Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by onionisafruit on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @08:53AM
(#46217722)
What is especially bad about this ad? To me it seems no worse than the infernal Paintin Manning ad from last year or the State Farm Megan Trainor ad this year. If this was on rotation in NFL games it wouldn’t make me scramble for the mute button any faster than other ads.
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Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by bavarianbob on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @08:57AM
(#46217762)
I thought similarly to you, until I saw it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abRie4vAvJ4
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by jamesbfb on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:12AM
(#46217891)
It almost seems intentionally AI? If anything, if my job at Maccas…ahem, McDonald's (sorry, spot the Aussie) is in marketing, I’d expect to to be promptly fired if this wasn’t expected to pass for anything less than satire.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by NuclearPM on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @05:49PM
(#46225091)
Do you have children’s names for other restaurants?
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by kraquepype on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:12AM
(#46217897)
Yeah, seeing it just once it looks like an ad with a terrible premise.
It certainly has an AI feel to it though, and I'm sure the more times you see it the more it falls apart.
On 1st watch the part that sticks out is the couple sitting by a window, who seem to be somehow sitting both inside AND outside at the same time.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by nixass on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:03AM
(#46217816)
I still cannot see the bad part
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by dymk on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @10:00AM
(#46218422)
I am legitimately sorry
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by alamortsubite on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @10:43AM
(#46219009)
Have you ever ridden a bike over a canal? The ad was pushed in front of a lot of people who have. I thought it was creepy throughout, but I can't believe they used that clip up front.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by NetMageSCW on Thursday December 11, 2025 @10:31AM
(#46232609)
“a lot of people” - citation needed.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by alamortsubite on Friday December 12, 2025 @08:56AM
(#46244179)
You realize it was a Dutch ad, correct?
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by array_key_first on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @07:08PM
(#46225924)
You have to turn your monitor on, silly!
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by rsynnott on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:30AM
(#46218102)
Well, for a start it's a bad concept, but also the actual images are kinda nightmarish. The living teddy bear is particularly off-putting. And it's very obviously AI slop; physics is at best a mild suggestion.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by soco on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:35AM
(#46218157)
I have taken it as a tongue in cheek reference to the current AI slop discussions, so like purposefully made sloppy. Appropriate joke? Apparently not, according to the masses. Well, just a matter of taste.
Re:McDonald's pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash
by rsynnott on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:38AM
(#46218200)
I mean, it's _possible_ they were aiming for "so bad it's good", missed, and ended up at just "really, really bad", I suppose. In practice, conscious attempts at "so bad it's good" virtually never work out; it is a thing which happens, not which is deliberately done.