The Dutch branch of McDonald's attempted to use artificial intelligence to create a Christmas advertisement but faced a real PR disaster. The ad titled 'The Worst Time of the Year', which was completely generated by neural networks, was quickly removed following a powerful negative reaction from viewers.
In the video, Santa Claus is stuck in traffic, and a cyclist with presents slips on the snow, trying to sell the idea to viewers: wait out the holiday troubles at McDonald's.
This ad ruined my Christmas mood.
AI does not replace creativity, but it can expand possibilities. And in this case, that was the case; there were 10 people working on the project for one and a half months.
After the cancellation of the ad, McDonald's explained: 'We wanted to show real situations that may occur during the holidays, but decided to stop airing due to viewer reactions.' Critics noted that the use of AI in such emotional scenes may not be a very successful move.
AI in Advertising
This incident once again emphasizes that even large companies can overestimate audience reactions to content created solely by AI, especially when it comes to traditional holiday themes like Christmas. The line between innovation and rejection turned out to be very thin.
At the same time, Coca-Cola, despite last year's failures, uses AI in its holiday advertising, but does so more carefully, showing cute computer-generated creatures without human involvement. The company again prefers advertising created using artificial intelligence for its new Christmas campaign 'Holidays Are Coming'.