Overview
- McDonald’s Netherlands confirmed it removed its AI-generated Christmas commercial, saying the concept misread how many customers experience the season.
- The 45-second video, titled "It’s the Most Terrible Time of the Year," showed AI-created holiday mishaps set to a reworked version of an Andy Williams song.
- Dutch agency TBWA\Neboko and production company The Sweetshop made the ad, and Sweetshop’s CEO defended weeks of human-led work using its in-house AI engine, The Gardening Club, before that statement was deleted.
- Comments on YouTube were disabled after thousands of negative responses, and the video was taken down within days of its Dec. 6 release.
- Coverage placed the episode in a broader debate over the quality, accountability and labor implications of AI-made ads, noting similar criticism of other brands’ AI holiday campaigns.