AI in Our Marketplace.

Now one of the fastest growing tool, AI has become so big that ads, artwork, and even people can be made out of it. It has become something I see everywhere, infesting art that I loved dear and making it into a copy-paste work with no true heart in it. Not only that, but it has been used by companies to get rid of real people to safe costs. If you've seen Instagram's recent news on AI, they are currently beginning to implement AI-generated users into its social media platform, ultimately feeding into the dead internet theory and making itself the complete opposite of what it's always been; a way to communicate with friends and family, or other real people. 

  

Coca-Cola: Together Tastes Better

Striving to be a refreshing beverage with a array of choices, Coca-Cola has taken a new turn in advertisements by utilizing AI in the production of each work. What better way to celebrate then through a recreation of Coca-Cola's vintage ad "Holidays are Coming" by using AI? Afterall, together is better... Yep. Despite this prospect, this most recent ad created by AI is a uncanny piece criticized for its use of AI (that directly is taking the job of many artists) and of which is simply a poor attempt to cheapen any and all costs that go into advertisements. Largely, it's been hated by the public because of all of this.

"The Holiday Magic is coming" is an ad uploaded on November 18th, 2024 and gained quite a lot of attention because of its unique prospect of being made completely by artificial intelligence. Not only was this video purely AI with some assistance for editing, but so were multiple other ads from Coca-Cola. However the starking contrast between this most recent ad and some of Coca-Cola's previous is one thing: clear, passionate storyline involved with real human direction. 

For example, another ad Coca-Cola had made with the assistance of AI, "Coca-Cola® Masterpiece" uploaded on Mar 6, 2023, is an actual work of art with an authentic feel to it. This feels like artists had created a piece of art, and simply used AI as a tool to aid them in the process. But this Holiday Magic ad? It was pure, hideous AI with no real direction than to be a quick piece torn out of a machine that'll make it for free. It removed the human part that made the tool useful to create a piece that felt misdirected and useless.

   "The Holiday Magic is coming" is largely hated even in professionals, like how this this article "Coca Cola’s AI-Generated Ad Controversy, Explained" by Dani Di Placido has stated "Many commentators who work in film and television were not impressed by the ad, and many dismissed the technology as a poor attempt to cheapen their labor and kill jobs." [1]

AI should never replace people. It should be a tool to help people make things, which is becoming a problem that many marketers have been approaching as AI has become more widespread. Instead of lazy, uncanny ads that make people think your product is going to be as cheap as its production- marketers need to tell a story with real people and maybe those real people can use AI to aid them in finalizing all the details. It should be used as a tool, not a way to actually produce content.

All I got from the Coca-Cola Holiday ad was that I was sad the company was choosing to go in a direction that felt like they were trying to purely be innovating (Look what AI can make!), instead of how they should be trying to engage in personal connections with people (like me!) by showing people how AI can help them in there lives. (Or how it can help people make wonderful ads, like the Coca-Cola Masterpiece)

This way they are going is showing they don't care about the people who have helped them get where they are through their art. They much rather just use AI that tells nothing and shows nothing but "glitchy, uncanny echoes of human art, while guzzling an astounding amount of water and electricity." [1]

Coca-Cola isn't the only one using AI, of course. Even Toys "R" Us has used AI, as last June they had created an uncanny ad with it and faced some backlash of their own for it. [1] Unfortunately AI isn't that good just yet to be able to replicate what real people will, and I don't imagine it ever will. As AI struggles often in making comprehensible works, it overall lacks in what its function is in the beginning, efficiency that saves money; "As one commentator pointed out, this simply isn’t efficient. Using an energy intensive technology to spit out footage in the hope that some shots are usable, touching up the best examples, and being left with very short clips that are riddled with “hallucinations” seems like a poor outcome." [1]. Although it can still be useful in the hands of people, ultimately, AI just hasn't gotten to the stage of being the prime go-to for art. And hopefully it never will, or my hobby of drawing will be completely useless.

And to be fair, it seems people like that Coca-Cola is becoming more robotic and less alive. That way, they can just ignore the ads that much easier because they never cared in the beginning. 

Another point that I saw in this particular article, was that AI is only really going to be used as a way to cut creative teams entirely so that machines can just spit out the content instead. This should be greatly avoided and can lead to a complete failure of a business- after all, people wont buy products but will buy real, authentic works that they can search for because it is there when they need it. AI will never be truly authentic as it hasn't achieved that level where it can correctly spit factual information; AI is built to just spit what you want it to with the right training, meaning while you can ask it to tell you what the color a animal is, it isn't guaranteed to be correct. 

This attempt at trying to sell AI as a means of art by Coca-Cola isn't exactly appealing and seems to be going away from the reach the brand was trying to achieve with their original Masterpiece ad; it can be a useful tool, but it wont be able to successfully spit things out on its own as you need to work with it.

AI is the future and it has been able to progress phenomenally this past couple of years, but it still needs work. Never rely on AI for everything and simply use it to help proofreading or with organizing papers (heck, I even heard of employees using it to help pretty their cover letters) - just be cautious as AI isn't perfect just yet and can have undesired effects.

Plus as the article mentioned, it can also just be impactfully bad for the environment as it relies on a large amount of servers and electricity to operate.

Use it with caution and just be conscious of how you use it, thanks. :) 

Sources

[1] Di Placido, D. (2024, November 16). Coca Cola’s AI-Generated ad controversy, explained. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/11/16/coca-colas-ai-generated-ad-controversy-explained/

https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en