A classic campaign enters an ai era
Coca-Cola extends its “Holidays Are Coming” campaign by incorporating generative AI into its production process.1 The brand continues to use its iconic red Christmas trucks as the central visual motif, while AI tools help generate and refine new visual content for global markets.1, 2 The campaign builds on decades of tradition, reinforcing the trucks as a seasonal signal that marks the beginning of the holiday period.3
Ai as a production engine
Coca-Cola uses generative AI systems, developed in collaboration with creative technology partners, to produce large volumes of video material.1, 4 These outputs are then selected, edited, and refined into final advertisements.4
The process allows the brand to move from traditional long production cycles toward significantly faster content creation, while maintaining control over narrative and visual quality.4, 1
Balancing automation and creative control
Even as AI plays a central role in content generation, human creative teams remain deeply involved.1 They guide storytelling, define visual direction, and curate the final outputs from AI-generated material.2
This hybrid model combines machine efficiency with human creative judgment, ensuring the campaign still aligns with Coca-Cola’s established emotional tone.
Refining a global holiday identity
Coca-Cola continues to adjust the visual execution of its AI-assisted ads to maintain consistency and avoid overly artificial effects.4, 5 The brand focuses on preserving warmth, nostalgia, and clarity in its imagery, even as production becomes more automated.
The “Holidays Are Coming” trucks remain the core symbolic element, anchoring the campaign across all iterations.
Scaling content for global markets
The use of AI enables Coca-Cola to produce and adapt campaign assets for multiple regions more efficiently.1 Different versions of the festive narrative are distributed across global markets, allowing for faster localization and broader reach.1, 5
This approach reflects a shift in advertising production where scale and speed become increasingly important alongside creative consistency.
A traditional ritual in a modern production system
Overall, Coca-Cola maintains the emotional core of its “Holidays Are Coming” campaign while modernizing how it is made. The brand continues to present the trucks as a signal of the festive season, while AI reshapes the way the visuals are produced behind the scenes.
Source: Coca-Cola Youtube
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. The Coca-Cola Company, "Coca-Cola Refreshes Givers of the Season, Embraces AI-Powered Storytelling in Global Holiday Campaign", 3 November 2025, for the global holiday campaign carrying two AI-driven reimaginations of the classic 1995 "Holidays Are Coming" spot, made with the San Francisco-based studios Secret Level and Silverside AI, for the advanced GenAI tools with which, in the words of Pratik Thakar, Global Vice President and Head of Generative AI, "we controlled every cinematic detail, from camera angles to physics-driven realism", for the statement that creative ambition, direction and thought leadership "has and always will be human-led", and for AI tools letting teams quickly and efficiently produce different versions of a film for different audiences or geographies. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/coca-cola-refreshes-givers-of-the-season-embraces-ai-powered-storytelling-in-global-holiday-campaign
2. TODAY, Joseph Lamour, "Coca-Cola releases another AI-generated holiday ad, despite last year's backlash", 4 November 2025 (syndicated by NBC Washington), for the AI ads, released on Coca-Cola's YouTube channel on 3 November 2025, showing the big rigs rolling through towns, for the behind-the-scenes account of five specialists who churned out and refined over 70,000 video clips in 30 days, and for Pratik Thakar's statement that the ads were guided by human storytellers who oversaw the direction. Off whitelist and used for corroboration only. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/coca-cola-ai-generated-holiday-ad-backlash/4011268/
3. Coca-Cola Ireland, "The tale of the Christmas trucks", 19 April 2015, for the Christmas trucks having first appeared on TV in the winter of 1995 in a seasonal campaign created by the agency W.B. Doner, and for the trucks as the sign "that 'Holidays Are Coming'". https://www.coca-cola.com/ie/en/media-center/the-tale-of-the-christmas-trucks
4. The Decoder, Maximilian Schreiner, "Coca-Cola once again turns to AI for its global 'Holidays Are Coming' Christmas campaign", 4 November 2025, for the more than 70,000 video clips generated for the campaign with Silverside AI and Secret Level, for artists refining and polishing the generated clips, for production and editing having taken, according to CMO Manolo Arroyo, about a month instead of a full year with traditional shoots, and for the 2025 films showing fewer noticeable AI-related errors than the 2024 version. Off whitelist and used for corroboration only. https://the-decoder.com/coca-cola-once-again-turns-to-ai-for-its-global-holidays-are-coming-christmas-campaign/
5. Implicator.ai, Marcus Schuler, "Coca-Cola debuts AI holiday ads, animals replace actors after 2024 backlash", 4 November 2025, reporting The Wall Street Journal, for the specialists sorting through and refining the clips frame by frame, for the trucks' wheels now turning instead of gliding as in the 2024 spot, and for the campaign running across 140 countries in two versions made by two studios. Off whitelist and used for corroboration only; the Wall Street Journal article it cites (https://www.wsj.com/articles/coca-cola-injects-holidays-are-coming-ads-with-an-upgraded-dose-of-ai-bc8921e2) was not reachable on 8 October 2026. https://www.implicator.ai/coca-cola-debuts-ai-holiday-ads-animals-replace-actors-after-2024-backlash/
