McDonald’s AI Christmas Ad Pulled After Backlash

If you’re having a stressful holiday season, the answer, according to a now-removed AI-generated commercial from McDonald’s Netherlands, is to “hide out in McDonald’s until January’s here.” Set to a song calling the holidays “the most terrible time of the year,” the short ad depicts AI-generated people suffering through ruined family dinners, shopping fiascos, caroling, cookie-baking gone wrong, and a Christmas-tree setup that unravels — with some visuals notably glitchy (one ice-skating fall turns limbs “jelly-like” mid-shot). The spot was delisted from YouTube but has been reposted across social platforms, where reactions skewed negative; critics attacked both the use of AI for people and the ad’s bleak tone, a backlash echoing responses to recent AI-made holiday spots (including Coca-Cola’s).

The creative studio behind the work, The Sweetshop’s AI division The Gardening.club, defended the production on LinkedIn, saying it took “seven intense weeks” and that “the man-hours poured into this film were more than a traditional production.” Melanie Bridge, The Sweetshop’s CEO, told Instagram the team spent “Ten people, five weeks, full-time” and described the process as “blood, sweat, tears, and an honestly ridiculous amount of coaxing to get the models to behave and to honor the creative brief shot by shot.” Despite that effort, the ad’s reception led to its removal and widespread online criticism of both its messaging and its AI-driven execution.

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