#52. Have a Holly, Jolly, AI Christmas.

Executive Summary:

1. Coke likes to roll the dice with high visibility projects.

Doing remakes of past successes involves palpable risks in any industry. Re-doing live action creative with AI is risky as it facilitates a scene-for-scene comparison between the two approaches despite the fact that the new spots are interpretations versus clones of the original.

2. The Best Available Tools were Used

The software used were among the most fully-baked tools out there. And every month or so we experience one or two new notable software entries into the pool coupled with notable improvements with many of the most notable players.

3. The Tools Have Limitations

It’s not there yet and we’ve got a ways to go. There are details that don’t work. Instead of calling those out, I would note that there are a ton of detail here that does work and took countless hours to achieve. In my experience you are forced at times to bend AI software to your will. You take what you get, adjust the creative and expectations, and continue on. And you render until you get there. You adjust the prompts with every adjective and keyword you can imaging.

4. AI Provides an Interpretation Based on How The Model Has been Trained

This project allows for this. A frame-by-frame AI clone of the original might prove disastrous because you lack the precision you have with live action and 3D software. AI gives you an interpretation of what you’re after - even when using reference imagery.

We have much to look forward to.

Coca-Cola Goes All In On AI Christmas

This is an interesting proposition. Have three AI-focused studios take a cut at redoing a Coca-Cola Christmas holiday classic. For background on this topic, I referenced three articles and the reviews ran the gamut.

• Ad Age’s “Inside Coca-Cola’s first AI-generated TV ads” was written with detail without opinion.

• Futurism’s “Coke's AI Commercial for the Holidays Has Us Wondering If We Live In a Fallen World” offers a blunt review that is to the point, and on fire.

• The New York Post gets excited by most things. Their “Coca-Cola ripped for ‘ugly’ AI-generated Christmas commercial: ‘Dystopian nightmare’” still scores a few cogent points.

• **Last minute entry - “I was wrong. People love Coca-Cola’s AI remake of a Christmas classic.” This did not make deadline but was added for your consideration. The upshot - when viewers didn’t know it was made with AI, these concepts were among the highest responses for any of Coke’s holiday “Truck ads”.

  Testing showed success was in long-term brand-building, not tech. - 11/15/24 The Drum