Generative AI is rewriting the rules of marketing, and major brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are wasting no time jumping aboard. Over the past year, both companies released high-profile AI-generated commercials and the reaction hasn’t been pretty. In fact, many viewers say the ads are unsettling, sloppy, or downright nauseating.
Yet the trend is accelerating.
A Coca-Cola holiday ad built entirely with generative AI sparked harsh criticism for its uncanny visuals and awkward character movements. McDonald’s Netherlands followed with a 45-second AI Christmas spot from TBWA\Neboko, a rapidly cut montage of AI scenes that lost continuity every few seconds. For many viewers, it felt more like a fever dream than festive marketing.
But here’s the real twist: despite public backlash, brands are doubling down on AI for advertising.
Why? Because behind the scenes, AI commercials offer enormous strategic advantages. And whether audiences like it or not, this is the direction global marketing is heading.
Why Companies Are Moving Toward AI Commercials
Here are my personal thoughts on why the shift is happening and why it’s only going to grow from here.
Today it looks odd seeing an AI commercial, but in the future almost every ad or social media creative you see will be AI-made. It will be nearly impossible to tell what is real and what is artificial. This isn’t a prediction it’s the path we’re already on.
1. AI makes commercials dramatically faster
Traditional ad shoots require actors, location scouting, lighting crews, editors, reshoots, color grading, and endless approvals. A single 30-second spot can take weeks.
AI compresses that entire workflow into hours.
For companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola that publish hundreds of campaigns every year, the math is simple: Faster output = faster marketing cycles = more revenue.
2. AI makes commercials cheaper
With AI commercials, you don’t have to hire actors, book expensive locations, or build detailed sets with crews tossing fake snow to create a Christmas scene. Brands save a huge amount of money while still delivering the same message and running the same advertisement just without the heavy production costs.
Instead, a small team can generate low-cost visuals that still deliver a big message. The savings are massive sometimes millions per campaign.
3. Hyper-personalized ads
AI allows brands to create personalized variants at a scale that was previously unimaginable.
With AI, McDonald’s or Coca-Cola can generate:
- A different ad for each city
- Local languages
- Culturally tailored storylines
- Region-specific pricing
- Versions for festivals or events
This level of targeting was impossible — or unaffordable — a decade ago.
4. Infinite creative variations (sky is the limit)
AI gives brands the ability to explore concepts that would be too expensive or impractical to film.
Coca-Cola has already shown this with ads featuring fantasy-style worlds, dreamlike animals, and surreal sequences wrapped around a Coke bottle. With AI, Brands can test 50 concepts, scrap 40, and publish the best winners all within days. No live-action studio can compete with that creative velocity.
5. AI reduces risk
This is a major reason big brands are experimenting aggressively.
You might have heard that McDonald’s pulled down its AI-generated holiday ad after widespread mockery, yet it didn’t lose a dime.
If a traditional advertisement flops, the brand may have already spent $300,000–$500,000 on production. With AI, the losses are negligible.
AI lets companies:
- Prototype ideas
- Test audience reactions
- Remove campaigns instantly
- Rework them at minimal cost
It’s experimentation without financial pain.
6. AI commercials get more attention
In marketing, controversy is exposure.
You must have heard the old line: All publicity is good publicity. The same applies to AI ads today.
McDonald’s disastrous AI commercial went viral because people were mocking it, yet the brand received free publicity for days.
Similarly, Coca-Cola’s “Create Real Magic” campaign exploded online because the visuals felt new, strange, and futuristic.
Even when the comments are negative, brands still win visibility.
7. AI allows real-time adaptation
This is where AI beats human production teams by a mile. If:
- A new meme trend explodes
- A competitor launches a surprise discount
- A pop-culture moment goes viral
…McDonald’s or Coca-Cola can generate a fresh ad within hours.
Traditional studios simply cannot match that speed.
What Went Wrong With Today’s AI Ads?
The technology is advancing fast but it’s not perfect.
Coca-Cola’s AI holiday ad
In 2024, Coca-Cola embraced AI for its holiday commercial and reposted the same AI-created content in 2025 despite overwhelming negativity.
Many viewers felt the ad was sloppy, overly artificial, and uncanny but still better constructed than other AI attempts. Coca-Cola seems proud of it, signaling that the company believes AI ads have long-term potential despite current criticism.
McDonald’s AI ad disaster
McDonald’s Netherlands released an AI Christmas spot that became infamous within days.
The ad was:
- A visual seizure
- Packed with grotesque AI characters
- Distracting in its color grading
- Full of physics glitches AI still struggles with
- Human legs kept disappearing
Most reactions boiled down to: “More like the most terrible ad of the year.”
The backlash was so loud that McDonald’s removed the video from its official YouTube channel and later called it “an important learning experience” about the effective use of AI.
This combination of public ridicule and corporate optimism underscores a crucial truth:
AI ads today may be messy, but companies believe the future rewards outweigh the temporary awkwardness.
McDonald's has released an AI-generated Christmas ad
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) December 8, 2025
The studio behind it says they 'hardly slept' for several weeks while writing AI prompts and refining the shots — 'AI didn't make this film. We did'
Comments have been turned off on YouTube pic.twitter.com/Es5ROvI7n2
The Bottom Line: AI Advertising Isn’t Going Away
The shift toward AI commercials is not a fad it’s a structural transformation of the advertising industry.
Brands aren’t choosing AI because it looks good today. They’re choosing it because it will be unstoppable tomorrow.
Faster production, lower costs, personalization at scale, creative flexibility, risk-free experimentation, viral potential, and real-time adaptability all push companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola toward AI-first marketing.
Yes, the current ads may feel strange, unsettling, or even laughably bad. But so did early CGI in movies. So did early digital photography.
History is clear:
What feels uncanny today becomes the industry standard tomorrow.
And in a few years, you won’t just be watching AI commercials — you won’t even realize they’re AI.
