McDonald’s has jumped on the AI-generated holiday-commercial bandwagon to disastrous effect. An ad from McDonald’s Netherlands titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year” was so widely reviled that the company was forced to pull it after just a few days. The 45-second spot shows a series of holiday mishaps—a Christmas tree falling over, pedestrians getting blasted with snow, shoppers brawling over a toy bear—and encouragers viewers to escape the chaos by hiding out in a McDonald’s until the new year. Online commenters quickly blasted the uncanny-looking characters as “creepy” and complained that the rapid-fire scenes were “poorly edited,” while others questioned the ad’s premise. “Even without all the ai slop this ad feels incredibly odd. Ditch your family and hide in mcdonalds because christmas sucks???” wrote one commenter on YouTube. The ad’s production company, Sweetshop, defended the work by saying, “We generated what felt like dailies — thousands of takes — then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production. This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.” Viewers, however, weren’t buying it. “No actors, no camera team..welcome to the future of filmmaking. And it sucks,” wrote on commenter on Instagram.
Read it at Los Angeles Times
