Coca-Cola once again used artificial intelligence generation technology to reshape its iconic **"Coca-Cola Roadster"** holiday ad, but this move seems to have triggered negative consumer reactions again, with people finding the visuals of its latest Christmas ad "uncomfortable."

The New Ad Is "Weirder": Animal Characters and Rough Animation

Last year, Coca-Cola faced criticism for **"sliding wheels and eerie faces"** in its AI-generated holiday ad. This year, Coca-Cola tried to avoid the challenge of creating realistic human characters and instead launched an ad called "The Holidays Are Coming," mainly featuring **animal characters**.

However, the visual style of this new ad was described as **"chaotic"**, alternating between realistic and exaggerated styles, with the movements of the polar bear, panda, and sloth being "very unnatural," more like rough 2D animation than detailed 3D CG models. Compared to advanced tools like OpenAI's Sora2 or Google's Veo3, Coca-Cola's video appeared "very outdated."

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The only "progress" this year is that the iconic Coca-Cola truck's wheels finally started turning, unlike previous years where they simply slid across the snow.

70,000 Clips, a Team of Hundreds: AI Projects Still Require Human Effort

According to the Wall Street Journal, Coca-Cola collaborated with two AI studios, Silverside and Secret Level, for its latest holiday campaign. Notably, Coca-Cola refused to disclose the exact cost of the campaign, but stated that approximately 100 people were involved in the project — a manpower scale comparable to the company’s previous non-AI production projects in size.

The team included five "AI experts" from Silverside, who were responsible for prompting and refining over 70,000 AI-generated video clips.

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Chief Marketing Officer: AI Production Is Faster and Cheaper

Despite previous controversies in the ad campaign (such as the fictional book by writer J.G. Ballard in April this year), Coca-Cola remains committed to AI technology.

Coca-Cola's Chief Marketing Officer Manolo Arroyo told the Wall Street Journal that the company believes the past mistakes were worth it. He said that compared to traditional production methods, their latest holiday ad campaign achieved lower costs and faster production.

"Previously, we would start shooting ads and complete all standard processes for a project about a year in advance," Arroyo said. "Now, it can be done in about a month."