Overview
- The 45-second spot for McDonald’s Netherlands was made private on YouTube on December 9 after the company first disabled comments in response to negative reactions.
- The montage rewrote the lyric to call Christmas the “most terrible time of the year” and ended by suggesting viewers hide out in McDonald’s until January.
- Agency TBWA\NEBOKO and production house The Sweetshop, working with The Gardening.club, said the project took seven weeks, thousands of AI-generated takes, and intensive post-production, asserting “AI didn’t make this film. We did.”
- Critics highlighted uncanny visuals, rapid stitched clips, and distorted motion as evidence of current generative video limits that undermine realism and consistency.
- The incident adds to wider consumer pushback against AI-made ads from major brands such as Coca-Cola, Google and Toys"R"Us, with concerns centered on quality, authenticity and creative labor.