McDonald’s has been skewered online over its 2025 Christmas commercial, which was created entirely by artificial intelligence.
The fast-food giant is the latest major corporation to deliver a fully AI-generated ad campaign, following Coca-Cola, whose advert also raised eyebrows online.
The campaign, commissioned for McDonald’s Netherlands, was created through a partnership between U.S. agency TBWA, an international team of AI specialists, and production company The Sweetshop.
It features several AI-generated people and families all experiencing mishaps in the lead up to Christmas, including presents falling off car roofs, exploding Christmas trees and carol singers performing in blustery, icy conditions.
“McDonald’s unveiled what has to be the most god-awful ad I’ve seen this year,” wrote one user, sharing the clip.
“Fully AI-generated, that’s one. Looks repulsive, that’s two. More cynical about Christmas than the Grinch, that’s three. I don’t wanna be the only one suffering, take a look.”
“Wow this looks like f****** s***,” wrote another, while a third added: “Companies are racing to see who can piss off the most amount of people with the lowest amount of effort.”
Another wrote: “If they were going for creepy, depressing, deeply unfunny, clumsily shot, poorly edited, and inauthentic — nailed it!”
Occasionally, the computer-generated nature of the ad is more obvious, with rogue body parts and other aspects becoming unnaturally twisted.
In addition, the AI chaos is set against an altered-lyric version of the festive favorite song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and replacing it with “the most terrible time of the year.”
“Not even considering the ai slop, the messaging of the ad is literally ‘f*** christmas, f*** your family, eat mcdonald’s instead’. like what,” wrote another social media user.
Added another: “A soulless AI advertisement to promote your slop and to denigrate the Christmas time seems a bit too on the nose and just slightly demonic.”
Users also mocked the reported response of The Sweetshop, the company behind the ad, which claimed staff had “hardly slept” for several weeks while writing AI prompts for the commercial.
“AI didn’t make this film. We did,” The Sweetshop director Melanie Bridge said, according to Little Black Book.
One social media user replied: “It genuinely pains me when reading about AI and people use the phrase ‘writing AI prompts’ like it’s something to be proud of artistically.” “Cannot believe our advancement of society is the plague of AI,” wrote another.
However, Bridge insisted online that the company’s use of AI was not about “replacing craft,” but about “expanding the toolbox.”
“The vision, the taste, the leadership… that will always be human,” she wrote in an Instagram post, sharing the commercial.
“We would never take on an AI project without a director guiding it, minute by minute. And here’s the part people don’t see: the hours that went into this job far exceeded a traditional shoot. Ten people, five weeks, full-time.
“Blood, sweat, tears, and an honestly ridiculous amount of coaxing to get the models to behave and to honour the creative brief shot by shot.”
“The Independent has contacted McDonald’s and The Sweetshop for further comment on the backlash.
