{"id":440294,"date":"2025-12-11T14:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T14:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/440294\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T14:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T14:46:21","slug":"ruined-my-christmas-spirit-mcdonalds-removes-ai-generated-ad-after-backlash-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/440294\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ruined my Christmas spirit\u2019: McDonald\u2019s removes AI-generated ad after backlash | McDonald&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">McDonald\u2019s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/netherlands\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Netherlands<\/a> after it was criticised online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LYz-5cL-BhA\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The ad, titled \u201cthe most terrible time of the year\u201d<\/a>, depicts scenes of Christmas chaos, with Santa caught in a traffic jam and a gift-laden Dutch cyclist slipping in the snow. And the message? Retreat to a McDonald\u2019s restaurant until January and ride out the festive season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But the generative AI advertisement from the Big Mac maker\u2019s Netherlands division sparked a flurry of criticism on social media.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis commercial single-handedly ruined my Christmas spirit,\u201d said one user. \u201cGood riddance to AI slop,\u201d posted another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">McDonald\u2019s Netherlands said in a statement on Wednesday: \u201cThe Christmas commercial was intended to show the stressful moments during the holidays in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHowever, we notice \u2013 based on the social comments and international media coverage \u2013 that for many guests this period is \u2018the most wonderful time of the year\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Melanie Bridge, the chief executive of the Sweetshop Films, the company which made the ad, defended its use of AI in a post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt\u2019s never about replacing craft, it\u2019s about expanding the toolbox. The vision, the taste, the leadership \u2026 that will always be human,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAnd here\u2019s the part people don\u2019t see: the hours that went into this job far exceeded a traditional shoot. Ten people, five weeks, full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But that too sparked online debate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Emlyn Davies, from the independent production company Bomper Studio, replied to the LinkedIn post: \u201cWhat about the humans who would have been in it, the actors, the choir?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cTen people on a project like this is a tiny amount compared to shooting it traditionally live action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Coca-Cola recently released its own AI-generated holiday ad, despite receiving backlash when it did the same last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The company\u2019s new offering avoids close-ups of humans and mostly features AI-generated images of cute animals in a wintry setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands after it was criticised online. 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