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McDonald’s has found itself in an increasingly familiar spot this holiday season: at the centre of an internet debate. Not about burgers but about a Christmas ad that looks straight out of the AI uncanny valley.
The brand’s Netherlands arm released an AI-generated festive commercial on December 6—only to quietly pull it down from YouTube days later after viewers slammed it as “AI slop” and “a parody of holiday ads without meaning to be one.”
The 45-second film, titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year”, was positioned as a tongue-in-cheek take on holiday chaos: people slipping on icy sidewalks, gift bags exploding in the cold, tangled lights, burnt cookies, and even a mini cooking-fire-gone-wrong. A sort of anti-Hallmark Christmas montage marked by a polished but noticeably AI-generated look.
AI innovation or AI overreach?
The campaign was produced by TBWA\NEBOKO in collaboration with AI studio The Gardening Club and production house The Sweetshop. Despite the heavy automation, all involved insist that this was not a straightforward AI project.
As marketing manager Karin van Prooijen explained, December tends to be hectic, so the aim was to give people something to enjoy each day, beyond the usual big dates. The campaign is designed to bring that idea to life with a fresh twist. But the internet took it the other way.
The message of the ad, ai aside, is “the holidays sure do suck! spend time at mcdonalds instead” and I don’t know who this is supposed to be appealing to https://t.co/hPdLTLCRXh
— Gnoof (@Gnoofiest) December 9, 2025
“‘AI didn’t make’ McDonald’s Christmas Ad. We did,” said Sweetshop CEO Melanie Bridge. She explained that the script was intentionally engineered for AI, not as a gimmick, but because a live-action version would have required a far bigger budget.
“From day one, we knew this couldn’t be an ‘AI experiment’,” Bridge added. “It had to feel like a film shaped by directors. The medium happened to be AI. Craft was the point.”
TBWA framed it as a conscious attempt to disrupt formulaic holiday advertising. CCO Darre van Dijk said the team wanted to flip the classic Christmas jingle into “the most terrible time of the year” and merge high production values with “the craziness AI enables.”
“AI didn’t make this film. We did.”
As backlash escalated, The Gardening Club released an unusually detailed behind-the-scenes statement, essentially a post-mortem and a defence.
“Our team, alongside Sweetshop directing duo MAMA, spent seven intense weeks refining every frame,” they wrote on Instagram. “There’s this idea that AI will do all the work for us… The man-hours poured into this film were more than a traditional production.”
In a separate statement, The Sweetshop elaborated: “We generated what felt like dailies, thousands of takes, then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production. This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.”
Why the internet reacted so strongly
Part of the backlash mirrors a broader tension across creative industries: AI as an enabler vs AI as a threat.
The people who made the AI McDonald's ad want you to know they put more man hours into it than a traditional production.
— Reid Southen (@Rahll) December 9, 2025
Like Coca Cola, in their attempt to prove they worked hard, they've instead shown AI is hard to control, still expensive, and uglier. What's the point again? https://t.co/lXrdO8U8ok
Culturally, audiences have become far more sensitive to AI’s role in replacing human labour — a shift fuelled by Hollywood’s writers’ strike, artists’ open letters, and the “AI art is theft” discourse across platforms like X and Instagram.
“AI didn’t make the film, we did!” Dude, you just typed random words on a keyboard and called it a day 😭
— 🎄Spider-Minifigure🎄 (@Spider_Minifig) December 8, 2025
Anyway, here’s a Christmas McDonald’s ad that’s made by humans https://t.co/ZhKcpg1kmxpic.twitter.com/vEoCGgDiiz
Therefore, when a mass-market brand such as McDonald's embraces and proudly promotes AI, the stakes are heightened.
The bigger trend: AI is now mainstream in holiday advertising
McDonald’s isn’t alone. Coca-cola released its second consecutive AI-assisted holiday ad last month — a cinematic spot featuring a Coke truck awakening forest animals and illuminating snowy landscapes.
Both campaigns suggest the same thing: global brands are no longer treating AI as an experiment. They’re treating it as a production tool.
But audiences aren’t fully on board yet.
