Burger King is not lovin' McDonald's 100% AI ad

To no one’s surprise, in today’s age and time of AI, McDonald's created a commercial using 100% AI-generated content that was met with backlash, reportedly on social media and subsequently removed.

The 45-second advertisement was a musical production focusing on the depiction of common holiday-related stress and chaos. The visuals included scenes illustrating domestic chaos, such as cats knocking over Christmas trees, as well as seasonal misfortunes like people falling while ice skating and the disappointment of burnt cookies.

This holiday theme was underscored by a familiar song, ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,’ which has been cleverly adapted into the lyrics, ‘It’s the Most Terrible Time of the Year.’

Through this framing, the advertisement attempted to position the fast food chain not as a holiday destination but as a straightforward location for respite and relief from the depicted holiday pressures. The entire concept was developed with the goal of achieving resonance with Dutch consumers who have expressed feeling particularly overwhelmed during the holiday season.

The ad featured AI-generated characters and visuals that audiences found problematic. It became controversial for its use of synthetic performers and AI-generated imagery, sparking debate about the role of artificial intelligence in advertising and its impact on human workers in the industry.

Taking advantage of the already set stage for marketing, in a pointed satirical counter-campaign, creative agency All Trades Co. produced an AI-generated advertisement that directly mocked McDonald's pulled commercial. The Burger King cleverly used the same AI technology to make a statement about the dangers and ethical issues of AI advertising.

The campaign features an AI-generated character from the McDonald's commercial who ‘defects’ to promote Burger King instead, criticising the food chain’s ad as an ‘overstimulating mess’ while eating a rival food chain burger. The ad takes an even more provocative turn with an AI-generated scene suggesting McDonald's burgers in the Netherlands might be made from rats, complete with imagery of rodents being fed into a meat grinder.

The video concludes with the AI character noting the irony of the situation, saying, "It almost seems like we should value human labour, craft and creativity. But what do I know? I'm just AI. I'll say and do anything."

The campaign highlighted how corporations using AI risk losing control of their brand message, as AI-generated characters can be prompted to say anything literally, including endorsing competitors or making outrageous claims.

The ad also aims to emphasise the devastating impact on human actors, who previously received buyouts and residuals but now face a future where they might receive minimal payment while corporations own their likenesses permanently.

Where normally a high-impact Christmas or festive campaign could take up to a year to pull off, companies have started to look for firms that can produce films in a shorter time span, using prompts from generative AI tools to create new video content.

The Burger King ad serves as both dark comedy and serious commentary on AI's displacement of human creativity and labour in the advertising industry.