in advertising since 2023 and describes AI as central to a company-wide marketing transformation.
Approach
In November 2024 Coca-Cola released AI-generated versions of the ad made by three AI studios, Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card, using four generative AI models. After criticism that the films looked soulless and replaced artists, the company defended them as a collaboration between human storytellers and AI. In November 2025 it released a new AI-generated spot from Secret Level that showed animals instead of AI-generated human faces.
Results
Takeaway
The backlash did not stop the program: Coca-Cola repeated the format a year later and its head of generative AI said the company would accept some criticism if most consumers responded well. The company has published no sales or brand figures for either ad; the production saving cited is the studio founder's own estimate.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Food and restaurants
- Business function
- Marketing and sales
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Co-developed with a partner
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
NBC News reports the online backlash to the AI-made remake of the 1995 ad, with users calling it "soulless" and artists objecting to AI replacing human work. Citing Forbes, it says three studios made the films with four generative AI models, and notes the video had passed 56 million views. A Coca-Cola spokesperson defended the ads as a collaboration between human storytellers and generative AI.
TechRadar's AI writer criticizes the 2024 remake, a short AI-generated spot set to run in the UK in place of the original. He notes the ad avoids showing Santa's face and reports a Coca-Cola executive's statement that consumers "loved" the ad in pre-release testing.
Coca-Cola hired Secret Level again for a 2025 AI holiday ad featuring animals, alongside a second AI version by Silverside and a conventionally shot one for some markets. Pratik Thakar, the company's head of generative AI, says the craftsmanship has improved and the company will go ahead if most consumers react well. The studio's founder estimates the spot took about 20 people, against at least 50 for a comparable traditional ad.
Full details are in the original sources.
