Festive Ads Go Algorithmic: How AI Took Centre Stage and Tested Emotional Trust

This festive season marked a clear shift in advertising: artificial intelligence moved from being a quiet backend tool to a visible creative protagonist. Across markets, brands leaned into AI-generated films, virtual worlds and digital characters to deliver festive storytelling at speed and scale  a tempting proposition during a period defined by shrinking attention spans and compressed production timelines.

But while AI delivered efficiency and visual ambition, it also sparked resistance. As audiences pushed back against ads that felt cold or generic, brands were left grappling with a deeper question: at what point does optimisation begin to erode emotional trust?

Why AI-Powered Festive Ads Are Gaining Ground

From a production lens, the appeal of AI is hard to ignore. It allows brands to build culturally resonant narratives without the logistical strain of casting, travel or large-scale shoots. Vishnu Srivatsav, Creative Head at 22feet Tribal, points out that AI enables brands to tell festive stories “with a certain degree of scale and cultural relevance” while keeping costs and timelines in check.

Beyond savings, AI has also transformed experimentation. Faster prototyping, rapid iterations and shorter turnaround cycles have given creatives more freedom to test ideas during high-stakes festive windows  something that was once prohibitively expensive.

However, Srivatsav offers a timely caution: “The temptation and the danger  is thinking AI is the idea.” The technology, he stresses, works best when it amplifies a strong creative vision rather than replacing it.

Scale vs Intimacy: Walking a Fine Line

One of the biggest debates around AI-led festive storytelling is its impact on emotional depth. Amita Madhvani, Co-Founder of Equinox Virtual, argues that AI doesn’t dilute emotion  it changes how scale is achieved.

“Earlier, scale often meant compromise,” she explains. “The larger the canvas, the harder it was to preserve emotional detail. AI shifts that balance.” For Madhvani, AI scales imagination, not feeling. True intimacy still comes from memory, culture and lived experience.

Artist and filmmaker Santanu Hazarika adds another layer to the conversation, warning that widespread use of the same AI tools risks visual homogeneity. When millions tap into identical models, festive storytelling can begin to look spectacular yet interchangeable  rich in gloss, poor in specificity.

When Audiences Say No

This festive season also proved that audiences can sense when technology overtakes intent  and they respond fast. McDonald’s Netherlands faced intense backlash for a fully AI-generated Christmas film meant to portray the brand as a refuge from holiday chaos. Instead, viewers criticised it as bleak and emotionally distant. The reaction escalated to the point where comments were disabled and the ad was eventually withdrawn.

Coca-Cola, a brand synonymous with festive warmth, encountered similar criticism. Its AI-assisted ‘Holidays Are Coming’ campaign drew sharp responses from viewers and creatives who felt the visuals lacked the soul and craft of the brand’s iconic holiday legacy. For a franchise built on emotional continuity, even partial AI substitution felt disruptive.

The criticism wasn’t new. Coca-Cola’s earlier AI-driven festive films had already drawn concern from artists and animators, shifting the debate from creative style to ethics and labour.

Elsewhere, Paramount Pictures faced backlash for using AI-generated narration in a promotional video, with audiences likening it to low-effort automated content. While not festive-specific, the reaction underscored growing intolerance for AI outputs that feel impersonal or lazy.

Adding fuel to the fire, online petitions urging brands to “stop using AI in Christmas ads” gained traction, arguing that festive storytelling carries cultural weight that automation shouldn’t override.

Do Audiences Reject AI — or Empty Emotion?

Industry voices suggest audiences aren’t anti-AI; they’re anti-hollow storytelling. “People can sense when emotion is manufactured,” says Madhvani, regardless of whether it’s AI-assisted or human-made.

Hazarika draws a crucial distinction between AI-assisted and fully AI-generated work. Ads guided by human intent tend to resonate better, while fully automated outputs often lack narrative clarity, making them easier to dismiss. “Once something feels like it’s made by AI,” he notes, “people tend to skip it.”

Experimentation or Sameness?

Interestingly, AI has enabled both creative risk-taking and creative stagnation. While it lowers the cost of experimentation, it can also reinforce familiar formulas when used purely to optimise past successes.

“AI can be a rehearsal space or a flattening force,” Madhvani explains. “It depends entirely on how brands choose to use it.”

What Will Last and What Won’t

As brands look ahead to future festive seasons, one message is clear: AI-led holiday advertising will endure only when grounded in human insight.

“If AI is used only for speed, volume or spectacle, it will feel disposable,” Madhvani says. “The work that lasts will be where technology quietly served emotion — not overshadowed it.”

This festive season revealed a more discerning audience, one that values authenticity over automation. For brands, the challenge isn’t whether to use AI — it’s how to let it enhance humanity, not replace it.