McDonald's AI Advertising: Revolution or Risk?
The McDonald's AI Ad, a TV spot for McDonald's Netherlands, triggered a significant "shitstorm" after its release. Titled "It's the Most Terrible Time of the Year," the spot deliberately depicted exaggerated December chaos, entirely created with generative AI. The negative reactions led the company to withdraw the spot after a few days and sparked a discussion about AI in advertising.
Source: Own representation
Introduction
The McDonald's AI Ad, officially titled "It's the Most Terrible Time of the Year," was a 45-second TV spot for McDonald's Netherlands. It was developed by the Amsterdam-based agency TBWA\NEBOKO and produced by the film studio The Sweetshop. The spot was released on December 6, 2025, on McDonald's Netherlands' YouTube channel and, after massive criticism, was privatized.
Creative director Darre van Dijk and TBWA\NEBOKO described the project in an industry report as a deliberate experiment. The goal was to produce the "first full-fledged AI commercial" for the brand, with all scenes originating from generative tools instead of traditional filming with actors and sets (! LBB Online). According to production company The Sweetshop, the McDonald's AI Ad was not a quick button press but a production project running for weeks with a team of ten people in the internal AI unit "The Gardening Club" (! Wikipedia).
CEO Melanie Bridge emphasized in several statements that the team worked on the spot for seven weeks, including prompting, image selection, compositing, and final editing. The effort was greater than for some traditional productions (! The Verge). Media outlets like Futurism and Forbes picked up this defense but placed it in the context of an overall work that, despite the high effort, seemed like "AI Slop" to many viewers (! Futurism, Forbes).
If you want to see for yourself, you can find re-uploads of the spot here, among other places:
Source: YouTube
Content and Design
The McDonald's AI Ad showed a loose sequence of scenes depicting Christmas chaos in a Dutch city: icy bridges, oversized Christmas trees on bicycles, out-of-control family meals, and failed Christmas decorations (! The Guardian). Santa was stuck in traffic, a cyclist slipped with presents on a slippery road, and people got tangled in fairy lights or hung upside down in their own decorations (! DIE WELT, Wikipedia).
The images were accompanied by an altered version of the classic "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams, with the lyrics consistently twisted to "It's the most terrible time of the year" (! EW.com, Wikipedia). At the end, the spot suggested hiding from all the stress at McDonald's "until January," which various international media outlets summarized as the central message (! The Verge, The Guardian).
The design of the McDonald's AI Ad was consistently artificial: people with unnatural-looking faces, strange movements, and typical AI artifacts on hands and bodies were visible in many frame freezes (! Interesting Engineering). Tech portals and viewers on Reddit and X repeatedly commented that individual figures appeared like "rubber creatures" or "half-melted" (! Reddit).
Source: linkedin.com
Surreal and exaggerated: An AI-generated scene showcasing the often unconventional aesthetic of AI advertising.
Reactions and Criticism
Shortly after its release, YouTube, X, and Instagram were flooded with comments calling the spot "creepy," "soulless," and "AI slop" (! EW.com, The Guardian). Several articles quoted users describing the spot as the "ugliest and most depressing Christmas advertisement of the year" or "pure Grinch" (! EW.com).
The first criticism hit the core idea: instead of conveying Christmas warmth, the McDonald's AI Ad presented December as the "most terrible time of the year" throughout and sold McDonald's as a retreat from family, obligations, and everyday stress (! indy100). Especially in countries where Christmas advertising traditionally relies on nostalgia, community, and emotionality, this cynical stance clashed head-on with expectations (! The Guardian).
The second criticism targeted the use of generative AI itself: many commentators found it cynical for a global corporation to replace jobs in production and acting with AI images – precisely at a time when creative industries were discussing austerity measures and automation (! Reddit). Articles like the fact-check by Primetimer noted that the spot was planned as a fully AI-generated campaign from the start and not as a small experiment on the sidelines (! primetimer.com).
Thirdly, many viewers found the visual language overloaded and cognitively demanding: scenes changed at a rapid pace, each shot contained multiple visual gags or "glitches," and the brain struggled to keep up (! luizasnewsletter.com). Lawyer and neuromarketing author Luiza Jarovsky analyzed the spot from a psychological perspective, arguing that it worked more with subliminal overload than with narrative clarity (! luizasnewsletter.com).
