AI Slop Ad Backfires For McDonald’s

McDonald’s has pulled an AI-generated Christmas commercial from YouTube after viewers pushed back on what they called a distasteful, “AI slop”-filled take on the holidays. The 45-second ad, titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year,” was a satirical look at holiday chaos — people tripping while carrying overloaded gift bags, getting tangled in lights, burning homemade cookies, starting kitchen fires — and ended with a suggestion to ditch the madness and hide out at McDonald’s until January.

The ad was created for McDonald’s Netherlands by agency TBWANEBOKO and production company Sweetshop, whose Los Angeles-based directing duo Mark Potoka and Matt Spicer shot the film. After the backlash, Sweetshop said it used AI as a tool but emphasized human effort in shaping the final product. “We generated what felt like dailies — thousands of takes — then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production,” the company said. “This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.”