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Coca-Cola Sparks Backlash With New, Entirely AI-Generated Holiday 2025 Ad, Insists ‘The Genie Is Out of the Bottle, and You’re Not Going to Put It Back In’

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Coca-Cola has sparked a backlash with its new, entirely AI-generated Holiday 2025 ad, but has insisted “the genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in.”

The advert, below, was created by Los Angeles-based AI studio Secret Level, and features the trademark Coca-Cola trucks, ‘Holidays are Coming’ chant, wide-eyed animals, and, at the end, Santa Claus — all drenched in that generative AI shine.

Coca-Cola, currently valued at a market cap of $292.38 billion, is all in on generative AI, having released its first ever Coke ad co-created by AI in 2023, then a Christmas ad created entirely by generative AI in 2024. Despite a significant backlash to last year’s advert, the company has created yet another AI Christmas ad, but this time, it boasted, with even fewer humans involved — 20 down from 50.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Pratik Thakar, global vp and head of generative AI at Coca-Cola, said that while people criticized the “craftmanship” of last year’s ad, the craftsmanship this time around is “10 times better.”

Jason Zada, Secret Level’s founder and chief creative officer, said: “The haters on the Internet are the loudest. A lot of the people complaining last year were from the creative industry who were just afraid — afraid for their jobs, afraid for what it did. But I think the spot tested really well and average people really enjoyed it.”

Thakar added: “Last year we decided to go all in, and it worked out well for us… Yes, some parts of the industry were not pleased we were using a 100% generative AI film, but that’s part and parcel of doing something pioneering.

“We understand that concern. But we need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope.

“The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in.”

Those comments and the ad itself have sparked a backlash online, with many pointing out that Coca-Cola’s marketing slogan “it’s always the real thing” feels out of place inside an advert made by generative AI.

Alex Hirsch, who created TV show Gravity Falls, taking to social media to say: “‘The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in’ — your boss firing you on Christmas.”

Others were quick to hit out at the ad. “Flexing that you put even more people out of a job is CRAZY, especially when this isn’t some metaphorical genie and is a technology forcing slop onto people,” said X / Twitter user @captaincupkicks.

“This unarguably looks like shit, so it’s very funny the only defense anyone can come up with is ‘well, I mean it’s the future and all that,’” added @regularaugust.

“You can literally see the characters from ZOOTOPIA and SING! in this,” said @unikunka. “F***ing artistic grand theft.”

“What the f**k does a genie bottle have to do with you being purposefully lazy about your commercials?” asked @TheJakeneutron.

“The best ad I’ve ever seen for Pepsi,” one viewer said of the advert on the official Coca-Cola YouTube channel, which, interestingly, left the comments on.

The use of generative AI to create videos both commercial and non-commercial is one of the hottest topics in all entertainment. OpenAI’s recent Sora 2 app, for example, has caused significant controversy after it was used to flood social media with videos containing depictions of copyrighted characters including those from popular anime and game franchises such as One Piece, Demon Slayer, Pokémon, and Mario. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called Sora 2 videos using copyrighted characters “interactive fan fiction.”

And in September, SAG-AFTRA issued a strongly worded statement in response to the emergence of Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actress” that has enraged Hollywood.

Photo illustration by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].