Coca-Cola’s 2025 Holiday Ad Uses AI Again With Minimal Human Involvement — and the Company Is Proud of It
Coca-Cola has returned with its 2025 holiday ad, once again using AI to create the campaign.
This year, the company has scaled back the human presence in the commercial, featuring only animals throughout the scenes. The only human figure is Santa Claus at the end, based on the original drawings by Haddon Sundblom, which helped define the modern image of Santa in the 1930s.
Last year’s AI-generated holiday ad sparked a major online backlash. The commercial included AI-generated people, animals, and objects, and many critics questioned the ethics and artistry behind it.
Hollywood writer Alex Hirsch mocked the campaign, saying, “Coca-Cola is red because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists.” Despite the criticism, the ad gained billions of impressions online.
Coca-Cola’s annual Christmas advert is AI-generated again this year.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 3, 2025
The company says they used even fewer people to make it — “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” pic.twitter.com/g1dogxS8Tq
For the 2025 version, Coca-Cola worked with Los Angeles-based AI studio Secret Level to produce the spot. Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s global VP and head of generative AI, told The Hollywood Reporter, “Last year people criticized the craftsmanship. But this year the craftsmanship is ten times better. There will be people who criticize — we cannot keep everyone 100 percent happy. But if the majority of consumers see it in a positive way it’s worth going forward.”
The new ad shows Coca-Cola trucks driving through various locations while animals like seals and pandas observe along the way. The commercial ends with Santa appearing, generated entirely from Sundblom’s archival artwork. Secret Level’s founder, Jason Zada, said the goal was to make the spot look like a high-quality animated movie. “The best compliment I get is when people say a video doesn’t look like AI,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Coca-Cola has used AI in advertising before, including the 2023 campaign “Masterpiece,” which brought museum paintings to life interacting with Coke bottles. Thakar said the company is undergoing a “major marketing transformation, a companywide transformation” with AI at the center.
He explained that even though AI requires fewer people to make a commercial—this year’s ad involved about 20 compared to the usual 50—the technology allows more creative output at scale. “You could do 10 times as much at scale,” Zada said.
Public reaction to the 2025 ad has been mixed. Media intelligence firm CARMA reported that 10.2% of online conversations were positive, while 32% were negative.
Many viewers criticized the ad for feeling less magical or nostalgic than previous campaigns and questioned whether cost-cutting and AI production were prioritized over artistry. Truescope data showed most discussions were neutral, focusing on the broader trend of AI in advertising. Some users even suggested that the controversy surrounding the ad might be part of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy.
Thakar emphasized that Coca-Cola plans to continue experimenting with AI, even for major campaigns throughout the year. “The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in,” he said, adding that despite some industry backlash, the company believes in moving forward and pushing the creative envelope.
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