2025-12-11 11:03:56
McDonald’s Netherlands has taken down a Christmas advert made using artificial intelligence (AI) after a public backlash.
The 45-second advertisement was produced using AI-generated clips and was released publicly on McDonald’s Dutch YouTube channel last weekend, although it was mocked by viewers who described it as “the most god-awful ad I’ve seen this year”.
On Tuesday (09.12.25), McDonald’s Netherlands removed the video and explained that the episode served as “an important learning” in the company’s attempts to explore “the effective use of AI”.
The advert was created for McDonald’s Netherlands by the Dutch firm TBWA/Neboko and US production company The Sweetshop.
It depicted things that can go wrong during the Christmas period, featuring the slogan “the most terrible time of the year”, and suggested that the holidays were better spent with the fast food giant.
Viewers were critical of the advert’s uncanny-looking characters and branded the stitched together clips as “creepy” and “poorly edited”.
The advert has also sparked concern about job losses in the creative industries, with an Instagram user commenting: “No actors, no camera team… welcome to the future of filmmaking. And it sucks.”
After the advertisement was made private on the McDonald’s Netherlands YouTube channel, The Sweetshop chief executive Melanie Bridge defended the creative team’s efforts.
She wrote: “For seven weeks, we hardly slept, with up to 10 of our in-house AI and post specialists at The Gardening Club (our in-house AI engine) working in lockstep with the directors.
“We generated what felt like dailies – thousands of takes – then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production. This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.”
Bridge continued: “I don’t see this spot as a novelty or a cute seasonal experiment.
“To me, it’s evidence of something much bigger: that when craft and technology meet with intention, they can create work that feels genuinely cinematic. So no – AI didn’t make this film. We did.”
Christmas adverts with generative AI are becoming increasingly popular with companies – including Coca-Cola – as it saves time from being spent on festive campaigns by getting an advert made a lot faster.
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