McDonald's pulls Grinchy AI‑made Christmas ad after avalanche of complaints
Saying that "it's the most terrible time of the year" didn't go over very well
Rowan Dunne
McDonald’s Corp NYSEMCD ETRMDO has been catching flak for an AI-generated Christmas ad and its extreme lack of holiday spirit. Apparently using stress associated with the holidays as a marketing tactic to attract hamburger patrons is a bad idea.
The advertisement received so many angry comments on YouTube after its Dec. 6 release that the fast food giant ultimately decided to remove it. Pulling the video after 20,000 views did not stop the ad from spreading like wildfire on social media though. Millions viewed it through reposts and reaction vids.
“It’s the most terrible time of the year” the 45-second clip mockingly sings as a montage of Christmas failures and misfortunes light up the screen. It then concludes by suggesting that people should just “hide out in McDonald’s until January’s here” to avoid such unpleasantries.
It depicts a stressful family dinner, a man dangling from his house as he attempts to set up the Christmas lights, a cat knocking over the tree, and many other seasonal blunders.
“This commercial single-handedly ruined my Christmas spirit,” said one social media user. “This is the most god awful ad I’ve seen all year,” said another.
Renowned movie critic Richard Roeper even felt the need to chime in about the uniquely distasteful short film.
“If they were going for creepy, depressing, deeply unfunny, clumsily shot, poorly edited and inauthentic, they nailed it!’ he said on X.
Production crew is still proud
Despite being created with AI, the advertisement took a 10-person crew five weeks to make it working non-stop.
They say that writing the right prompts and refining the shots was no easy task. These creatives were disappointed to see that their extensive labour was not appreciated by viewers but proud of their work nonetheless.
“AI didn’t make this film,” stated creator Sweetshop Studios. “We did.”
Sweetshop CEO Melanie Bridge said the hours that went into putting the ad together far exceeded that of a traditional shoot.
McDonald’s Netherlands, the fast food chain’s division responsible for posting the commercial, says the moment serves as an important learning experience as it explores the effective use of artificial intelligence.
Hi! I'm one of the prompt writers that worked on this ad. It's a lot harder than people think! Prompts that my team used include: -make it funny -make it epic AND funny -funnier!!! Please be nice to my team as many of them will be laid off/replaced by AI
McDonald's has released an AI-generated Christmas ad The studio behind it says they 'hardly slept' for several weeks while writing AI prompts and refining the shots — 'AI didn't make this film. We did' Comments have been turned off on YouTube
Read more: Wonder Studios raises US$12M in seed for AI film production
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