The creators of this year’s viral Coca-Cola ad, one created using AI tools, aren’t phased by the backlash its drawn, admitting criticism “comes with the territory.”
Last year, The Coca-Cola Company debuted a brief video advertisement for the holiday season. This video was largely generated by AI programs and generated plenty of buzz as a result. Now, they’ve doubled down with another AI-powered ad in 2025.
The video shows a number of animals scattered around the globe, animated in human-looking positions, all celebrating the arrival of a Coke truck to kickstart the Christmas celebrations. Just the same, it’s already drawn plenty of criticism, with some labelling it “regurgitated slop.”
Speaking up on social media, some of the creatives involved, along with the production company, Secret Level, have defended the work, arguing the average viewer doesn’t see the “enormous” amount of work that goes into the project.
Production company defends viral Coke AI ad
“We need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope…” a statement accompanying the video read. “The genie is out of the bottle and you’re not going to put it back in.”
Secret Level, a production studio “powered by AI,” was responsible for the video. The team claimed “projects like this take an enormous amount of craft, coordination, and heart.”
They shared a video revealing various snippets of behind-the-scenes work on the project, running from Photoshop edits to AI-tools morphing backgrounds.
“This year, it was about more than flexing technology. It was about artistry.”
Do take it all with a pinch of salt, however, as there’s every chance this footage itself is doctored using AI, not to mention the voiceover and its script all being AI generated to boot.
The behind-the-scenes video itself also garnered backlash of its own, with one user saying: “It’s getting a lot of attention because it stinks.”
However, one real human artist spoke up in the aftermath, as career artist Christopher Fryant, with over two decades of experience, shared the BTS clip on X (formerly Twitter). At this stage, there’s no quite telling the exact nature of their work, be it generating prompts or creating digital assets to then be manipulated by AI.
In the replies, they said they “don’t mind the haters,” and that “it just comes with the territory.”
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