AI, Ads, and Outrage: Coca-Cola’s Holiday Backlash

When Coca-Cola asked Secret Level founder Jason Zada to reimagine its beloved "Holidays Are Coming" commercial using AI, he knew it was a milestone moment. But he also knew it would be controversial. "AI has a bad PR problem," Zada says, and the backlash that followed proved his point. The spot featured adorable animated animals—sea lions in San Francisco, koalas in Australian eucalyptus trees, rabbits in Amsterdam's canals—gathering to watch the iconic Coca-Cola truck roll by. Audiences who didn't know it was AI loved it. But once the label was attached, the outrage began.

The Misconception About AI and Craft

Zada pushes back hard on the idea that AI work is easy or lazy. "People think it's super easy, that it is just pushing a button," he says. "I would argue that it's actually more work—it would be easier to go out and shoot something than to do it in AI these days, just because of the level of detail you have to put into it." He describes AI as "a bit like a slot machine" in terms of getting what you really want. The Coca-Cola spot required a team of 20-plus people working frame by frame, often pixel by pixel, to shape characters, their gestures, their wardrobes, and their personalities. Traditional illustrators and animators worked within the AI tools to produce every frame. "It is craft," Zada insists. "There is a