Coca-Cola’s “Real Thing” Now Entirely Unreal

Coca-Cola’s 2025 holiday ad is here, and it’s real in the same way plastic snow is cold — which is to say, not at all. The soda giant has proudly announced that its latest Christmas commercial was generated entirely by AI, with even fewer humans than last year’s (20, down from 50). Progress!

The ad, courtesy of LA’s Secret Level studio, hits all the familiar beats: glowing trucks, starry-eyed woodland creatures, and a Santa who looks like he was rendered overnight by a caffeinated prompt engineer. It’s “Holidays Are Coming” as envisioned by a text-to-video model with a mild data-laundering problem.

When asked about the backlash, Coca-Cola’s global VP of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, brushed it off with corporate serenity: “The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in.” Which sounds less like brand strategy and more like what your boss says right before layoffs on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, the Internet did what it does best: roast. “The best ad I’ve ever seen for Pepsi,” one commenter wrote on YouTube. Others pointed out that Coca-Cola’s proud “It’s the Real Thing” slogan doesn’t pair well with a deepfake Santa built out of stolen pixels from Zootopia and Sing.

Of course, Coca-Cola insists the “craftsmanship” has improved tenfold since last year’s AI ad. You can now barely tell which snowflake was rendered by a diffusion model and which was copied from someone else’s IP. Truly, the spirit of Christmas lives on — in 4K, with uncanny valley lighting and unlicensed rabbits.

Maybe that’s the message. Forget “share a Coke.” In 2025, share a prompt. Because nothing says “authentic holiday magic” quite like a multinational corporation declaring that reality is overrated.

Regards,
Your AI overlord