It was meant to be a clever wink at December fatigue.
Instead, McDonald’s Netherlands found itself at the centre of a global backlash, accused of serving up nothing more than “AI slop”.
The brand has now pulled its AI-generated Christmas film after a wave of scathing online criticism – a rare public retreat for one of the world’s most consistent advertising machines.
The film, titled “The Most Terrible Time of the Year”, leaned into holiday chaos: a fuming Santa boxed in by traffic, anxious cyclists wobbling through snow, family mayhem exaggerated to absurdity.
The payoff was a simple, cheeky promise – duck into McDonald’s for refuge until January.
The intention was clear. The reception was not.
Across X and Instagram, audiences described the spot as lifeless, uncanny, and emotionally off-key.
One viewer said it “single-handedly ruined my Christmas spirit”. Another: “Good riddance to AI slop.”
For a brand that has built decades of equity on emotional storytelling – from heart-warming reunions to iconic jingle-driven optimism – this was a surprising misfire.
But it also signals something deeper: the widening gap between what brands think AI can do for creativity and what audiences are willing to accept.
The illusion of efficiency
Melanie Bridge, CEO of The Sweetshop Films, which produced the ad, defended the work on LinkedIn, “It’s never about replacing craft, it’s about expanding the toolbox… Ten people, five weeks, full-time.”
The message: AI doesn’t magically save time; it redirects labour.
But the pushback was immediate.
If ten people spent five weeks making an AI film, critics asked, why not just make a proper Christmas ad with actual humans?
Emlyn Davies from Bomper Studio articulated what many felt, “What about the humans who would have been in it – the actors, the choir?”
In other words: efficiency doesn’t matter if the work feels hollow.
And herein lies the brand risk of AI-led production.
AI can accelerate output, but it is still shockingly bad at capturing the subtleties, textures, and cultural rhythms that make festive advertising resonate.
Holiday campaigns — perhaps more than any other genre — rely on warmth, nostalgia, and human nuance.
Swap those out for algorithmic approximations, and the audience will notice.
The cultural cost of “almost right”
The ad’s exaggerated chaos wasn’t the main issue. Brands exaggerate all the time.
It was the feeling of “almost right but not quite” — the classic uncanny valley — that unsettled viewers.
Human behaviour is intuitive to us because we are trained from childhood to read micro-gestures.
AI models, trained on billions of images but understanding none of them, often deliver sequences that feel off.
Facial expressions that don’t land. Movements that feel physics-agnostic. Scenes that lack the warmth of lived memory.
When these quirks collide with a topic as emotionally charged as Christmas, the effect becomes jarring rather than playful.
What is the role of AI in brand storytelling?
This incident crystallises an emerging debate in the industry: Is AI a tool to elevate creativity, or is it quietly replacing the human spirit that makes advertising meaningful?
Bridge insisted AI widens the creative palette.
That is true — but only if the output meets the emotional contract brands must uphold with audiences.
McDonald’s Netherlands unknowingly tested that contract.
The result suggests consumers are far more sensitive than we think to the erosion of human craft, especially in categories steeped in cultural tradition.
For marketers, three lessons stand out:
1. AI cannot carry a Christmas film – not yet.
The genre depends on heart, humour, and human relatability. AI is still better at spectacle than soul.
2. Audiences can smell AI from a mile away.
And when they do, they judge the brand, not the model.
3. Craft still matters — even more in an AI era.
As AI content floods social feeds, craftsmanship becomes a differentiator. What feels genuinely human will rise above the noise.
A Cautionary Tale for 2026
This is not a story about McDonald’s getting it “wrong”.
It is a story about the shifting expectations of audiences who are now, unmistakably, participants in the AI debate.
As we head into 2026, brands eager to scale content through AI must decide: Are they using AI to speed up production, or to deepen storytelling?
The former is tempting. The latter is harder — but ultimately more rewarding.
McDonald’s Dutch pullback may soon fade from memory.
The questions it raises will not.
In a year when AI is rewriting pipelines, production models, and campaign economics, this episode reminds us of a simple truth: technology can enhance creativity, but it cannot replace the human appetite for work that feels alive.
During Christmas, especially, audiences want something warm — not something that feels like it’s been left under a heat lamp.
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