“I need you to complete this in three days.”

(And if it wasn't for a certain superhero, I would have gone cray by now.)

Me if there were no AI:

Artificial Intelligence or in short, AI, has come a long way- content summarizes karne se lekar customer service behtar banane tak (-from summarizing content to improving customer service, it can handle any task.)

It has become an important tool in the marketing industry, signaling the transformation it will bring to the marketing landscape.

And now that you know this, you can assume how much the use of AI has increased in the last few years.

Recently, The Conference Board conducted a survey that revealed "87% of marketers and 85% of communicators have used AI or experimented with AI tools for at least one application. A majority have incorporated AI into their regular workflow."

Apart from these facts, the survey also shows that 82% of the respondents expect that AI will improve productivity while 4% expect it to deteriorate.

-Speaking of productivity, a very recent event seems to echo the concern of the 4%.

The Coca-Cola Company launched a commercial this year for the upcoming Christmas, lekin ek chota sa twist ke sath (but with a little twist): the entire advertisement is AI-generated.

The advertisement does go viral across multiple platforms, but not for a very positive reason. 

To dig into this, first we need to travel back to 1995 when Coca-Cola released a commercial with the jingle "Holidays are coming".

The commercial featured a Coca-Cola truck driving through a snowy landscape, illuminating the places it passed by and bringing the townsfolk joy.

The commercial became a massive hit in the West and became a symbol for the arrival of Christmas. Truly a classic.

Coca-Cola Christmas commercial (Holidays are coming) (1) Long version

Coming back to the present, this year, Coca-Cola decided to collaborate with three AI studios—Secret Level, Silverside AI, and Wild Card and remake its iconic advertisement using Real Magic AI, aiming to evoke the feeling of nostalgia among its target audience.

Three studios made three different versions of the advertisement.

The Holiday Magic is coming. 

The commercial is getting a lot of criticism and backlash after netizens saw that it is entirely AI-generated. They are calling it "soulless", and "devoid of life" and calling it out for having animation errors. 

Audience’s reaction to the commercial:

(Platform: YouTube)

(Platform: Twitter)

People are upset over the replacement of human actors with "fake" people, whose smiles do not evoke any emotion but rather give off a "creepy" vibe. Maybe, its Real Magic is not so real anymore.

Some wonder, if Coca-Cola really wanted to make them feel nostalgic, why did it not just re-air the original commercial in the first place?

(Image source: Legally Blonde)

In an interview with Marketing Week, Javier Meza, the President of Marketing & Europe CMO at The Coca-Cola Company- Javier Meza shared that using AI helped them save time and money and called this process "efficient".

As true as this is, it raises an important question.

To what extent should a company rely on AI? 

AI use karna galat nahi hai (It is not wrong to use AI)- rather, that IS the right choice when there is a lot of work to be completed within a short timeframe, or else one will lag behind.

AI has always been a great means to make work easier and enhance one's skill- but when the said skill gets replaced by AI instead of getting improved, that is when the problem begins to surface- just like in this case.

Even if an AI-generated video is designed to mimic real life, nothing beats a story that has a human touch- uska ek alag hi charm hai! (it has its own charm!)

This is why marketers should have the ability to decide which tasks can be assigned to AI, and which should be entrusted to human expertise.

Effective utilization of AI- an example

One of the best examples of a company leveraging AI is, ironically, COCA COLA’s “Masterpiece” campaign in 2023.

Coca-Cola® Masterpiece

“Masterpiece” featured various renowned and emerging artists’ artworks, starting with Andy Warhol’s Coca-Cola bottle journeying from one painting to another and ending up inspiring the uninspired art student at the museum.

Unlike the holiday commercial remake, this commercial was a blend of 

• Live action shots

• Digital effects

• AI

It captured the heart of its audience AND got a lot of positive feedback.

(Platform: Youtube)

Thank you for reading till the end. Also, how would YOU incorporate AI into a commercial if you were to make one? Comment mein batana!! (Let me know in the comments!!)

PS: Keep an eye out for tomorrow's newsletter—I’ve got something new to help you make your digital marketing journey even more exciting!