Video analyses on YouTube, such as "McDonald's AI Ad Fiasco: Why Everyone Hated It & What Went Wrong," dissected frame by frame the unnatural movements, strange perspectives, and logical inconsistencies that are only subtly perceived at normal playback speed.
Source: YouTube
Reaction from McDonald's and the creators
Following the shitstorm, McDonald's Netherlands initially removed the spot from YouTube without comment, then published a short statement calling it an "important learning experience" in dealing with artificial intelligence (! The Standard). In the statement, the company emphasized that it wanted to show the "stressful moments during the holidays in the Netherlands," but acknowledged that Christmas is still "the most wonderful time of the year" for many people (! DIE WELT).
In parallel, The Sweetshop defended the McDonald's AI Ad in several statements and interviews, including the point that the team barely slept to correct the many AI errors and refine the shots manually (! primetimer.com). Industry articles such as those in 80.lv and Futurism emphasized that the majority of the work consisted of prompt design, selection, and compositing, clearly falling within the responsibility of the people involved (! 80.lv, Futurism).
At the same time, commentators used McDonald's reaction as an example of how companies reframe AI failures as part of their learning narrative (! WinBuzzer). While some marketing professionals argued in blogs and on LinkedIn that the campaign was successful despite criticism because it was discussed worldwide, others pointed out that pure attention without positive association has little long-term value for a brand (! LinkedIn).
Source: digitalagencynetwork.com
AI-generated recipes: A chatbot dialogue about 'perfect fried chicken' as an example of AI in food development.
Lessons for Brands
The McDonald's AI Ad clearly showed that technology alone does not solve a creative problem if the strategic foundation is not right (! Forbes). Firstly, the cynical message "Christmas is the most terrible time of the year, flee to us" collided with the usual emotional expectation of Christmas advertising and thus with the cultural context of the target audience (! The Guardian).
Secondly, the McDonald's AI Ad showed how sensitive viewers are to perceived shortcuts in creative processes: many comments accused the company of trying to save money on actors, film crews, and traditional production, and replacing people with "AI garbage" (! SiliconANGLE). At the same time, the agency and production emphasized that the effort was higher than with traditional spots – a contradiction that was never cleanly resolved in communication (! The Verge, LBB Online).
Thirdly, the case made it clear that generative AI in advertising currently works best in the background: for storyboards, mood images, variations, and social snippets – less so for emotional lead campaigns intended for linear TV or as a "flagship" for a brand (! Interesting Engineering). Brands wanting to experiment here should first test in smaller formats, incorporate feedback loops with real customers, and precisely measure the emotional impact (! Mugglehead Investment Magazine).
Fourthly, it is worth looking at other AI campaigns: Coca-Cola and other brands have also worked with generative images and videos in recent years and have sometimes faced similar criticism, but often with a lower impact because the spots were framed more as "experiments" (! 80.lv). A condensed comparison of AI spots from major brands can be found, for example, in video analyses like "AI Ads from Coca-Cola and McDonalds | Manson Chen."
Fifthly, the debate showed how important transparency is in communicating AI use: if companies only explain how much human work went into the campaign after a backlash, it appears as a belated justification rather than an honest insight into new production methods (! WinBuzzer).
Source: user-added
The McDonald's app as a central interface for digital orders and personalized advertising.
Conclusion
The McDonald's AI Ad is less a technical accident than a strategic misunderstanding (! Forbes). The teams involved have shown how far generative tools can go in moving images today, but at the same time, how quickly a brand can lose trust when tone, context, and technology do not align (! Wikipedia, The Guardian).
For brands, the most important takeaway from the McDonald's AI Ad is: not every new technology is suitable as the frontrunner of communication, and certainly not at a time of year when people are particularly sensitive to coldness, cynicism, and interchangeability (! The Tech Buzz). Those who use AI in marketing should understand it as a tool for better ideas and more precise execution – not as a shortcut that can, in the worst case, be paid for with public ridicule.