Coca-Cola has released new AI-generated holiday advertisements, which took around one month to produce compared to one year for traditional campaigns. As the company pushes ahead with the technology despite criticism over potential job losses in the creative industries, it is notable that the new ads were created in a significantly shorter timeframe.
The drinks giant declined to comment on the cost of the campaign, which includes two different commercials created by two artificial intelligence studios that will air in approximately 140 countries, reports the Wall Street Journal. Chief Marketing Officer Manolo Arroyo said it was cheaper and faster to produce than a typical non-AI production.
“Before, when we were doing the shooting and all the standard processes for a project, we would start a year in advance,” Arroyo said. “Now, you can get it done in around a month.”
Only five AI specialists were needed to prompt, produce, and refine more than 70,000 video clips to create Silverside’s holiday advertisement for Coke, according to a behind-the-scenes film. Around 100 people worked on the new holiday campaign across Coca-Cola, its advertising agency WPP and the AI creative studios Silverside and Secret Level, a number on par with the AI-free productions of the past, the company said.
Wheels turning properly
The new “Holidays Are Coming” commercials address some technical issues from last year’s AI-generated advertisements, which drew criticism from creative professionals. The wheels of the red delivery trucks now appear to turn properly rather than gliding, whilst the shiny-faced humans of 2024 have been replaced with an expanded host of animals.
Animator and writer Alex Hirsch responded to last year’s AI advertisements by declaring that Coca-Cola is “red because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists”. Retailer Aerie has made its rejection of AI in photos and videos a public relations campaign.
However, 30 per cent of connected-TV commercials, social videos, and online videos this year are being built or enhanced using generative AI tools, up from 22 per cent in 2023, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That figure is expected to rise to 39 per cent in 2026, according to the bureau’s prediction.
Consumer sentiment towards AI in advertisements is shifting. Some 46 per cent of consumers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia said they are not OK with AI in ads, down from 49 per cent a year earlier, according to a January poll from research company Attest.
Coke’s 2024 holiday advertisements scored very highly among regular consumers, according to System1, a UK-based company that tests the effectiveness of advertisements, suggesting people either did not know or did not care about the use of AI.
Employees aged 20 to 24, who tend to fill junior roles and internships, are already disappearing from the advertising industry due to the adoption of AI, as well as the consolidation of firms and weaker revenues, according to an Adweek analysis of US labour data. Chief Executive James Quincy said on an October earnings call that Coca-Cola will restructure its workforce next year as it incorporates more AI and agent-based technology.
