Valentino and Coca-Cola faced significant backlash for fully AI-generated ad campaigns—Valentino's 2025 handbag ads were called "cheap" and "lazy", while Coca-Cola's 2024 holiday campaign appeared uncanny despite homaging a 1995 spot.
Research from the Journal of Advertising Research shows consumers perceive AI-disclosed ads in luxury brands as low-effort, damaging authenticity and brand value, while a DoubleVerify 2026 study found 43% of North American consumers would view a brand negatively if it used low-quality or "uncanny" AI ads.
As companies increasingly turn to AI for creative work, human-made goods may emerge as a luxury differentiator.
What happened
Valentino released a fully AI-generated handbag ad in late 2025 that drew criticism on Instagram for being "cheap" and "lazy"; Coca-Cola's fully AI-generated holiday ads from late 2024 also faced consumer rejection for appearing uncanny, despite aiming to echo a 1995 campaign.
Why it matters
Research from the Journal of Advertising Research shows consumers respond more negatively when luxury brands feature and disclose AI-generated ads, perceiving them as requiring less effort and discounting the brand's authenticity and value. A DoubleVerify 2026 study found that 43% of consumers in North America said a brand's use of low-quality or "uncanny" AI-created ads would negatively affect their opinion—suggesting human-made goods may become a luxury marker as companies increasingly outsource creativity to AI.
What to watch
Consumer sentiment appears split: Pew Research Center data shows 50% of Americans are more concerned than excited about increased AI use, and 53% believe it will worsen people's ability to think creatively. These perceptions may shift how luxury and mainstream brands approach advertising and product creation.
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The backlash against Valentino and Coca-Cola's AI-generated ads reflects a deeper consumer anxiety about artificial intelligence in creative work. While AI adoption is spreading across industries, public sentiment remains skeptical—half of Americans express more concern than enthusiasm about AI's growing role, and over half worry it will erode human creative thinking. The Journal of Advertising Research's scholarship reveals the specific mechanism behind the pushback: when luxury brands explicitly use and disclose AI imagery, consumers interpret the work as low-effort, which directly undermines the brand's perceived craftsmanship and authenticity. This perception gap matters because it inverts the usual luxury positioning. Historically, luxury signaled rarity, craftsmanship, and human touch; AI-generated content signals scale and automation—the opposite. DoubleVerify's 2026 research reinforces this: nearly half of North American consumers (43%) would actively downgrade their opinion of a brand using low-quality or "uncanny" AI ads, suggesting that as AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, the rare artifact—one made by human hands—could flip into a premium category.
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