Coca-Cola Christmas Ad Controversy: Can AI Replace Human Creativity in Marketing?

Howdy, marketer! 

Coca-Cola has literally shaped how we visualize Santa Claus today with their 1930s ads featuring artist Haddon Sundblom's jolly, red-suited Santa. 

Coca-Cola standardized the warm, grandfatherly figure we all know, creating one of the most successful brand associations in history.

Fast forward to 1995, and they did it again with "Holidays Are Coming" - those glowing red trucks rolling through snowy landscapes, that infectious melody, that undeniable feeling that Christmas had officially begun.

For nearly 30 years, this ad has been nostalgic. The snowy Coca-Cola trucks became almost synonymous with Christmas. 

But lately, Coca-Cola has adapted AI in their ads, which received mixed reviews. 

Is this good? Is it bad? Do people really care that much, so long as they maintain the same brand identity?

Today's Treasure Trove

• About Coca-Cola

• What Happened with Coca Cola’s AI Gamble

• Why did Coca-Cola Run AI Ads?

• The Uncomfortable Questions Nobody's Asking

• Wrap Up:

About Coca-Cola

Some Stats:

• Instagram: 3.2 million followers 

• Twitter: 2.7 million followers

• YouTube: 4.7 million subscribers

Coca-Cola's target audience is remarkably broad, covering almost the entire socio-economic spectrum. The brand focuses particularly on young adults and Millennials aged 18 to 35, who are the heaviest consumers of fizzy drinks. 

Coca-Cola deliberately cultivates brand loyalty at an early age through campaigns in universities, schools, and colleges, while also offering products like Diet Coke for middle-aged and health-conscious consumers.

The brand's positioning has always been about authenticity and emotional connection. Every Coca-Cola ad is a celebration, not features or descriptions.

Their global reach means their Christmas campaign needs to resonate across cultures, age groups, and emotional expectations - a tall order even before adding AI to the mix.

What Happened with Coca Cola’s AI Gamble

In November 2024, Coca-Cola made a decision that split the marketing world down the middle. They recreated their beloved "Holidays Are Coming" ad using AI. 

The process was lightning-fast compared to traditional production, and cheaper too. But there was major backlash. Users called the ad "soulless" and "devoid of any actual creativity." Hollywood writer Alex Hirsch's comment went viral: 

Though the campaign generated high impressions on social media, much of that engagement came from people debating what was missing rather than celebrating what was new.

Then, in 2025, Coca-Cola doubled down. They released a new AI-generated holiday ad featuring animals instead of people - only Santa appears at the end, generated exclusively from archival paintings the company owns. 

Coca-Cola's global VP and head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, defended the approach, stating "the craftsmanship is ten times better" than last year's attempt.

They learned something from the backlash, but not enough to stop.

Why did Coca-Cola Run AI Ads?

This is a company with a brand value of nearly $100 billion and one of the sharpest marketing departments. So why risk their most sacred campaign on unproven technology?

First, the economics are undeniable. Traditional commercial production involves location scouts, film crews, actors, post-production teams, weather delays, permit costs. AI generation happens in days.

Second, Coca-Cola has always positioned itself at the intersection of tradition and innovation. So, using AI to recreate a beloved ad maintains the emotional core while embracing modern technology. 

Third, there's the attention economy. In a culture where Hollywood creators worry about AI takeover while audiences brace for synthetic media, an AI commercial at this level from one of the world's most dominant brands could serve as a litmus test for consumer appetite for AI video. And even negative attention is attention. 

But when your brand identity is built on authentic emotional moments, artificial intelligence feels like a contradiction. Aren’t holidays supposed to be about connection? Will AI ever be able to imitate that?

The Uncomfortable Questions Nobody's Asking

Does consumer research actually capture emotional erosion? 

Ratings on ads measure immediate response, but what about long-term brand perception? Does that retroactively damage the emotional connection?

What happens when AI becomes imperceptible? 

In five years, generated content might be indistinguishable from traditional production. At that point, does anyone care? Or does the knowledge that it's AI still taint the experience?

Is this about Christmas specifically? 

Would the backlash be different if Coca-Cola used AI for a summer campaign? There's something about Christmas - the one season marketed as authentic, traditional, and human - that makes AI feel particularly wrong. 

Wrap Up:

Coca-Cola is testing how much efficiency consumers will tolerate before emotional connection breaks. Social media is outraged but still watching.

Coca-Cola can probably get away with this because brand loyalty runs deep and behavioral change is hard. People will still buy Coke. The trucks will still roll. Christmas will still come.

But something intangible has been lost as this move ended up distancing rather than connecting. 

Maybe we're watching the slow erosion of what made Coca-Cola special in the first place: the willingness to invest in emotional authenticity, even when it's more expensive. Time will tell.

The holidays are coming. Whether they feel the same is up to you.

✌️,

Tom from Marketer Gems [LinkedIn]