McDonald’s Christmas ad provoked a negative reaction from the audience

It seems that a new and disturbing tradition has been formed for the Christmas holidays, where big companies want to show the end of the year celebrations by publishing a disturbing and horrifying ad; Ads created with the latest artificial intelligence tools. This time, it’s McDonald’s turn.

The theme of McDonald’s Christmas ad is how unpleasant the holiday season can be. And you probably know what McDonald’s means. However, it’s really hard to watch the video because everything looks so out of place.

According to the Adforum report, this commercial was commissioned by TBWA\NEBOKO in the Netherlands and was probably made for the country’s market. However, the YouTube channel that originally posted the video has made it private.

According to the 80 Level website, the studio that produced this work for TBWA\NEBOKO is called The Sweetshop. The studio has released a confusing statement that shows that the creators themselves do not understand the reason for the widespread negative reaction of the people.

The song used in the ad is a parody of the famous holiday song, It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and seems to have been made with the command to “be grumpy about Christmas.” This work has not only produced a laugh-out-loud sweet song, but also a discordant, disjointed and discordant piece that is separated from the main melody and weight and wanders in fruitless poetic paths.

Almost none of the situations shown in the video feel familiar. Perhaps part of this is due to the artificial intelligence of the images, but mostly because the situations are not at all comprehensible and relatable. In such a montage, each clip should represent a common holiday complaint. Who has ever sung joyfully in high winds? Who fought another customer over a teddy bear on Black Friday? Who can put themselves in the shoes of a man riding a wheelbarrow up a frozen slope with a 12-foot Christmas tree sticking out of it? Even if you are Dutch, I don’t think this scene makes sense.

At 0:20, the Christmas guests, whose table is on fire, seem to enjoy the situation and are not even happy to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. At 0:30, the cat jumping up the tree does not pull the tree down; Rather, the tree appears to swing down on its hinges like the bar of a parking gate. The artificial intelligence doesn’t even know if the couple shown at 0:36 is in the warm and cozy atmosphere of a McDonald’s or in the cold and torrential rain.

Most importantly, this message for 2025 is completely irrelevant. In fact, the song It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year was used in a school reopening commercial for Staples about 29 years ago. That ad was about a father who hates his children, and although it seemed a little cruel, at least there were real people in it. When an actor conveys emotion, the audience inevitably reacts emotionally. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence is not capable of this and never will be.