McDonald’s Netherlands pulls AI ad that parodied Christmas song

The Dutch branch of McDonald’s axed a recent ad that parodied the Christmas song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” following backlash.

The 45-second English-language spot, since removed from YouTube but preserved by AdForum, shows people suffering a variety of Christmas-related mishaps with lights, gifts and trees, as well as Santa stuck in traffic.

In the background is an AI-altered song about the holidays being the “most terrible time of the year” and that McDonald’s is a refuge from the Christmastime hustle and bustle.

“The Christmas commercial was intended to show the stressful moments during the holidays in the Netherlands. However, we notice — based on the social comments and international media coverage — that for many guests this period is ‘the most wonderful time of the year’,” McDonald’s Netherlands said Wednesday, according to The Guardian.

Though the company’s statement centered on the sentiments of the holidays, part of the backlash related to the use of artificial intelligence by the multinational production company The Sweetshop, which made the spot along with Dutch ad agency TBWA\NEBOKO.

X user Jason Rugg connected the McDonald’s spot to the use of AI in Coca-Cola ads, writing, “Whenever you see an AI generated ad, just repeat this phrase: ‘For our customers, slop is good enough.’ … That’s what they’re saying. Eat the slop, piggies. Whether it’s our ads or products, it’s slop for you to consume.”

Another X account, The Art of Spongebob, wrote that “the song is poorly written, almost certainly written by AI because it doesn’t fit the original rhythm at all and at the end it just makes up a passage. The visuals are pointless, because it’s just random nonsense like most AI videos. … It’s hard to recall a more soulless and ingenuine piece of work than this.”

The people behind the ad said previously that they wanted to take advantage of AI’s flexible tools for creating content.

TBWA\NEBOKO Chief Creative Officer Darre van Dijk told marketing and advertising platform Little Black Book this month that his team wanted to create an AI ad “with real production value combined with the craziness that AI makes possible. … Working together with the best prompters, we got to work, and now, together with McDonald’s Netherlands, we have created our first fully fledged AI commercial.”

The Sweetshop’s team also defended the use of AI. 

Melanie Bridge, CEO of the multinational production company, said on Instagram, “It’s never about replacing craft — it’s about expanding the toolbox. … 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.”