McDonald’s has become corporate enemy number one after its hideous AI holiday commercial went viral across numerous social media platforms for all the wrong reasons.
TBWA and The Sweetshop — the agency and production company behind the turd of an ad — have since tried to scrub it from the net, along with a bizarrely defensive statement by Sweetshop CEO, which is now unavailable.
“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,” the Sweetshop statement read in part.
Even weirder than trying to memory hole the disastrous ad was the company’s response to the mess. When we asked the artery-clogging megacorporation why it had taken the ad down, it responded with a statement that’s the linguistic equivalent of a chicken nugget: unfulfilling, and strangely evasive about its origins.
“The commercial was produced for McDonald’s Netherlands, but we have decided to remove our AI-generated Christmas advert,” the statement read. “It was intended to reflect the stressful moments that can occur during the holidays in the Netherlands, but we recognize that for many of our guests, the season is ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’”
“We respect that and remain committed to creating experiences that offer Good Times and Good Food for everyone,” it continued.
The company was also extremely insistent that the incident be blamed on its Netherlands branch.
“It is important for accuracy that any references to the brand in your story and headline be to ‘McDonald’s Netherlands,’” it demanded.
Without further comment from either McDonald’s Netherlands or its parent company, McDonald’s proper, it’s tough to say what exactly is going on behind the scenes, though it’s easy to speculate.
Arguably the most dramatic explanation floating around is that McDonald’s — which has capital in McDonald’s Netherlands directly, as opposed to other royalty arrangements — directed its Dutch segment to run the AI ads itself. If this were the case, it would likely mean that McDonald’s headquarters forced its Netherlands counterpart to bite the bullet on the horrifying AI ad in order to test its feasibility for larger market segments.
While there’s no direct evidence of this, McDonald’s strategy of blaming the flap on its Netherlands branch would be the most effective way to contain the brand damage caused by the hideous AI experiment bearing its logo.
Do you work for a company using generative AI in its marketing campaigns? Email us at [email protected]. We can keep you anonymous.
There’s also the “boiling frogs” theory: that corporate execs are trickling out AI slop to slowly wear consumers down and normalize this kind of low-budget swill. As Offensive…
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