Coca-Cola's AI Ad gets backlash online while having high ratings

Coca-Cola's “Holidays Are Coming” ad for 2025 is stirring up quite the conversation. On one hand, tech enthusiasts, creatives, and a wave of social media comments are labeling it as “soulless,” “sloppy,” and even “creepy.” A quick look at the feedback reveals a striking contrast: the official upload has racked up about 30,000 dislikes compared to just 2,300 likes using the Return YouTube Dislike extension.

On the flip side, ad-testing firm System1 has rated this very same ad, a perfect 5.9 out of 5.9 stars for emotional impact and brand growth – that’s their highest score! This aligns with how last year’s AI-driven Christmas spot performed with mainstream audiences, showing a stark difference in perception.

This divide is playing out against a backdrop that feels all too familiar. Coca-Cola has found itself in another AI-related controversy this year. The company unveiled a new take on its beloved Christmas ad, once again crafted with generative AI. It features the same iconic red trucks, the familiar jingle, and that big festive moment we all know. However, this time, the ad has become a live experiment to see just how far brands can go with AI while tapping into nostalgia before viewers start to push back.

Last year’s AI-led Christmas film set the stage for this. Viewers tore into the 2024 spot for its rubbery, slightly creepy people and those infamous trucks that seemed to glide across the snow without their wheels really turning. For many long-term fans, it was as if a treasured live-action holiday tradition had been replaced by something chilly, automated and slightly unnerving.

This year’s version sees Coke eager to demonstrate that it has learned from last year’s misstep. Reports from The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, and various ad-industry sources align on the essentials: the familiar “Holidays Are Coming” theme is back, but this time, the focus shifts heavily to animals – think polar bears, playful woodland creatures, even a panda and a sloth. Human faces take a back seat, and that’s intentional, aimed at sidestepping the uncanny valley problem that plagued the 2024 ad.

The trucks have received a makeover as well: they now feature more detail, with wheels that genuinely look like they’re gripping and rolling through the snow instead of just gliding above it.

Behind the scenes, Coke has turned the entire production into a showcase of A.I. capabilities. The company collaborated with San Francisco studios Silverside and Secret Level, along with creative agency Pereira O’Dell, utilizing tools like OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo 3, and Luma AI. Over the course of a month, they produced more than 70,000 AI video clips, which were then trimmed down into two “Holidays Are Coming” films for about 140 countries.

Officially, Coke is promoting this pipeline as a way to streamline production and compete on cost with traditional filmmaking. However, one climate/tech publication quoted a spokesperson stating that this campaign “basically cost as much” as a typical production, undermining the narrative that A.I. is a cheaper alternative.

On the record, the company is selling all of this as “human-led, AI-assisted” work so as to avoid talking about whether it’s going to replace salaried reporters. Executives like global generative AI lead Pratik Thakar keep emphasizing that human creatives are setting the story, tone — everything! — and that AI is just the tool for quickening images and multiplying visual potential. Coke is describing this internally as a fundamental shift in how it produces ads, not a one-off stunt.

Online reactions seem pretty much the same as last year. Tech site The Verge calls the new spot a sloppy eyesore. They point to shots where the visual style jumps around. Some animals look strangely squishy or half finished. Business Insider zooms in on frame to frame glitches. Trucks subtly change shape in those. There are little continuity slips too. Even a moment shows a truck veering toward a crowd briefly. They use that as a clear example of what AI video still struggles with. It has trouble keeping everything consistent over time.

Lifestyle and entertainment coverage focuses more on the mood than the tech side. People and other outlets note that many viewers call the ad soulless. They compare it to older Coke Christmas campaigns. The familiar song and snowy town still hit for some. But a lot of people feel the heart has shifted away from real actors and real sets. It moves closer to a slick generative AI demo instead.

Here is the twist though. Away from the angry threads and quote tweets, the numbers suggest the campaign does exactly what Coke wants. System1 testing shows the 2025 spot at 5.9 out of 5.9 stars. That is a near perfect score. In its model, it points to strong long term brand growth. It matches the high marks from last year's AI Christmas ad. This suggests it is not just a one off fluke. 

Inside the production camp, Jason Zada has put it in blunt terms during interviews. He founded Secret Level. The haters on the internet are the loudest ones. But the spot tested really well. In his view, average people really enjoyed it.

If you zoom out a bit, you see why this one campaign keeps turning into a headline. Generative AI is already estimated to be involved in around 30 percent of video ads this year. Forecasts push that toward 40 percent over the next couple of years. Brands watch closely to see what happens. They want to know the results when you do not just use AI for small bits and background work. Instead, you use it for a marquee emotional moment like a Coca Cola Christmas ad.

That is where the disconnect comes from. Two different groups watch two different things really. Creatives and tech writers zero in on the glitches. Online power users focus on the style clashes too. They notice the way AI compresses what used to be huge live action productions. It squeezes them into a smaller more automated pipeline. For them, the Coke spot symbolizes jobs at risk. It shows craft being pushed aside in a way.

For most people catching the ad between TV segments or as a pre roll, things stay simpler. They see red trucks and snow. Animals appear along with the Coke logo and a familiar song. If that combination lights up nostalgia and feels like it is Christmas, they respond to the feeling. They do not worry about the production workflow. They ignore whether Sora or Veo was involved. 

That is why this campaign matters more than just another Coke commercial. It serves as an early test. How much AI can you move from the background into the center of peoples nostalgic moments. You do that before they start to push back. If an ad gets called soulless all week on the internet, it can still do its job for the brand, what’s really going to count as failure in the age of AI?