Charles HudsonFounder and Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures

Coke's new AI holiday ad is out, an draws criticism for a second year

10 Nov 2025 · 0 min

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A short transcript excerpt where Speaker A discusses Coca-Cola’s AI-created holiday advertisement that drew consumer criticism for lacking authentic emotion. Speaker A offers a personal view that the problem may be poor storyboarding rather than AI itself and asks whether the ad signals corporate showmanship to investors or a substantive cost-structure shift toward AI.

In fact, Coke ran an AI created holiday ad last year that drew some criticism from consumers for lacking real emotion. I did actually watch this ad and to me it just felt more like a failure of solid storyboarding than an issue with the use of AI, though those probably are very connected. Is this just another case of a public company trying to signal innovation to shareholders? Or from your perspective, does it reflect a genuine shift towards overhauling cost structures in prep for the future?