McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash

Perceived Quality of the Ad and AI Use

• Many viewers describe the spot as “awful slop”: uncanny faces and movement, broken physics, disjointed scenes, and a “nightmarish” feel (e.g., the living teddy bear).
• Several think the output is worse than what a student could do in a weekend and far below traditional VFX standards.
• A minority say it looks like any other dumb commercial and don’t see why this one deserves special outrage.
• A few people actually like it, finding it funny, different, or matching their own dislike of Christmas, and don’t care that it’s AI-generated.

Message, Tone, and Fit with McDonald’s

• The bigger objection for many is the tone: a song called “The Most Terrible Time of the Year” and a misanthropic, anti-Christmas framing.
• People object to a multinational “singing about Christmas being shitty” and then positioning McDonald’s as a comforting refuge from that.
• Several say McDonald’s interiors feel cold, hard, and engineered for fast turnover, making the “warm third place” pitch unbelievable.
• Others counter that in many rural/suburban or “forgotten” communities, McDonald’s does function as a de facto community space, especially for older people.

AI, Labor, and Economics

• Strong skepticism toward the agency’s claim of seven weeks of near-sleepless work, thousands of takes, and 5,000+ hours on something that looks like cheap prompting.
• Some argue real actors and conventional production might have been cheaper and certainly higher quality.
• Heated debate over whether AI will “free” VFX artists to do movie work, or simply destroy jobs and bargaining power while funneling savings to shareholders.
• Discussion of a glut of junior VFX talent vs. alleged shortages of senior artists, and whether underbidding and fixed-bid contracts—rather than lack of talent—drove VFX firms into bankruptcy.

“AI Slop,” Authenticity, and the Future of Ads

• Commenters note that generative video still has a characteristic uncanny quality; some doubt current techniques can ever fully fix this, others point to emerging “world model” research.
• Several predict a coming flood of ultra-cheap, low-stakes AI video ads, constantly A/B tested instead of a few polished campaigns.
• Some say consumers can “smell” when something is made mainly to save money and resent the implicit message: “AI doesn’t even have to be good to replace you.”