Coca-Cola brings AI trucks back a third year despite backlash

Coca-Cola's decision sits against a Christmas season in which many brands moved the other way. Elf went stop-motion, Levi's went claymation, Barbour and Thatchers worked with Aardman, and John Lewis built a puppet dog called Pickles. The body frames this as a response to a year drowning in AI: when anything can be generated in seconds, visible effort signals you care. Yet craft is not a guarantee. Levi's claymation scored 3.8 and Prada's hand-drawn film scored 3.4 in System1 testing, both above the fashion average but far below Thatchers' 5.9.

The gap between online reaction and viewer response is the thread running through the piece. The author notes that 6% of millions is enough to fill every comment section in Britain, and that hate travels further and faster online than mild approval. System1 testing with nearly 3,000 people found viewers could not tell AI was involved unless asked, and the ads they believed were AI-made drew the biggest positive response. The body cites Tesco's launch of eight bacon and ham products without added nitrites, citing a 360% jump in online searches, as an example of outrage priming behavior.

The author sets out what would change the verdict: Coca-Cola's contempt score climbing above average, or its Star Rating sliding year on year. Neither has happened. The piece closes by predicting the AI trucks will return next year and score 5 Stars again.