An AI-generated advertisement for McDonald’s, which has since been removed, suggested that the fast-food chain could alleviate stress during the holiday season. This ad featured a song characterizing this time of year as “the most terrible time of the year,” presenting a series of scenes where AI-generated individuals faced various common holiday challenges, such as family gatherings, shopping, and decorating. These scenarios often ended in humorous mishaps, leading to the tagline encouraging viewers to “hide out in McDonald’s until January’s here.”
In contrast to other holiday ads, such as Coca-Cola’s, which typically feature animated characters, the McDonald’s ad included human figures. However, some of the animation quality raised questions, as some visuals appeared awkward, including a scene in which a person appeared to fall while ice skating, with their limbs animated in a disjointed manner.
The production of this advertisement reportedly took seven weeks, according to a post by The Gardening.club on LinkedIn, which is associated with The Sweetshop, the studio responsible for the ad. They noted that the effort required for this project involved more man-hours than a standard production. Melanie Bridge, CEO of The Sweetshop, echoed this sentiment in an Instagram post, detailing the intensive work involved, including full-time contributions from ten staff members over five weeks and emphasizing the complexity of directing the models according to the creative vision.
This raises questions about the effectiveness of AI-generated ads in capturing authentic human experiences during the holiday season and the impact on viewers.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/841220/mcdonalds-ai-generated-christmas-ad